Klarinet Archive - Posting 001086.txt from 2000/04

From: alevin@-----. Levin)
Subj: Re: [kl] Community Bands...
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 19:11:16 -0400

Way to go David:

I misspent my youth with the Siglerville Band, the Carlisle Band and a few
others. Oh for the 4th of July picnic of 1983 - 108 F in the shade and we
were in the sun on an uncovered concrete platform! - or playing for my own
college baccalaureate with the town band because the college ensemble
members had already left town and the band's principal was recovering from
a stroke and "needed a little help" - or playing the Mifflin County Youth
Fair while entertained by bovine, ovine and porcine expressions of
flatulence - fragrances never to be forgotten.

I'd rather have the audience suck lemons in front of my stand! But boy did
I learn to read music. Is it any wonder that we in the US of A play bad
music so very well.

Allen
At 10:30 PM 4/24/00 -0400, you wrote:
>>At 09:10 PM 04/23/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>>>..... the Williamsport
>>>Repasz band which is the oldest non-military band in continuous
existance....
>>>
>>on 4/24/00 9:42 AM, George Kidder wrote:
>>
>>How old is that? (I presume you mean "in the US", as I"d bet some of the
>>European bands are ancient, by our standards.) The Bar Harbor Town Band
>>had been INCORPORATED for 100 years as of summer before last, but no one
>>seems to know how long it had been around before that. It has played every
>>year except during WWII.
>
>When I was in HS and college in Pennsylvania (back when dinosaurs roamed
>the earth!) I played in the Ringgold Band, which was incorporated in the
>1850's as an attachment to a light artillery regiment of the U.S.Army. By
>the 60's nothing could have been less military. One of the perks of going
>to regular rehearsals was a beer refrigerator! Most of the clarinets had
>been there forever - in fact, the younger members of the band often
>opined that most of the older players had *been there* since the Civil
>War (OOPS! War of Northern Aggression - I'm in the South now!) The
>principal 2nd clarinet kept a lighted cigar in the clip of the feet of
>the wire folding stand that he used. He also comp[lained mightily about
>the poor quality of the Vandoren reeds, and told us weekly that "because
>the new Vandorens are so bad, I'm still playing on pre-war (WWII!) stock."
>
>John Phillip Sousa conducted the band in a rehearsal, went back to his
>hotel for a rest before the concert, and died that afternoon (1932). Most
>of us young hot-shots thought it was the quality of the playing that
>killed him!
>
>The marches were bound into two books, with those little marches two to a
>page, top and bottom, with their titles cut off - you mostly knew them by
>number. Supposedly this was so that competing bands (there were still 3
>bands in Reading PA in the 60's) couldn't learn the titles and obtain the
>music for themselves.
>
>For all of this, it was a valuable professional training ground. 3 or 4
>hour church picnic gigs can teach you a lot about reading and solid
>technique when you're playing those old marches and overtures on one
>weekly, beer soaked rehearsal.
>
>And the home made Pennsylvania Dutch corn chowder can't be beat!
>
>David
>
>David Niethamer
>Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
>dnietham@-----.edu
>http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/
>
>
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