The President's Corner
May/June 2002
Life In Texas
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
How are y'all?
I have recently come to the end of a most fascinating founr month stay in the great "Lone Star" State of Texas, as Visiting Professor and Director of the Wind Ensemble at Baylor University. This has given me the chance of hearing and working with bands at all levels, from Middle School children of 11 – 13 years through High School to University. I have found the technical ability of many of the school children to be quite extraordinary.
There is a special Texan way of training the players, used throughout the school system and also widely in the Universities also, which involves a great deal of teaching by rote about posture, breathing and support, articulation and control of sound and pitch. Rehearsals begin with exercises, often controlled by a very loud metronome, and tuning is matched against an electric meter of againt a tonic notes produced electronically This is allied to the most searching compeititve examination system in the world, scales, solos, sightreading, ensemble pieces are all assessed against objective standards.
The efficiency of the system cannot be in doubt — it produces hundreds, thousands of school children, university students and adults who have a remarkable grasp of the physiology of making a good sound on their instrument, and in many areas near Houston and Dallas, the instruments will be top of the range models.
At the forthcoming WASBE Conference from 29 June to 5 July, 2003, to be held in Sweden, I have invited a High School Band to travel to Sweden not to give a concert but to give two clinics, one on repertoire for school bands, the second on training methods, warm-up procedures and band development.
There is a great deal here to be studied, even by those of us working with amateur or youth bands which perhaps meet only once a week. The sheer skill down here of putting together the "nuts and bolts" of a good band sound is quite extraordinary.
Like the British and European Brass bands, the contesting is the life-blood, allied to the need for the marching bands on the football field. There are material advantages, in that the programmes attract incredible support financially, but there are drawbacks also, in the continuous drilling in a limited repertoire and the efficient but almost mechanical way in which some of the bands play. But if you hear one of these high school bands playing the Hindemith Symphony in Bb, or the Finale of Ives Second Symphony, you cannot doubt that the method works....and the hospitality is second to none. Come to Sweden to see it in action.
WASBE Web
Meanwhile, I am grateful to Anthony Reimer, Web Site Technical Coordinator, and John Stanley, Web Editor for their work on this site, which is developing fast. Browse through it to find details emerging about the roster of bands for the next conference, with links to the band sites, to accounts of the music from Scandinavia, and to soloists and composers. We have three commissions in which WASBE is involved, one for school bands by the Luxembourg composer, Marco Putz, and you are welcome to join the consortium through the WASBE Web, www.WASBE.org. [Editor's Note: To get there, click on the Programs Tab, then School Network.]
Conference Artist in Residence
Artist in Residence will be the only solo trombonist in the world, Christian Lindberg, who is featured not only as trombone soloist in the new Concerto by Richard Rodney Bennett, but also as composer of a new piece for wind ensemble, and conductor of the Stockholm Wind Symphony. Only a year to go, so start making your holiday plans for 2003 in Sweden – and meet those Texans.
Finally, this is your web. Please feel free to submit articles, reviews, letters, discussions of repertoire and interpretation. Browse through the superb paper by Mark Heron on Chris Marshall's Aue! Mark is a former tuba student of the Royal Northern College, now studying law, with an amateur orchestra and and amateur band to keep him busy.
He is typical of that incredible resource we have in WASBE — you — over a thousand conductors and composers and players with an amazing amount of enthusiasm and expertise to share with the world.
Please send your material to Web Editor John Stanley at:
It does not matter what the language or the subject might be, if John and his webcommittee think it is of international interest, they will put it on the web. In fact, it would be great to have contributions in languages other than English or Texan.
Ah shore hope y'all have a great an' peaceful summer.
See y'all in Sweden in a year's time.
Best wishes, and write something for the Web or the Newsletter (next deadline for news and views July 15).
Tim Reynish