Symphonic Band/Orchestra veterans...

[libnnc]

Do you listen to classical music? If so, when you hear a piece that you played in school, does it still give you goosebumps?

I'm listening to Gustav Holst's Second Suite in F, Song of the Blacksmith. It was our symphonic band's competition piece.

The North Texas Wind Symphony does it much better justice than we did, for sure.

You can take the geeky girl out of the band, but you can't take the band geek out of the girl.

[AllegroRondo]

1. All the time.

My wife listens to classical music on the radio during the day, and she'll call me up now and then to ask what a piece is by holding the phone to the radio. I can usually name it, or at least know who the composer is.

What instrument did you play?
Ever play Persichetti's Symphony for Band? Reed's Variations on a Korean Folk Song?

[libnnc]

2. I played tenor sax

We never attempted those pieces you mentioned.

There were only two years in HS that we were really worth a damn. Those were the years we worked on Holst. We usually didn't play anything too taxing. We did manage to slog through some Sousa--the Holst piece was our glory moment.

And of course for Christmas every stinking year there was Leroy Anderson x(

[AllegroRondo]

3. AAAGH! Leroy Anderson!!!

how I HATE that peice (I assume you mean "Sleigh Ride").

EVERY YEAR from Junior High until I finally gave up after 12 years in the Army Band, I had to play that damn peice. I still cringe and sweat when I hear it.

now Sousa, I can probably play in my sleep.

[lizziegrace]

5. Allegro

You're a bassoonist, right? I played bassoon.

I remember learning there was a tenor clef the hard way when the conductor of the city Youth Symphony pulled out "An American In Paris". :scared:

I made it through okay...

[AllegroRondo]

6. yup, played that many times

my first experiences with tenor clef were just as bad, high school orchestra with old yellowed paper Beethoven symphonies. I pencilled in the note letters above the staff, or I'd never have made it.

[lizziegrace]

7. Same here

Just wrote the letters. I didn't have time to learn another clef.

:)

[Karenina]

20. I played in a symphonic band

that was made up of 100 students from the 5 boroughs of NYC. We rarely played transcriptions. That Persichetti piece is AWESOME with such a large group. Hell, symphonic bands are AWESOME!!!

[itsmesgd]

4. I still love Holst's Planets Jupiter.

I can still remember the parts to that and Night on Bald Mountain (Modesto Mousorgsy)

[Capn Sunshine]

8. not just that. Stage band /musical theater flashbacks

I love classical music but there is a special place inmy heart for those pieces that we did in competition or performance. The Nutcracker is something I put on Thanksgiving eve. I put on "The Planets" frequently in summer. Lt. Kije suite I have in my car.

I played in a stage band, both at school and in a professional capacity at the local musical theater scene. Did West Side Story, South Pacific, Oklahoma, all the biggies from the 50s/60s . Did I mention Sound of Music? Every time that VWcommercial comes on with "Auf Veidersein, goodbye" ( I hated that song) I start hearing the whole show, from the overture on.

By the way, I played football as well. But when I was in band , it was the 60's and musicians were the highest form of life. I wasn't much of a geek, but I was always fond of them. The difference is today, I can still play in an orchestra, but if I played in a geezer game I'd be in bed for two weeks recovering. Damn, my knee hurts right now.

[libnnc]

9. re: geek-age

There seems to have been some major shift in HS hierarchy. At my HS in the '70s and early '80s, the band controlled everything on campus. They were called the Music Mafia. By the time I got there in the mid-late '80s, however, we were relegated to geek-dom (if not totally considered a cult). We were fiercely loyal to our Svengali-esque band director. He used and abused us, and we'd come running back for more.

It was a strange relationship, actually, perhaps worthy of serious analysis.

[Aristus]

10. Hey, libnnc. My band played Holst's First Suite! The Chaconne, the

Intermezzo and the third movement, the name of which I've forgotten. Actually, I've never heard the piece since, and that was well over twenty years ago. I'd like to try and find a recording of it, though.

I was the geekiest of band geeks; I played tuba. The only way to be geekier than that is to be a male flautist. :-)

[libnnc]

12. Ah, but the tuba is the heart beat of the whole works...

Our tubas got yelled at the more than anyone else. That's how you know how important you are. :D

[AllegroRondo]

14. try being a bassoonist

tuba players were cool compared to us.

