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RE: Exhausted.

Author: Mario
Date: 1999-08-27 18:34

When I was a teenager, I joined the local Concert Band. the essence of the mission of the band was to give concerts, first its own bi-annual concert, but also many other concerts in parks and as part of communittee functions in our town. A few times per year, we were bussed to another city to give a concert there as part of an exchange program between various concert bands in my Country (Canada).

We were getting a little bit of money from the local Military militia as a grant. In return, we had to accept to partake in a couple of parades per year relevant to the Militia (Canada Day, ceremonial events related to the militia,etc.). So, I got to learn to play and march, probably not very well, but well enough to integrate our Marching and Music in other public activities.

At some point in time, I was selected to join what is the Canada equivalent of all-state where the best young musician of my Province gathered 3 times per year to prepare an outstanding concerts. By the time I was 17, I had already played in concert things such as Carmina Burana, The Firebirds, Willian tell Overture, etc. First class music.

So, Marching was a necessary price to pay to fund our pursuit of good music. It was not the focus of our effort.

We also competed in various Concert Bands competition, moving from Class C to Class A and eventually winning the top award. It took us several years to get there. I remember my Musical Director telling us that those competitions were important to measure our progresses through these competitions, and that the thing that mattered was that we were moving up years after years. Improving was the goal, not winning. This is a fundamental difference in perspective. You can win without necessarily excelling (chose your competitions as such, and you can win). But if you drive toward excellence, winnings will follow.

There is nothing wrong with pushing to the limit the skills in Marching Bands with individuals who choose to. From this point-of-view, Marching becomes a competitive sport where the purpose of the game is to win. But music (as with many other sports) is first above all a sharing activity. If all people in the room play excellent music, all will benefit even if nobody wins. By the same token, if you undertake a trek with a group of bikers, all can excel and nobody needs to "win". In both case, you need to train, to push yourself, maybe to test yourself every now and then in contests.

In our North-American society, the focus is now winning in many endeavors. "Winner takes all!" It seems to be dragging music down. What happened to excellence?

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