Posted by Rick Denney on April 16, 2001 at 18:25:09:
In Reply to: Re: How good were you? posted by Karl Parks on April 16, 2001 at 17:28:25:
I know that the good high-school kids are far better than I was, but I wonder how they compare with the whiz-kids from our era. I sat next to three all-staters in my all-volunteer college band, and all three were spectacularly good compared to me. But I never heard them play the heavy literature.
I also know that the tough material in the solo and ensemble competition lists has gotten tougher, and this is true not just for individuals but for bands also. When I was in high school, we played the band transcription of Carmina Burana, which was considered to be about the hardest thing on the list at the time. Nowadays, the big high schools seem to think that it is on the easy end of the list.
That said, I've heard a few high school kids play lately, and while I think they are technically superior to us as high-schoolers, I'm not sure they are musically superior.
The question is: Why are they technically better, and why do their bands consistently tackle more difficult literature, if band programs are being scaled back? I think there are two answers. One is that band programs expanded greatly and then scaled back. Bands still rehearse more than they did when I was in school, and most band kids get expert personal instruction, which was unheard-of in my big-city school in the 70's, which happened as part of that expansion. That expansion also increased equipment expectations, and not many middle-class big-city kids have to play a plastic sousaphone throughout their high-school career as I did.
The other answer is that many bands are taught to perform well in contest to the exclusion of other measures of accomplishment compared to past generations. My band director buddies talk about the pressure to do well at contest being overwhelming, forcing them to focus on rote memorization of the contest literature starting with the day following football season, instead of broader reading through the literature to expose the kids to sight-reading and a greater range of music, as we enjoyed.
This sort of approach may yield results in technical ability or certain skills, but I think it robs the musical experience of much of the music.
Or, maybe I'm just jealous.
Rick "who still, after 25 years, cringes at the thought of that high Eb in Carmina" Denney