[lizziegrace]

16. Amen

Although being a female bassoonist in the 70's was pretty cool. :) Playing contrabassoon was a blast.

[nytemare]

11. Holst is the best!

In my band, we played 1st suite and Mars. I used to have the Bernstein version of the Planets on cassette, and we would blare it in my car driving around.

Those were the days.

We also did a lot of John Williams, so when I hear the very opening of the Superman music, I do get a chill.

[libnnc]

13. Duh on me! Of course John Williams!!

We did some really great JW pieces. We played the piece he wrote for the '84 Summer Olympics and a medley of other biggies. I'd totally forgotten about that.

[AllegroRondo]

15. Williams did some good stuff

I never liked much of his movie music, but the march from 1941 is very good, and he wrote a bassoon concerto called "five sacred trees" that is a real chop buster.

[lizziegrace]

18. Sigh...

Don't stop talking, but I *wish* I could play again. Where's $14,000 when you need it. (I or my parents could never afford an instrument. I always played what the school or symphony had.) :(

[AllegroRondo]

19. I wish I could play again

but Bell's Palsy ruined my embrochure.

You can actually get a decent student level bassoon for about $2-3K. Fox makes some decent ones - I forget the name of their student brand line.

[lizziegrace]

27. I'm so sorry you're no longer able to play

:hug:

[Wapsie B]

21. Mars, The Bringer of War!

Gustav's got it going on big time with The Planets.

Performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra it sends chills up my spine.

Band geek heaven for me. :)

:thumbsup:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Sometimes I feel a nostalgic twinge...

especially if I'm :i:playing:/i: a piece that I first performed when I was a kid. I find myself marveling at the way passages that were once difficult now seem so easy, just because it's in the finger memory.

[MiniMandaRuth]

22. Hell yes.

My best friend got together and played a haunting version of LIttle Fugue in G Minor on the saxophone and whenever I hear that song, I get goose-bumps.

There are others, too. Like I love to hear the bass line for Zoot Suite Riot (We play that in Pep band)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

23. Yep.

Former first violinist prima donna type here.
Junior high, high school, college, community orchestras and summer music camps.

[noonwitch]

24. Yeah, I played violin and listen to classical music

I played D'Vorak's New World Symphony when I was in the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony, and it remains one of my favorite pieces and led me to love all of D'Vorak's music.

We played Tchaikowski's 5th symphony at Interlochen (All-State, not the 8 week program)-I have a record (LP) of that orchestra, and we also played Mendohlsson's Reformation, some 12 tone crap we all hated (American Tryptich, I think), something by Rimsky-Korsakov, Nelson's Jubilee (which my high school orchestra also performed at a festival), and some of the songs from Copeland's "Rodeo".

In St. Cecilia Jr. Symphony, we played Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", which is also one of my favorites to this day.

[Pied Piper]

25. Hey noonwitch!

Boy, does that bring back memories! I was there through all of it with you. BTW, I'm playing the "Firebird Suite" next month here in Boston. But we're playing the Stravinsky 1919 version, not the 1970s Merle Isaac version (lol!) Sheesh, that piece is quite difficult...

[AllegroRondo]

26. I love Firebird - great bassoon part

Stravinsky really knew how to write for bassoons!

[HuffleClaw]

28. the water music is still a fave

which we played youth symphony but my real 'musical memories' center around popular music played when in a drum & bugle corps on tour.

[libnnc]

29. oooh you were in drum corps....*bowing*

I'm not worthy....

I was in marching band and we *worshiped* DCI peeps. Watched finals every year, drooling and in awe.

[BluePatriot]

30. ex-French Horn here

I pretty much plateaued on my tone quality the last few years and got very frustrated...later I found out I had issues with my jaw and mouth no one caught that stuck me that way.

I miss making music and being with a group that was in to that stuff. It gave me a lot of discipline.

[Paladin]

31. From An Old Trombone Player

The two Holst suites still give me goosebumps (I have the Fennell/Cleveland Winds recordings and recommend them highly).

Do any bands still play "Chester" by William Schuman? It's based on a hymn/marching tune from the American Revolution, and was very big back in the 60's and 70's.

Lastly, I must mention the late Clifton Williams, one the all-time great composers for symphonic band. It was my privilege to know Mr. Williams when I was young, back in Austin, Texas. If there's a better concert band march than his "The Sinfonians," I've never heard it. He died way too young.....