Some Musings on School Music Month

Vi’s show is 2 ½ weeks away! If you live nearby and you want details, email me (use my regular address, unless you don’t know it, in which case you can reach me at lifeinatowngmailcom). This artwork is a close-up of a much more detailed picture Vi drew. The larger version features tables, chairs, concessions and her full name, prominently placed (thus, the crop job).

Tonight was the all-district “Music in Our Schools Month” instrumental concert, which always feels a bit “wrong” to me. Call me a cynic, but it seems like the band and chorus teachers have to bend over backwards to prove to taxpayers that their salaries are worth paying. Why aren’t math or English teachers expected to pull off an event of this magnitude—coordinating and then conducting 400+ kids, all at once—on an annual basis? I suppose it could be argued that other educators’ version of “We Cut the Mustard” is state exams—if the students fail…or fail to excel…those teachers have some ’splainin’ to do.

In any case, I sympathize with teachers’ public relations challenges. As a teacher’s daughter, I grew up vaguely aware of the pressures my dad faced. As a journalist’s wife, I’ve become much more aware of taxpayers’ perceived powers. And as a public relations professional, I have developed a healthy sense of paranoia about outsiders’ worst suspicions. For as many parents who support Little Suzy’s saxophone playing, there are skinflint skeptics who resent the rental costs of the instruments and severely undervalue the benefits of music and arts in general.

But to put a positive spin on this topic: Let’s Go Band!

Five instrumental groups performed tonight—one song each, plus one all together (an impressive feat…particularly the elementary director, who conducted two bands, walking back and forth between them, during the plenary piece). While the fourth grade band made it through a basic version of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” after only a handful of rehearsals, the high schoolers took on the Overture to Bernstein’s “Candide”—a raunchy show, but a kick-butt composition…one of my favorites—to play and to hear. My dad also attended the concert, and he promptly went home and Facebooked the H.S. conductor to say: “Congratulations on the ‘Candide,’ a difficult piece to perform and conduct. Hearing your group gave me hope in spite of society’s cultural wasteland.” Or something like that. He told me he messaged the director; I virtually bee-lined to the conductor’s FB Wall and didn’t see the remarks. This kind of compliment, although tinged with pessimism (hey—the man taught junior high kids for 30+ years), deserves to be publicized. Compliments to music teachers—any teachers—ought to be written on Facebook Walls, printed up on 25% cotton stationery, signed, sealed and CC’d to school principals and administrators. Music is good; good music is even better; and our children are made better by exposure to and experience with it!

One note of disappointment (pardon the pun): “Candide” features some of the most inspiring French horn lines known to humankind. Just thinking about them, hearing the soaring notes in my mind, makes my heart swell. While I enjoyed the overall performance of the H.S. band immensely, the first part of the song where the horns are really highlighted caused me to crane my neck—I had to check to see whether there were, in fact, any horns present in the group. When I saw them, I understood: They were playing like petite adolescent girls…because they are. Not that I have ever been petite, but I used to be a much wimpier horn player myself. It was Mr. “e” ’s coaching shortly before I graduated that pushed me through my playing plateau into larger, greener pastures. He suggested that I imagine blowing bright orange through the horn bell. You read that right: bright orange. Visualize that blazing color, and send it through the instrument, he told me. I did, and my musical life was transformed by that advice. You see? Yet another example of how a music teacher improved my life, my enjoyment of music, and thus my appreciation for truth and beauty. Bravo!