I spent Saturday morning listening in from the outside. It’s times like this that I realize how much I am missing the band world - the band room - the sound at the beginning of a class while students are “warming up”, the excitement before a concert, the moment before the downbeat at a festival, the silliness and exhaustion of a band camp… the music…
And then Saturday… I listened to 16 junior high bands (25 members or less) - so fabulous! I even adjudicated in my head and it seems my ears still work (according to the festival results).
Anyway - here is what I do and don’t know about “brass band” in Japan.
Brass Band is what we in Canada know as Concert Band or WInd Ensemble - it consists of brass, percussion and woodwinds. It is a club. Club happens for 2 hours after school during the week and 2-3 hours on Saturday. Wow. If you are in the Brass Band Club, you are not in basketball or track and field - you are only in Brass Band.
You know how they say that you need the bad to appreciate the good? Well, while I listened to the 16 (small) junior high groups, there was no bad. There were no wrong notes. There were no Bronze ratings. Don’t get me wrong, the great was still obviously great. Can you imagine never having to worry about wrong notes or poor tone? Yes - there were intonation, balance and blend issues -but man! As it is said - “music to me ears”.
In the afternoon the bigger bands (50 members or less) were performing. One of the groups was performing Variations On A Korean Folk Song (Fork Song in the program - L’s and R’s are sometimes mixed up in Japanese) Can you imagine a junior high band performing this in Canada?
I have included some shots of the program… Most of the rep was Japanese with a few Swearingen, Whitacre,etc mixed in for good measure.
Performance etiquette was a bit different. There was no applause until the conductor bowed to indicate the performance would begin.
Conductors? Some excellent conductors, some insecure conductors and some over the top conductors (no surprise there). But just shy of 50% of the conductors used a baton.
And the festival was a well oiled machine. 6 minutes on stage, 3 minutes between performances for the take down and set up. No shared percussion equipment - right down to the timpani. It went like clockwork. It was amazing.
Each band played one piece that showcased technique and musicality. For my taste - always more low end (except for the 4 Gold performances). Amazing characteristic tone on the instruments. Truly. These bands are made up of 1st to 3rd grade junior high students (grade 7-9). The first graders have been playing (every day mind you) since April in some cases.
However, on Sunday, 20 Elementary Bands performed. So perhaps the junior high groups that are performing the Chance have students coming from an elementary program. These bands are adorable (listened to some last year) with 4th to 6th grade littles!
What I don’t know? I don’t know how the rehearsals are run or how the instruction works. I still have not set foot in a band room or observed a practice. I find this incredibly frustrating as I was sure that it would not be an issue. I was wrong.
So Mark and I attend festival performances and local concerts. We are on the outside listening and looking in. I hope that over the course of our second year that this will change. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us.
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