Even Tanglewood has a band at John Mackey’s Blog

July 7, 2005

Even Tanglewood has a band

Newman emailed me last night to tell me about this year’s Tanglewood schedule, which he’d picked up over the weekend. One part of Tanglewood is the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, a training program for younger musicians. We’re not sure if this is the first year they’re doing it, but this year, Tanglewood has a band. And they got the master, H. Robert Reynolds, to conduct it. This feels like quite a major stamp of approval from the titan of summer music festivals — and of “shi-shi-la-la Art” in general. As Newman said, “What’s next? The Concertgebouw Marching Cadets?”Band just gets bigger and bigger. Or maybe it’s losing weight, in the superficial sense.

If you’re a composer who grew up wanting to write orchestra music, and you listened to Barber rather than Grainger, you probably start with the attitude that you should be writing orchestra music, and band somehow isn’t the goal. So, you marry Orchestra. Orchestra is hot. Okay, maybe not hot, but at least she’s the kind of hot that you know you should like. At the very least, she’s very pretty. And she’s really, really smart, and speaks, like, seven languages, and she knew everybody (but she only ever wants to talk about Beethoven). But you quickly realize that Orchestra thinks she’s better than you, and she acts like every minute she spends with you is come kind of charity work. You get her gifts, and shower her with attention, but you soon realize that she doesn’t appreciate you at all, and she’s neglectful, and at worst, abusive.

And then one day, you meet Band at a party.

“What do you do?” she asks. “Um, I’m a composer,” you reply, expecting little reaction, but Band lights up and exclaims, “oh my God, that’s HOT! Do you have any music I can play? The newer, the better! Let me get you a drink!”

Band is loud. She’s not quite as pretty as Orchestra, and she’s a bit, shall we say, bigger-boned, but she has that truly “hot” aspect to her that Orchestra never had. And most importantly, Band loves what you do. Whereas it was like pulling teeth to get Orchestra to look at your new music (and if she looked, she was generally not impressed, often comparing you unfavorably to one of her many ex’s — like Dvorak), Band thinks it’s awesome. Band tells you things like “you’re special and perfect and I’ll appreciate you and your music like Orchestra never has, and never will.”

What is Composer supposed to do?! Did I mention how loud and boisterous Band is? (Let’s say she’s a screamer. Totally your type.) You have a blast when you’re with her, and your friends agree that she’s a lot cooler than Orchestra, and they see how she treats you much, much better. How can Composer not be expected to stray?

Luckily for Composer, he figured this out around the age of 30, and not much, much later. He just feels bad for all of the other Composers who haven’t yet caught on and left their dysfuncional, abusive relationships.


12 Comments to “Even Tanglewood has a band”  

    1
  1. At 6:20 pm on September 24, 2005
    Kevin Howlett Says:

    Best. Post. Ever.

    2. 2
  2. At 8:28 am on November 7, 2005
    Nikk Pilato Says:

    John, you are my hero.

    3. 3
  3. At 1:21 pm on June 4, 2007
    Cellist Caroline Says:

    At least Band doesn’t string you along. (ha ha ha ha!! I kill me!)

    4. 4
  4. At 8:02 am on August 8, 2007
    Martin Seggelke Says:

    This post made my day. Conductor here experienced a very similar thing. Today, conductor happily engages in polygamy with both - and would not want to miss either. Cheers!

    5. 5
  5. At 1:03 am on October 12, 2007
    marc mumcian Says:

    awesome post! im string bass in LBSU wind symphony and i want to say your piece “turbine” is rad! yay bartok pizz!

    6. 6
  6. At 6:33 pm on October 18, 2007
    Michael Says:

    Oh my goodness- That’s Amazing! I have to show that to everyone in my band; they’ll all love it!

    7. 7
  7. At 3:09 pm on February 21, 2008
    kaci Says:

    I heard this on 101.1
    and it made my day.
    I’m a nerd.
    but strange humors was my favorite song in the tmea program.
    (I played xylophone and whatnot.)

    8. 8
  8. At 11:22 pm on April 8, 2008
    Ria Says:

    Love this! In my opinion though, if composers spend that much time with Band, she can become as pretty as Orchestra… maybe even Orchestra’s equal as an art medium in half a century or so. :)

    9. 9
  9. At 8:46 pm on August 18, 2008
    Mark S. Says:

    Orchestra can be absurd sometimes.

    Bartok: “Let’s see what random crap I can put together and still have a tonal sense”

    Stravinsky: “I want this to have no tonal center and cause riots”

    Bernstein: “I want to write fake jazz; be the modern Gershwin!”

    Copland: “Screw music theory; I’ll wirte how I want, and still make it pretty.”

    Shostakovich: “Stalin hates me. I’ll wirte a symphony about it…”

    John Adams: “hmmmm….I think this sub-sub-sub-sub-counter melody needs another countermelody…”

    Gustav Mahler: “Are you crazy? If I write my 9th symphony I’ll die! But if I do write it, I’ll be sure to add cowbells.”

    as opposed to

    Ticheli: Hmm….I think a vibraphone will work in this part…”

    Persichetti: ” You will need 15 different sized snare drums”

    John Barnes Chance: “I think I’ll have to Flutes trill on C# till the end of the piece.”

    Balmages: “Hmmm…Fast section followed by a slow section and then….I’ve got it! Let’s have them play the beginning again!”

    Robert W. Smith: “I think I’ll use the bass line from my 15 other works….Never gets old.”

    Rob Grice: “As long as it has cabasa, it will work.”

    10. 10
  10. At 12:37 am on January 22, 2009
    Jon Bash Says:

    Ahaha. It’s so nice to see such an increasing number of talented composers writing band music these days. Thank you dearly!

    I’m playing xylo/vibes on “Undertow” at Western Washington University’s symphonic band, and man, is it exciting.

    11. 11
  11. At 12:46 pm on January 31, 2009
    Matt Schoendorff Says:

    Don’t forget about Chamber, that dirty little whore. Chamber is a blitzkrieg quickie that operates under the radar. Just don’t let Orchestra or Band see you with Chamber glitter all over. Jealousy will surely ensue.

    12. 12
  12. At 4:03 pm on March 18, 2009
    Gussie Bargeron Says:

    This is amazing.. I love the way you set that up!

    This might not be the best place to put this but I can’t figure out where else to post this for you…

    I wanted to ask if you might help me, but I feel like I should preface with this because while I’m commenting on your blog, I need to tell you this!

    I played Kingfishers Catch Fire under Kevin Sedatole at Interlochen Center for the Arts this summer and I can’t stop listening to it. It is simply unbelievable. I also got to play Strange Humors at my All-Sate festival. I just feel like your music has become a part of my life and the source of some of my favorite memories :) I’ve been scoping your site and listening to all of the great music and I’m having a blast!

    Now, what I wanted to tell you about or ask, was this: I am part of a trio at my school, we put it together ourselves, it is Flute, Viola and Euphonium, we get together every week and we write our own music. I am currently writing a new piece and I’m stumped! I feel like I’m having trouble developing the sound because it is so sparse with 3 instruments. I always want more and I can’t make it happen. I was wondering if you had any sage advice for the young composer :)

    Thank you,
    Gussie

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