On the 5th day of the 2 weeks before winter break, my band director gave to me...

Five golden means!
Four pep band games,
Three French horns,
A two-headed turtle,
And a piccolo in the key of C.

Ah, the golden mean! This is a fascinating mathematical ratio that is found in numerous art forms, from architecture to music. It is based on an irrational number called "phi" that is approximately 1.618. (The symbol is the Greek letter you see to above.) It is found by solving the equation x-1=1/x. By using it in different combinations, you can create what many artists believe to be pleasing ratios for various shapes like rectangles. It also appears in nature, as seen in pine cones and nautilus shells. When used in music, it means that the composer places an important event (like the return of a main theme) 61.8% of the way through a piece. Some theorists have shown this to be true in the music of Mozart, who was fascinated by numbers. The piece that SB and WE played last year, Spring Festival by Chen Yi, made use of this ratio three times.

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On the 4th day of the 2 weeks before winter break, my band director gave to me...

Four pep band games!
Three French horns,
A two-headed turtle,
And a piccolo in the key of C.

Yes, it's that time again! From what Mr. Velleuer told me this morning, Pep Band A did a wonderful job last night as the Warriors crushed Maine West, 70-24. I wish you all lots of fun as you play all those great rock tunes and cheer on our home team. I played in my high school pep band, did one year at Northwestern, and then conducted pep bands for 20 years at Round Lake and Deerfield, so I know how much fun they can be. Good luck on a great season!

On the 3rd day of the 2 weeks before winter break, my band director gave to me...

Three French horns!
A two-headed turtle,
And a piccolo in the key of C.

So why is the horn called a "French" horn? According to Grove Music Online, the circular, coiled hunting horn (without valves) developed in 17th-century France, but it didn't really become the modern orchestral horn until it was refined in the 18th and 19th centuries in German. It could probably just as easily be called a German horn, but music snobs like myself refer to it only as "the horn." I'm sure our student teacher, Mr. Morden, would agree. At least it's not as bad as the English horn, which is neither English nor a horn.

On the 2nd day of the 2 weeks before winter break, my band director gave to me...

A two-headed turtle!
And a piccolo in the key of C.

On days when the orchestra players leave Wind Ensemble to play in the symphony, we typically spend a few minutes discussing topics that are brought up "for the good of the order." This can range from YouTube clip oddities to random thoughts about current events in the school. One day, we found out that Katie had found a two-headed turtle and kept it for a pet. That's the kind of important information that we share on OW days. And we get cupcakes and $20 bills.

On the 1st day of the 2 weeks before winter break, my band director gave to me...

A Piccolo in the Key of C!

Did you know that piccolos used to be in Db? That means that when a band played in Bb concert, the piccolo was in A. This was done so that fingerings in orchestral transpositions would be easier. It gradually fell out of favor, but whenever we pull out a piece of music from before 1950 or so, there is always a Db piccolo part.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Citrus!

Yes, this morning we unloaded our several tons of oranges and grapefruit, fresh from the sunny orchards of Indian River Groves in Florida. As always, many hands made for light work, and we earned lots of money for future trips and the general band fund. As Mr. Velleuer commented, "It's our one fundraiser that's actually healthy!"

Band Website URL Change

Just a quick note--

If you have the DHS Band website bookmarked, please update it to the following URL:

http://dhs.dist113.org/faculty/BrameD/website/index.htm

Thanks!

Mr. B