Bandertainment: The act of providing online music education in an entertaining format to middle school band students during a global pandemic
One of the few, and I mean VERY few (as in this is the only one), things I miss about teaching through Covid was introducing new wind band music to my students. Every day, without fail, I started class with the Band Piece of the Day. It started as a way to create some sort of structure as well as kill 3-30 minutes of class time. Hey, no side eye, we were all making it up as we went, and you try teaching middle school band online. I hear the Google Meet chime and to this day I get the shakes. IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS. The very opposite of good times, good times. But I digress. I’d give a little entertaining background on the piece and composer and let ‘er rip. I have no idea if the kids were listening or if they even gave half a golden shit but I was putting it out there. Given our technological limitations it was the best I could do some days. 100+ days of band music in a time when everything was scary and uncertain, including wondering if a kid was gonna accidentally leave the webcam on as they took the Chromebook on a bathroom trip. Yes. Really happened.
I kept it up when I left teaching and started working at a small edtech marketing firm. Band Music Friday was born when I needed to share a piece I loved and really felt the pull to write. Again, sharing a band piece I loved with background details on it, only this time it didn’t have to be rated G so I had a good time with it. My colleagues there, being A+ awesome human beings, loved it, actually listened to the music and loved it, and so I tried to get a BMF up most weeks.
Why? Why do this? Who gives a shit about band music? It’s just little kids honking through a beginning band concert, or high schoolers in odorous wool marching out of step as people buy hot dogs during halftime, right?
Bitch, please. 🙄
Wind ensemble music is having a moment. The quality and depth of music written over the last 25-30 years is extraordinary, and don’t even get me started on the ensembles playing that music. It all deserves every bit as much respect granted to orchestral music and ensembles, but struggles against tired band stereotypes. This one time, at band camp…? Legit one of the funniest movie scenes I’ve seen; Tom and I went to see that movie one lovely summer evening, and I wore a T-shirt with flute printed on it in 20+ languages. The movie has been out forever so it’s on you if you don’t know the punchline to that joke and why my shirt got SO MANY STARES; go consult with The Google Machine if you don’t know it. But those tired stereotypes persist and that pisses me off.
So I’m bringing Band Music Friday here. Might not be every week but it’ll always be on a Friday because this is my playground and I’m on something like my fifth rodeo. Sixth, if I count that one time at band camp…😏
Today’s Band Music Friday is courtesy of our composer friend Gustav Holst. You may know him as the composer of such bangers as The Planets, but true band geeks know him as “the orchestral composer who respected and loved writing for wind band and so he did.” My dude knew quality.
The piece I picked is his First Suite in Eb (recognized as one of the earliest examples of modern band instrumentation) and I’m sharing two versions. First is the full suite, performed by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra (a fantastic ensemble in Japan, which BTW, has an incredible wind band history courtesy of Frederick Fennell who was at Eastman School of Music forever and brought it over. But I digress; Uncle Freddy and wind band in Japan is an entire Band Music Friday by itself). Your standard lovely performance; I’m starting BMF with classics before sharing some blow your soul straight outta your body favorites.
The second is a YouTube video of The President’s Own Marine Band. I wanted to share this because it best shows what musicians did (or tried to do) during the early months of the pandemic. There were a lot of these “bands in squares.” We needed to make music, even when it was damned near impossible to get together. Every one of the musicians has a click track in their ear and they recorded themselves playing to it. This being the best wind band in the country (and my very own Walter Mitty fantasy), they have impeccable tuning, and balance was essentially after the fact with mixing board music software. I get emotional watching this, because at the time none of us knew how long we’d be playing solo or if we’d ever get to gather to make music again. I did one of these “band in a box” recordings during the pandemic and it’s harder than it looks. There’s so much interplay between musicians, especially of the near-psychic sort, that playing into a camera and hoping it all comes out ok is a paltry substitution.
Please to enjoy. Have a great weekend!