Klarinet Archive - Posting 000905.txt from 1999/07

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: School music...
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 17:51:28 -0400

At 02:01 PM 7/24/99 EDT, you wrote:
>The first time I heard Carmina was on public radio. It gave me
>goosebumps, still does. 27 out of 30 clarinettists in our band probably
>don't listen to public radio. Now at least some know there's more out
>there... Should we start a thread on only doing/playing what the composer
>actually wrote? Nah - been there and will again no doubt.

No of course not. But playing a marching band version of Carmina - a piece
that Orff didn't even write - is not the same as interpretive discussion.
We could talk about transcriptions for concert band - but I think I am safe
in saying that putting a band on the field and marching around to an
arrangement of Carmina (gee, where's the choir???) is a far cry from what
the piece was ever intended to do, and it is an even further cry from
educating students about Carmina. We aren't educating them about Carmina
by putting it on the field, we are showing them how we can adapt a good
piece of music to a brass and percussion rendition of selected elements of
the work and provide coreography. There are better ways and better pieces
to use for such coreography. People do Carmina because it is the newest,
neatest, coolest thing. This has nothing to do with musically literate
education.

>Thanks for your comments. They make me think.

Thanks......so do your's. I'm actually enjoying discussing it with you -
many of your points are right on target - and there is no requirement that
we have to agree on all points.

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Concert Band/Symphonic Winds/Titan Band
Advisor, Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University
Office: (309) 556-3268
Fax: (309) 556-3411

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