Klarinet Archive - Posting 000890.txt from 1999/07

From: Ken Wolman <kwolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Marching band - to be or not to be
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 13:26:22 -0400

At 11:51 AM 7/24/99 -0500, you wrote:

>...It's not a bad
>idea for young musicians to learn that, like it or not, musicians are
>expected to provide services which may not always be the most musically
>inspiring. Sometimes it is music at athletic events, at other times it
>may be background music for a reception or dinner, and on still other
>occasions it may be playing outdoor concerts on patriotic holidays.

I didn't think of it that way, but yes...if any of the players have
professional aspirations, they probably need to learn early-on that there
is only one first chair per instrument in the New York, Chicago, or Boston
symphonies, that the job as Sonny Rollins is already taken, and that a lot
of people make a living (apparently a decent one) doing everything from
weddings and bar mitzvahs to commercial dates, with some teaching thrown
in. Nobody spends years in school or in a conservatory preparing to be the
accompanist to the Budweiser frogs or that singing cat going
"meow-meow-meow-meow," but the checks probably don't bounce either.

>But, there is a fundamental difference between the situation as it exists
>today and as it was often handled several decades ago. When we did
>marching band shows, we played different music every week, and we did a
>different show every week.... Naturally, we didn't achieve the degree of
near-perfect
>precision in marching that bands strive for today, but that didn't seem to
>detract from the entertainment value to the audience, nor did it prevent
>students from receiving all those extra-musical values which have been
>extolled in this thread - teamwork, dedication, discipline, etc., etc.

So I think this presents another side to the issue: that if the marching
band is there to be rah-rah for the football team and cheerleaders, the
regional competitions by now have loomed increasingly large in the picture.
You can't do new stuff every week and get the act honed to a fine edge. I
used to show up to fetch my son from band practice, held outdoors in all
sorts of nasty weather, even after dark under the lights. Those kids were
drilled and redrilled in the same old stuff like it was the Manual of Arms,
and at the same they had to keep it as fresh as possible. If anyone
complained, I never heard it: my son, who is probably the least regimented
and rule-following person I know, rather liked the whole thing. Don't ask
me, I'm just his old man:-). It was in some ways like giving a performance
in a long-running play: some nights you were on, some you were not, but the
technique was there to carry you through when inspiration wasn't happening.
I suppose that too is a "Law of Life," though I don't quite know which one.

In any case, by the time the kids got to Giants Stadium in late November
for THE competition, they had to be unconscious out there, "in the zone."
Zero defects, and try to sound inspired. Ben told me that being on that
huge field was enough in itself to get his attention: "Holy s--t, Giants
Stadium!" or something like that. And a few years ago, just as the Wayne
Valley band was about to start, the heavens opened and it POURED. They
kept on playing. Rain? What rain?

>I am not one to say that the marching band can have no value. What I
>object to is the "cult of marching band." For some programs, marching
>band is expected to be the most important thing in the students' lives.
>It comes before academic work, before music, before family obligations,
>before other organizations or recreational activities, before everything.
>It is almost like a religion.

Okay, here there is no disagreement whatever. My ex and I were not "band
parents" in the worst sense, i.e., in the way some parents of chess
prodigies are "chess parents" who argue with tournament officials, cast the
evil eye on the 9-year-old across from their Precious Darling, etc. But we
sure knew a few: "Catholic/Protestant/Jewish is what I was born, but
Marching Band is my faith" or something like that. It's just a bit much to
take, listening to these people dissing a bunch of high school kids who
happen to play for a "rival" band in the next town over. One year, Wayne
Valley placed ahead of its arch-rival Pequannock, and you'd have thought
all the kids hit on a winning lottery ticket.

Ben didn't quite burn out on marching band, but the college he's starting
in September--Goucher--doesn't have one.

Ken

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