 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SGTClarinet_7
Date: 2004-09-15 13:29
Does anyone know of any good online stores to purchase batons and baton holders from? I need to get a gift for a friend who just got selected to be a Band Officer in the Marine Corps. Thanks!
Matthew
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-09-15 17:08
How about using an old metal clarinet (upside down) as a baton holder?
[doh! ducking flying chairs and batons]
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-09-15 21:07
For what it's worth, bandmen in the Marines are exempt from all of the basic military training requirements (their recruitment ads specifically state this), and they are really not much more than contract musicians who happen to wear the Marine uniform. The old canard that "Every Marine is a rifleman" has apparently died a quiet death, probably to the relief of their burgeoning military music program. In any event, the likelihood of their getting within grabbing distance of an accessible bayonet during their service would be slim to none.
(I don't know if this is the case in the Army, Navy and Air Force, but I would hope that the Marines hadn't gone softer than the other three services. I do know that when I was in (1969-71, mostly in armored units but I came close to transfer to the 4th Infantry Division band at one point), Army band folks went through the same basic training as everyone else, and only then progressed to the world of silver saxophones and drum majors.
And, there were a number of people (which would have included me had I been so stupid as to join the 4th Division's music) who were in the band as a duty military occupational specialty (MOS), but who were pulled out and reassigned based upon their primary MOS (mostly infantry) when numbers were tightened during the wind down in RVN and the infantry units were being brought up to full strength for the Cambodian incursion. Imagine the shock of having your clarinet yanked and being handed a sixty pound rucksack and a rifle and being told to get on with it...
And, long gone are the days when the bandsmen were expected to act as medical support personnel during military operations (i.e., stretcher bearers). According to my grandfather (who was in the Bavarian lump of the German Army during World War I), "Bayerisher" bandsmen still fulfilled that function during the War To End All Wars.
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Author: CPW
Date: 2004-09-15 23:05
One of the makers of custom reed cases makes batons.
Can't recall who it is.
GBK will probably come to my rescue.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-16 02:04
CPW wrote:
> One of the makers of custom reed cases makes batons.
> Can't recall who it is.
> GBK will probably come to my rescue.
Harrison-Hurtz, manufacturers of the Harrison Ligature and Harrison Reed Cases, also produced the Harrison Conductors Batons, in different wood grains...GBK
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Author: SGTClarinet_7
Date: 2004-09-16 02:27
"For what it's worth, bandmen in the Marines are exempt from all of the basic military training requirements (their recruitment ads specifically state this), and they are really not much more than contract musicians who happen to wear the Marine uniform. The old canard that "Every Marine is a rifleman" has apparently died a quiet death, probably to the relief of their burgeoning military music program."
Terry,
I need to correct you! That is true ONLY in the case of the President's Own Band in Washington D.C. I spent almost 9 years in the Corps. There are 12 "field" bands in the Marines, plus the President's Own, and the Commandant's Own Drum & Bugle Corps. Everyone EXCEPT the President's Own goes to either Parris Island or San Diego for 13 weeks of hell, then a month of combat training at Camp LeJeune, NC. After that, 6 months at the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, VA which we attend with the Army and Navy. For the President's Own, they take them straight from music schools and conservatories, give them a rank of SSgt, and they go from there. For the record, I'm not mad. I just want everyone to know the truth about what we do. And yes, every Marine IS a basic rifleman. In war, we not only guard the main camps where the HQ is, we also act as "litter bearers" which are people who carry the wounded and/or dead out of the combat zones. In my time in boot camp, there were many who were sent home because they couldn't shoot a rifle to standard. I personally worked with about a dozen or so Marines who were in Desert Storm.
I hope this clears up this misconception.
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