oboeinsight

I just read an article that begins with this:

Many American marching band programs are already in full-swing or soon will be, preparing for their busy fall performance schedules. My last band camp was 2006 – there are definitely things I miss about being involved directly with a marching band program, but I am also thankful to be spared the preparation and hard work that goes along with running such a program, especially considering the current 100+ degree heat wave we are experieincing in the Northeast.

Here are 10 tips from my own experience with fighting the heat and maintaining students’ health and productivity during those long, hot hours of the traditional August band camp:

Nope, not gonna supply you with the 10. You have to go here to read it. And of course it’s really written for the band camp directors rather than students and parents, but stil you might want to take note, especially those living in Marching Band Territories! (For some states marching band is taken much more seriously than others.)

For me? Well, I’m not a participant in marching band at my age, and I have no children involved in it either. But it does mean one thing for me … I will now pretty much lose a few students until marching band season is over.

Sigh. I really hate that some band directors think marching band should trump all other music making. I really despise that it takes my students away from private lessons and, for many, means they will barely touch an oboe until football season ends.

It makes me somewhat grumpy, to be honest.

I wonder, sometimes, if I should just not accept the marching band students as regularly scheduled students and, instead, tell them they can schedule lessons on a week by week basis as they are able and as my schedule permits. That way I could have open slots for those that aren’t in marching band. Is that discriminatory? Probably. But sometimes discrimination can be a good thing can’t it? I am discriminating about my chocolate (milk only). I’m discriminating about my veggies (organic). I’m discriminating about husbands (only one).

Hmmm ….

Update
My, but I sounded grumpy above. Please know I”m not just dissing and hating marching band. I did it (playing bell lyre) in high school. I loved the social aspect of it. I loved the football games (and the hot chocolate my mom would make and my dad would bring for us!). I just don’t like that the “rest of music” stops. That is all. :-)

The Nonesuch record label is releasing a recording of Steve Reich’s commemorative piece “WTC 9/11? on September 6, 2011. The piece is written for three string quartets, and is performed on the recording by the Kronos Quartet (making use of multiple tracking). It also features recorded voices—of air-traffic controllers, witnesses, mourners, and others.

But what’s making waves in the classical community is the album’s cover art, which features a darkened version of a photograph, taken by Masatomo Kuriya, of the moment before the second plane hit the second tower. On the one hand, the photograph is, as Nonesuch writes, “indelible.” But commenters below that post describe it as “pitifully ham-fisted,” “despicably exploitative,” “shoddy,” and even “the first truly despicable classical album cover that I have ever seen.”

You can see the artwork by going to this link, which is where the above quote was found.

So what do you think? Was the album cover in poor taste? Have we had similar artwork of anything from other horrors and atrocities?

I cringe when I see the photo. But I’m not sure if that means it’s wrong to use it. Hmm. But what if a family member of mine was in that plane or in one of the buildings? Or how about if someone wrote a requiem for a person who died in a house fire and the album cover was of that very house on fire, with the person inside? What if a work was written for a murder victim and someone had a photo of him being murdered and that became the cover art for the album? I could go on — I did, in fact, but I thought it in poor taste to put what I had written up here so I deleted it.

Okay. I think I know where I stand now. I just needed to ponder … in writing ….