Klarinet Archive - Posting 000868.txt from 1999/07

From: "O'Neile & Fisher" <redcedar@-----.au>
Subj: Re: [kl] school music programs(kinda defending corps too)
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 05:03:12 -0400

This thread has gone on so long, that I'd like to clarify my understanding
that the discussion is not about whether marching band is good or bad, so
much as about the priority accorded it in some institutions, and the
corresponding distortion of priorities this occasions with respect to other
activities such as "real" music.

I liked Karena's engaging, and eloquent, plea.

Michael

At 12:41 AM 24/7/99 -0400, you wrote:
>At 08:46 AM 7/23/1999 -0600, Richard Bush wrote:
>>I always thought that the processes I went through to become skilled on my
>>instruments taught me discipline, problem solving skills, fine motor skills,
>>eye-hand coordination, long and short term goal attainment, a heightened
>>awareness, a finer understanding of music specifically, and the fine arts in
>>general, team play and team work, and the list could go on and on.
>>
>>Now, besides being dinner music for a crowd stuffing down hot-dogs and
>gulping
>>Coke, what exactly are the intrinsic and unique values of the marching
>band that
>>make it esthetically, culturally, or intellectually so important to the
>public
>>school curricula?
>>
>In this discussion, virtually everyone makes the mistake of assuming that
>marching band is nothing but an obstacle in the way of people becoming fine
>professional musicians. Baloney! While few people ever became musicians
>BECAUSE of marching band, and I dare say even fewer people who were
>destined to become first-rate musicians were turned way from that destiny
>by performing half-time shows, either. Marching band is simply another
>PERFORMING venue, no more harmful to a budding musical career than
>performing and onstage role in the school musical or playing on the
>basketball team. All of these teach teamwork, self-discipline, goal
>attainment, etc., and each REINFORCES the other! For those whose true
>talents lie somewhere OTHER than music, but who plug away in band anyway
>(SOMEBODY has to fill the last chairs!), marching may be just the thing to
>teach the life skills that music alone does not inspire them to learn. Is
>it fine music? Generally not. Is it a fine THING? Definitely so!
>
>I still get misty-eyed watching a good marching band performance. I hate
>that the networks have all but eliminated the half-time shows from college
>football games, preferring to recite endless scores from far-away games
>nobody cares about as a service to sports gamblers. No, it is not the
>symphony, but if I wanted to hear the symphony I would have turned on PBS,
>not ESPN. Amazingly, there is room for BOTH on the TV cable, just as there
>is room in the world for classical music, jazz, concert band
>transcriptions, and even marching band music, not to mention pop music in
>all its forms. "To every thing there is a season..."
>
>
>
>Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
>451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
>Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
> ICQ UIN 4862265
>
>If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.
>
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