Klarinet Archive - Posting 000767.txt from 2002/06

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] How Military Bands Work
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 10:15:57 -0400

A couple of things about military bands.

Every post big enough to have parades has a band. These are called Line
Bands. The players have all gone through AMT (Advanced Military Training),
which is, or at least used to be, at a single place called the Navy School.
(There weren't enough musicians to justify a separate AMT facility for each
service.) At least during my time in the Army (1965-68), the brass and
combat forces looked on musicians as sissies and slackers, so they Navy
School was famous for busting balls, to give the musicians a taste of what
they were getting out of. When you got out of the Navy School, you were
given a non-com grade of S-3 (or if you were lucky, S-4), the equivalent in
pay of a corporal or sargeant, but without any command authority.

Military showplaces (e.g., Washington, DC and the Service Academies) have
Special Bands, made up of players who theoretically are the cream of military
musicians. You audition for these assignments and get to skip the Navy
School. You come in as an S-4 (at least for the drum-and-bugle group in the
West Point Band) or an S-5. Special Band assignments are "stabilized," which
means you stay there -- for your whole career, if you like -- and don't get
transferred around like Line Bandsmen. In the Army, there are 3 Special
Bands -- the Army Band (which does ceremonial duties in Washington, DC), the
Army Field Band (which tours the country as a good-will ambassador for the
Army) and the West Point Band (which, obviously, serves West Point). The
Navy Band, the Air Force Band and the Marine Band (and, I think, the Coast
Guard Band) are Special Bands serving in Washington, DC. I'm pretty sure the
other military academy bands are Special Bands. I don't think there's the
equivalent of the Army Field Band in the other services, but I could be wrong.

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Pastor Luby D. Jackson III asks: "[Do] military bands in Europe use the G and
Ab Sopranino clarinet?"

In many years of band playing, including 3 years in the West Point Band, I've
never seen a part for G clarinet. As far as I know, it's used only in German
"Schrammelmusik" groups (2 violins, G clarinet and bass guitar) that play
sentimental "Biedermeier" music. (There's an excellent example on Naxos
8.550228, "Music From Old Vienna.")

I've read that Italian military bands use Ab clarinets, but I've seen only
one piece that had an Ab part - a pretty awful suite by a German composer
called "Ich bin Soldat, Valera" (I'm a Soldier - Hurrah). The Ab part
doubled the Eb throughout. During that period (1965-68), the military was
rolling in money, and the Special Bands could get anything they wanted. In
fact, they bought a new Leblanc BBb contra for this piece (which I was
detailed to play). Thus if there had been any possible use for an Ab
clarinet, they would have gotten it.

If the Special Bands don't have an Ab during a flush period, I can't imagine
that the Line Bands in Europe would have one.

To Sarge and the other military band players -- Did you ever seen an Ab?

Ken Shaw

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