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Concert Band |
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| Actually, I did get a third picture in the Centennial Technique. If, that is, you agree that that’s indeed humble self between John Corley’s left hand and the bell of the middle tuba, above. Hard to prove. |
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After orchestra in
elementary school and at
Arrowview Junior
High School and band at
Pacific High, it
was only to be expected that I would check out the MIT Concert Band.
And I’m glad I did. It was a marvelous privilege to make music
under John Corley’s direction for three years.
John had founded the organization ten years before I came along. From the very first, I’m told, he insisted that the Band play only works that were originally written for wind band. No arrangements of orchestral scores, unless the original composer did the work. As a consequence, most of our repertoire was composed in the 20th century: few earlier composers wrote for band. |
| I’ve lost the tape I used to have of our first performance of Paul Hindemith’s 1951 B-flat major Symphony for Concert Band, arguably the most important work ever written for band. A pity, because we sounded pretty good. Not without a monumental amount of work, though. The symphony is a challenging piece, to say the least, and John would bring it out at every rehearsal for “one more try.” Time and again, it just wouldn’t make sense to us. |
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