Klarinet Archive - Posting 000624.txt from 2001/04

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Revelli
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 08:11:23 -0400

on 4/25/01 8:03 AM, Roger Garrett wrote:

>I have a bunch of
>them - I will just have to think about them. I also have a list of 500
>Revelli sayings that a band member (1965-69) wrote down during
>rehearsals. I can post them somewhere I suppose if people are
>interested. They are actual comments he said to the band.

Somewhere in the trash pile that is my studio, I have these typed out. It
would be great to have them somewhere on line. My copy has the title "How
can we have a Band...?"

I had the "privilege" to play in the Michigan summer band during one of
their conductor workshops. The band, which I'm sure was a shadow of its
regular self in the summer, was terrific, but Revelli was indeed a
tyrant. Fortunately, he had some innocent conducting workshop students to
berate most of the time, so he left the band alone, except for the
principal clarinet, a grad student who was tortured mercilessly during
the entire week. What became apparent, even to a naive undergrad (me!)
was that Revelli had the least conducting technique of anyone in the
room. He got the band to play by yelling at people until they did what he
wanted. How this works in a performance, I have yet to figure out, even
after many years of professional experience!

It was in this setting that I first met John Mohler, a fellow
Pennsylvania Dutchman. A few times during the week, he slid into the last
chair of the second clarinets next to me and played along for fun.

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org