Repertoire
It starts (and ends) with the repertoire. I firmly believe that a big portion of our success is due to the repertoire we perform…both quality and quantity. Most band, orchestra, and choir directors would agree that selecting our repertoire is the single most important thing that we do. With our repertoire decisions, we affect our students’ musical and technical growth, their motivation, and their overall attitudes towards music. It makes sense that a significant amount of time be devoted to choosing music, especially for a Midwest Clinic performance that will consume a large portion of our fall schedule.
So it wasn’t surprising to me that nearly all performing directors were online at precisely 10:00 AM Central Time when the reservation system for the Midwest programs opened. I had to rearrange some lessons to clear my schedule, but was at my computer hitting refresh every ten seconds starting at about 9:55. Starting last Tuesday (May 2), we are each allowed to reserve up to six pieces. In two weeks the six piece restriction is lifted, so I expect another flurry of activity on the website at that point.
Because our Midwest program to be in a state of flux for the next several months, I won’t be posting titles anytime soon. We reserved six tunes. I would say that four are near definite, one is a very strong maybe, and another is very unlikely. I was not very aggressive in contacting publishers about their new releases, but did call two of my favorites soon after we received an invitation to perform. We’ve received a lot of information from several publishers in the last week. It’s been fun going through the scores, listening to recordings, and reading through some of the full sets we’ve received.
I believe strongly that students need to be exposed to as much literature as possible each year. I don’t like working on any piece longer than 6-8 weeks and prefer the gap between performances to be more like 4-6 weeks. This year, our Symphonic Band has already performed www.mccrackenband.com/programs/?year=05_06″ target=”_blank”>18 works…that will be closer to 25 by the end of the year. We’ve also actively rehearsed, without performing, another half dozen tunes, and have sightread another 20 or 30 through the course of the year. There comes a time where we hit a point of diminishing returns with a piece…where the students will grow more, both technically and musically, by working on something new. Yes it can always be better, but we’re cheating the kids if they are only exposed to a handful of pieces each year.
So next year is a bit of a concern. Most likely, our Midwest program will have 8 or 9 tunes. It’s tempting, very tempting, to start beating on those tunes starting on day one, but I don’t think that’s in the best interest of the kids. More importantly, I’m concerned that the band won’t develop enough by spending the first three months of the year on the same music. In general, I like to program for our weaknesses in the Fall and for our strengths in the Spring. If I have a weak section, they get featured in the Fall. If a section leader isn’t as strong as I’d like, they get a solo or two in our first concert. While this works great most years, it’s certainly not the best plan for our Midwest program where we’ll want to feature our strengths and hide any weaknesses.
My plan at this point is almost over the top in the other direction. We will have a week long band camp before school starts. More on the camp later, but we’ll perform at the end of that week. None of Midwest program will be in that repertoire, but we will spend quite a bit of time reading through different materials. The following week, we’ll rehearse most of the day on Monday and Tuesday, which are teacher in-service days. Tuesday night we’ll have another concert with different repertoire. That’s right, two full performances before school even starts.
Once school begins, I’m going to work very hard to maintain our normal schedule. It’s important to me that the kids have the same opportunities to participate in other activities (clubs, sports, etc.) and not run into problems because of band. We’ll perform every four weeks starting at the end of September:
September Concert: 2 Midwest tunes, 2 or 3 others
October Concert: 2 Midwest tunes, 2 or 3 others
November Concert: Remainder of Midwest tunes
December Concerts: Full Midwest Program
That’s our plan at this point. We’ll have to see how it actually shakes out. I’d like to perform our Midwest program at least three times for a couple different audiences prior to our actual Midwest Clinic performance. Hopefully we’ll be able to make that work in the calendar.
Often, while listening to the recordings, it hits me what I’m actually preparing for. It still hasn’t quite sunk in.
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