Congratulations!

image by IITA Image Library, from Flickr

When we were at the Dufferin Youth Festival of the Arts earlier this month, the winners of this year's Award of Excellence in the Arts were announced.  This award celebrates exceptional commitment to the arts in our education community, which includes elementary and secondary schools from public, separate, and French boards; private schools; as well as homeschoolers.

Four awards will be presented this year:  two to teachers, and two to DYFA volunteers.  Mr. Doug McIlwain will be the recipient of one of this year's teacher awards.  Here's a quote from one of the people who nominated him for the award:

The job of music teacher at the secondary school level is a very busy, challenging and time consuming one requiring much patience and dedication. Doug McIlwain has shown these qualities time and time again and he exudes such continuing passion for music and for his role in the lives of the young people with whom he works ... My daughter and I share the utmost respect for Doug McIlwain as a music teacher and a person who demonstrates his love of music on a daily basis. I think he would be an excellent choice for the Award of Excellence in the Arts. (from the DYFA webpage)

Congratulations, Mr. McIlwain!!! On behalf of your vocal and instrumental music students, past and present; their parents; and your many admirers; I'd like to say thank you for your hard work and support for music at ODSS, in Dufferin, and at the DYFA!

The awards ceremony will take place on Wed., May 23, at 4pm, at Princess Margaret School. The other three nominees are: Joyce Turek who teaches at East Garafraxa Public School, and DYFA volunteers Kathy Ayliffe and Pam Claridge.  Congratulations to all award recipients!  We are all richer because of your dedication to the arts.

Happy Tuba Day!

Image by zoonabar, from Flickr

Yes, today is International Tuba Day, celebrated on the first Friday in May.  I like to think of it as Take a Tuba Player Out for Lunch Day, but you can adapt this to fit the tuba players in your life.  If your household does not have a resident tuba player, you can always appreciate good tuba playing live or online.


Here's the musician I am appreciating today.  His name is Alfredo Herrejon. His tuba playing on this recording by the Mexican group Banda Los Tierra Blanca in 1997 has been very influential for Mexican banda players.  I don't know if flames shoot from his tuba when he plays, but I bet his lips feel pretty fiery.  I hope you enjoy it.





Email readers, please click through to the blog, or try this link to the video on YouTube http://youtu.be/EO55LtuZCcU

Aren't they beautiful?
Image by tango.mceffrie, from Flickr

Rehearsal Notes from May 1

photo by Peter E. Lee, from Flickr

DYFA Tuesday, May 8

• bus leaves at 8:30
• black and white dress
• bring a lunch as the caf. may not be open by the time we return to school

Spring Concert Wednesday, May 9

• please sell tickets
• 6:15 call time, playing at 7:00
• black and white dress, pick up vest and bow ties at school that evening
• clean up works like this:  
• 
• after the clean up:  Dairy Queen!!!

Repertoire for a Busy Week

Creed

Redlands March

Tales of Sea and Sail

Toy Story

Wicked

Pirates

Danza

Sneak Attack

Fidelity

Fidelity March

What with the snow day and the cancellation of rehearsal last week, we are still in the dark about what pieces we'll need to have ready for DYFA and the spring concert.  This works out well for me, because I can fit in a post about this march, one of my favourites of the pieces we're playing this semester.

Old Mapleton Circus Band, by Beige Alert, from Flickr

Mr. McIlwain has told us that this piece has a circus feel.  Composer Karl L. King was working as a circus musician in 1912, when he wrote this march, as his page on Wikipedia tells us.  King is most famous for composing the march Barnum & Bailey's Favorite (here's a link to a frighteningly fast version) and he spent some time as bandmaster of the Barnum & Bailey Circus band.  He was a prolific composer, and one of the first to write specifically for school bands.

This arrangement of Fidelity, by Andrew Glover, is new (2011). There are no performances available yet on YouTube, except for this one created for the publisher by professional musicians.

 
Email readers, please click through to the blog, or click on this link to the video.

When I hear this piece, I imagine a sunny afternoon and a band playing in a town square during a municipal gathering, such as a ribbon-cutting or an apple-pie-eating contest. The mood is festive.  Meanwhile, the sneaky guys from Sneak Attack! are tiptoeing around town, up to some sort of mischief involving the creation of street art or the placing of smart cars in public fountains.  And the band plays on...

Rehearsal notes from April 17

photo by Harald Groven, from Flickr

Here are links to pdf's of the permission forms given out this week.  Please return these forms by May 1.

DYFA permission form

West Side Story permission form

On Tuesday, May 15, we will have a final meet-up for the year, from 7-8pm 3:15-4:15.  Here, we will return and sort our music, talk about plans for next year, and eat food, glorious food.

YouTube gets personal

What is the sound of 185 musicians playing together?

These are the four mass band pieces, some of the titles are mixed up.  Email readers, please click through to the blog to see the videos.

Pirates of the Caribbean (Soundtrack Highlights)

Is there such a thing as total originality?  Or is every creation built on the work of others?  The movie  Pirates of the Caribbean seems to owe a great debt of inspiration to the work of others.  It is also an example of the collaborative nature of pop culture product.  This is certainly true of the creation of the soundtrack.

Our copy of the piece credits the composition to Klaus Badelt.  But composition of the soundtrack appears to have been a hasty collaborative effort among Badelt, his employer Hans Zimmer, and several other colleagues, according to Wikipedia, with much of the credit for the main themes claimed later by Zimmer.  One critic suggested that the soundtrack's themes were recycled from earlier Zimmer projects, and bemoaned the departure from traditional pirate movie music of the swashbuckling variety.

Despite its cloudy origins, medleys of the soundtrack appear to be very popular for bands and symphonies.  The version we're playing this year is arranged by Ted Ricketts, who for 24 years was Music Director and Producer at Walt Disney World, and has composed or arranged over 80 pieces for music publisher Hal Leonard.

Here are a couple of performances of the Rickett's arrangement.  This one is by a middle school band.



This version is by high school band from Osaka, Japan (I think they have a gong - check me on this).