Sunday, September 30, 2012

Homecoming 2012

Another homecoming in the books, and it was a great one! The theme was the Olympics, so the band was ready with some appropriate music. Of course, we played the traditional fanfare, "Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud. You may not recognize the name, but it's this one:

We played this several times as we marched through the halls, but we were especially excited to play it as DHS alumna Christina Loukas was announced at the pep rally. Christina is our own home-grown Olympian, having placed in the top ten in diving at the Beijing and London games. At halftime, we played the Rocky Theme "Gonna Fly Now," but we renamed it in her honor: "Gonna Dive Now." We also did a short bit of "We Are the Champions" as a patriotic shout-out to Team USA.

We couldn't have asked for a better day--the student body was excited to see us marching through the halls during 8th period. The pep rally was well-attended and very positive. The weather at the game was picture-perfect: 60 degrees, clear, and a full harvest moon. To top it off, we got to turn our hats around backwards, the traditional marching band sign of a football victory, as the Warriors of Deerfield defeated the Warriors of Maine West, 35-7.

This afternoon I checked my email and found pictures from DHS band alums in their college marching bands. Elizabeth, our tubist at Penn State, traveled to the U of Illinois where she met up with trombonist Dominic and trumpeter Zack. In Evanston, Indiana U trombonist Logan reconnected with a trio of Northwestern Wildcats, Robin, Emma, and Nathan. I know we also have alums marching in other schools across the country. It's great to see the Warrior Band tradition continue on at the next level.

What's next for the marching band? Why, "Rocking the Classics"! Check out our show on October 19 when we play "A Fifth of Beethoven" and "A Night on Bald Mountain." Then it's on to Bandorama at 7:30 on 10/22--a fitting finale to a fine season.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Our Year So Far

We are now starting the fourth week of the school year, and it's time to take stock of what we have so far...

This year, we have our largest marching band since the 1980s! 72 members strong, and we've already performed our first halftime show. We received great audience response, and watching the video afterwards, I can truly say I am very pleased with the results. This Friday night we'll be playing a Motown show that will feature the varsity and JV squads of the DHS Dance Team--almost 130 performers on the field at one time! It's been too many years since we've combined our efforts, so this show will be something special. We hope to see you there!

Symphonic Band is off to a great start. It's definitely one of the strongest SB's we've had since moving to three bands in 1998. We are playing some challenging music, and our performance at Potpourri on September 20 should be very exciting. We are playing a march by Henry Fillmore and a fanfare by my favorite composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams. I expect to be pushing this group all year to work on a higher level of difficulty than in the past.

The Concert Band is a bit small, but there are a number of very talented musicians. The challenge every year is to take students who come from several different middle school bands and mold them into a single, cohesive high school ensemble. That means we'll be working on a lot of fundamentals to get everyone on the same page. I will also be putting advanced players into small chamber ensembles so they can work on more technical music with our senior leaders during rehearsal time.

The Jazz Band will have their first performance this Thursday at Open House. We'll be in the bookstore lobby, playing classic tunes by legendary musicians like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. We're also learning all of our modes (dorian, mixolydian, lydian, and phrygian) so we can explore modal improvisation. Soon, we'll be narrowing down our repertoire to create a 3-tune set for the November concert.

The Music Theory class is very large this year--23 students. A big change is the conversion to a Mac-based music lab, which we share with the art students across the hall. We spent the period in there last Friday getting acquainted with Apple's GarageBand software. It was fun to see everybody so engaged in creating music by combing pre-made loops with their own ideas. This week we'll begin to hear their first round of free compositions--always an exciting time.

Wind Ensemble is going well as they also prepare a march and a fanfare for Potpourri. In addition, we've been working on some Renaissance music and a landmark piece by Vaughan Williams. Every year in SB and WE, we focus on two composers, one from the British tradition and one American. Last year we spent a lot of time on Percy Grainger and Aaron Copland; this year it's Vaughan Williams and Leonard Bernstein. You can look forward to hearing some of Mr. Bernstein's music this spring. In between, we'll study the music of African-American musicians and the Baroque music of J.S. Bach.

So, there's a quick update on what's been going on in the DHS Band and Music Theory program. I hope to see all of our students' parents and guardians this Thursday at Open House. Until then, best wishes for a happy and musical fall!