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RE: Exhausted.

Author: steve
Date: 1999-08-27 14:23

mario said...
"The more I read remarks on US-style marching bands on this Board, the more I believe that there is something profundly flawed in the culture and values of this narrow, uninspired form of banal music."

mario, i'm not sure where you're from, but you are bringing up an important point....but the issue is not the music, as banal as it may be....the issue is how competition has reached idiotic levels in all areas of american society....

look, marching band is supposed to be fun!!! if a situation exists that produces stress on the level penny described, then there is something flawed with the attitude of the person in charge of the band...I will bet that the director gives pep talks about how "we are gonna win this competition, or bury this other band", and if you dont have the killer/winner instinct, you can't compete in my band, or some such crap...

in recent years, marching band competitions have taken on the same intensity as high school football programs at their worst...a win at all costs attitude....the concept of an artistic contest is stupid to start with (Bartok said such contests are for horses), and tragic when it causes a young musician to cry in her boyfriend's shirt. This is not music. This is not education, and this is not mentoring. Penny, your director should be ashamed of him/her self.

I think some of the problem is caused by an organization called Bands of America (BOA) which codifies and promotes marching band competition, and sells the concept to parents as a character building exercise tangentially associated with Revelli's name...and high competition placement can encourage people to give more money to the HS music program, so in a way, its about money and greed at the expense of young people, a concept that pollutes american society at all levels.

I'm a bandsman...I was a section leader in a suburban cleveland HS band for 4 years, and marched for 4 years and led a section in John Paynter's Wildcat marching band at Northwestern in the early 70's....the only competition was with yourself....be the best, and if you needed help, Mr Paynter would help you, cheer you on, and teach you about music and life...

Penny, Tell your director to go to hell

(off of soapbox)

s.

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