Klarinet Archive - Posting 000598.txt from 2001/04

From: "Carl Rondinelli" <rondinel@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Revelli--Politically incorrect now, but not then
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 11:05:32 -0400

There were many, many of these "quartermaster-type" bandmasters back in the
time you are talking about, but this was a whole other time in America and
even American musical history. Back then it was much more acceptable for an
accomplished conductor to be a "tyrant" as you say.

I never met or played for Revelli, but I witnessed rehearsals and
performances of Fennell and another prominent director, C. Scripps Beebee
(please forgive me if that is the wrong spelling) and several others as part
of my All-Eastern Conference experience in high school and this was early
70's. It wasn't just Revelli--Fennell could scream and rant with the best of
them and Beebee was quite an intimidator as well, singling out various
members for public reprimand.

How ironic, therefore, when the only time of ALL the concerts I ever played
that a piece was actually STOPPED in the middle was during the Eastern
Conference Concert that year. We were playing a contemporary band piece,
very rhythmically challenging, in the All-Eastern Band, and the unthinkable
happened--the whole band got lost! I still feel it was something Mr. Beebee
did in his conducting that started it, since it went fine in rehearsal. This
man who was so intimidating, in a matter of seconds turned very somber and
pale, made a broad gesture for everyone to cease playing, and in a
distinctly tiny non-tyrant voice, entreated the group to start at rehearsal
number 270 or something like that. We then finished the piece without a
hitch....Later, when they made the record of our performance, they cleverly
edited out that whole incident in order to produce a seamless, polished
recording of the piece! But we all remembered.

Richard Bush, it's unfortunate you had such a bad experience with Revelli.
Maybe I was just a little more mature than others or something, because I
almost never got bitter or vengeful with these men. I felt sorry for them
and tried to understand why they were taking the approach they were taking.
And even Fennell is not the same man of thirty and forty years ago. He has
mellowed with age.

One thing I agree with Mr. Garrett on is that these were exceptionally
talented people in their profession and many worked extremely hard to
achieve this success. And they did leave a legacy. Not just Fennell's but
many others including Revelli's work with University of Michigan band.
Totally professional performance standard from college students.

Richard Bush wrote:

>I played in the 1969, M.E.N.C. Western Division All Conference Band.
>Rehearsals
>were held at Highland High School in Salt Lake City. It was late in the
>spring,
>close to or just after the end of the school year. The weather was
>exceedingly
>hot for that time of year in SLC. The gym where we rehearsed was not air
>conditioned. By mid afternoon and our second full rehearsal, the room was
>at
>least 85 degrees F., maybe even hotter.
>
>Dr. Revelli insisted on tuning the band to A@-----. All of the soprano
>clarinets
>in the section were pulled to extremes. My clarinet must have been pulled
>3 or
>4 mm just at the barrel, more in the middle and even some at the bell.
>
>He stopped in the middle of some passage we were rehearsing and decided
>that the
>clarinets were flat on first space F. He went down the line and every
>player was
>miserably flat (of course) on this note.
>
>When he got to me, about five chairs down, mine was also flat. I knew it,
>but
>since no one else had pushed back in before playing their flat F's I
>figured I'd
>just play what was there. He looked me squarely in the eye, raised his eye
>brows
>so you could see a lot of the whites of his eyes and said to me, "You'd be
>satisfied with anything, wouldn't you." (Coincidentally, it was only
>shortly
>after that that I learned about tuning rings.)
>
>He also picked on a cymbal player and the bass drummer. I learned later
>that
>picking on the bass drummer was one of his tricks. He did that where ever
>he
>went and conducted.
>
>I recall the cymbal player throwing the cymbals onto the hardwood gym floor
>and
>walking off saying, "I've had enough of this shit!" Revelli retorted with,
>"That's right. That's what makes the grass grow green."
>
>This was the last musical event I played in in high school. After
>practicing for
>the previous five years, averaging three hours per day on the clarinet,
>this was
>the bitter-sweet pill I had to swallow.
>
>It doesn't have to be that way, and it shouldn't have been that way then.
>Clarence Sawhill got just as much music out of young people and he did it
>with
>love, a twinkle in his eye and good humor.
>
>Later, when I went to college, I was taught that when temperature go to
>extremes, the pitch should roll with those temperatures. Off the top of my
>head,
>I can't remember it, but it works. Conn did an intonation study sometime in
>the
>late 30's or 40's and came to the same conclusion.
>
>If Revelli had known jack about clarinets he would not have subjected us
>all to
>this impossible situation, nor would he have blamed us for not being able
>to
>cope with it. Also, he would have told us about tuning rings.
>
>He's gone now, so I won't tell you what I really think. I will say, he was
>rude,
>treated many young people abusively and somehow got away with it.
>
Gene Nibbelin wrote:
>
>I was a member of the University of Illinois Concert Band from the Spring
>Semester of 1946 through the Spring Semester 1948 (when the money ran out).
>During this time the band was 90% or more ex-GI's. Based on the many
>stories that I have heard about Mr. Revelli's tactics, I have often
>wondered
>how his unprofessional actions would have been accepted by the University
>of
>Illinois GI's (V-12 Program) and ex-GI's.
>
>In my short career at the U of I, I played under the direction of Dr.
>Austin
>A. Harding, Dr. Clarence Sawhill and Dr. Mark Hindsley. I don't remember
>of
>any time that any of them raised their voices in anger, much less made
>personal attacks on members of the band. We treated our conductors with
>great respect and they treated us with respect. And without the "Revelli
>Intimidation Method", they produced a very good Concert Band.
>
>Roger, was Dr. Revelli teaching at the college level in the later 40's and
>early 50's when he would have faced the WWII veterans? If he did and used
>his well-known "methods" on them, I wonder what the results were.
>
>Just curious..................
>
>Gene Nibbelin
>

Gary Van Cott wrote:

> >I also had a one day honor band experience with Revelli in 1965 or 66.
>It
> >was just as unpleasant as Richard Bush's. I also had honor band with
> >Fennell (wonderful), H. Robert Reynolds (also wonderful and he was the
> >regular conductor not a guest -- he was at Long Beach State then) and an
> >orchestral experience with Carmen Dragon who was also great.
>
>Obviously Revelli must have had something going for him or he never would
>have had a highly successful college program. But he made the single worst
>impression on me of anyone I have ever met in the music business.
>
>Gary
>

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