Klarinet Archive - Posting 000826.txt from 2003/05

From: "Wendy" <bosma@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mr. Sousa and the Eb Clarinet
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 10:20:21 -0400

* Two days before the concert, my piccoloist acquired a
>case of mono. I'm sure I committed a musical error in
>many eyes by having the piccolo obligato part in the last
>strain played by my principal tuba player. (Again, the
>audience enjoyed it. <g>)

* When I was at Blue Lake, the International band returned from over seas
and they had the entire tuba section playing that piccolo part. There were
like 8 of them. It was INCREDIBLE!

-----Original Message-----
From: Lelia Loban [mailto:lelialoban@-----.net]
Subject: [kl] Mr. Sousa and the Eb Clarinet

James Hobby wrote,
>A few years ago, I used his new Stars & Stripes edition
>with a community band I was conducting.
[snip]
> Two days before the concert, my piccoloist acquired a
>case of mono. I'm sure I committed a musical error in
>many eyes by having the piccolo obligato part in the last
>strain played by my principal tuba player. (Again, the
>audience enjoyed it. <g>)

You must have had one hell of a tuba player! I'm impressed! FWIW, I think
it's fun to play around with an old standard that way (as long as the
original version stays available) and I don't think the walls of the Temple
of Music will come crashing down if someone plays a piccolo obligato on a
tuba once in awhile.

If the band is large enough and well-balanced enough for some of the
musicians to do maverick things, I think that's fun. At local parades, a
high school kid marches with a bassoon. It sounds like he's playing the
first trumpet part, an octave down. Sounds good, oddly enough.
Apparently, he memorizes all of the music, since he marches without one of
those clip-on lyres. (Are those even available for bassoon?) This
conductor is easy-going and flexible, and that band is large enough
(tightly filling three city blocks at the Memorial Day parade) to
accomodate quite a bit of individualism at parades where there's no
competition at stake.

Generally, though, I agree with what Jim Hobby said on another thread, that
students should be team players and follow the director's lead, instead of
arguing about which instruments should march. Make the suggestion, and if
the director doesn't like it, clam up and fit in. I could always practice
whatever I wanted to on my own time, but playing in a band or an orchestra
is training for the world of work: If I take a job with a company that
manufactures bricks, I don't try to tell my boss that I'm going to make
cheese instead. I'm speaking from experience, BTW, since I learned that
lesson the hard way. As a high school freshman, I was the maverick: the
lone wind player in a string orchestra for a whole year, until the class
expanded to a full symphony orchestra my sophomore year. That mistake
makes a long, off-topic story; I've already told it here. If someone wants
to dig it out of the archives . . . no, I didn't think so!

;-)

Lelia Loban
E-mail: lelialoban@-----.net
Web site (original music scores as audio or print-out):
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban

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