Klarinet Archive - Posting 000221.txt from 2002/10

From: w9wright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Marching band --- not what I expected
Date: Sat, 5 Oct 2002 23:52:49 -0400

During my few years on this List, most of the conversation about
marching band has been faintly but consistently tinged with
condescension or aggravation or, at the very best, reluctant acceptance
of a necessary tribulation related to football.

This afternoon, my daughter asked me to chauffeur her to a marching band
competition. I've heard enough high school football bands during my
life that I *almost* dropped her off at the stadium gate and left.
Football bands are never in tune or cleanly articulated, the acoustics
in a football stadium would mess the music up even if it _were_ played
properly, which it never is, and who wants to hear the Notre Dame fight
song or a garbled Sousa march one more time?

Right?

Wrong!

I know that some people on this List have spent time in marching bands,
and probably they know what I'm going to say next. But for those of
you who don't know....

Don't be discouraged from attending a full scale marching band
competition if you have the opportunity. Conversations on this List
have almost certainly left you with serious misunderstandings.

First of all, the competition did not include even one Sousa march or
football fight song. One of the winning bands (they won every award in
their class, a clean sweep) performed a "Flamenco Suite For Marching
Band", and they were accompanied by a flamenco vocal and two flamenco
dancers. Other bands played opera overtures, symphonic and ballet
excerpts, and the sort of music that you'd expect to hear at a "pops
orchestra" concert.

The show included an extended French horn solo, several flute solos,
several trumpet solos, and a very strong clarinet solo that never left
the chalumeau register but maintained concert quality tone throughout
and ranged from 'fff' to 'ppp' without wavering or going flat (or
sharp).

Part of the show is the marching and pageantry, of course. I suppose
that some people would say that the pageantry distracts from the music,
or at least allows the kids to cover up their musical errors. (I
suppose we could say the same thing about opera or musical theater,
couldn't we?) But I'm here to tell you that the winning band this
evening, in addition to keeping absolutely straight marching lines ---
including on the diagonal --- also played cleaner music than our local
professional symphony orchestra does on occasion, despite playing
outdoors in a football stadium as the sun set and the temperature
dropped.

Being high school students, a couple of the bands did bite off more than
they could chew. So I can't claim that it was the finest musical event
that I have ever attended in my life.

But it was not to be casually dismissed as: "Oh, marching band?
...well, I guess...."

As I said in my opening paragraph, if you have never attended a full
scale marching band competition, do not allow yourself to be turned off
by the generally condescending image that some posts on this List have
presented. It just ain't so!

=============

By the way, according to the program, the band who took every award in
their class has been invited to perform at the next New York Wind Band
Festival in Carnegie Hall. I'm curious whether this is a big deal or
just 'hype'?

Thank you,
Bill

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