Posted by Rick Denney on December 04, 2002 at 14:26:09:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Where's the tuba?!! posted by Joe Baker on December 04, 2002 at 10:18:27:
I don't care if you are a teasip, Joe Baker, I still like you.
My memories of specific people in the Texas A&M Symphonic band of 1976 are so fuzzy that I'm sure I could only remember the name of the conductor (Joe McMullen). A few images of faces float out of the mist, but that's all. I can only remember one name among my friends who was a BQ, and I knew him through the camera club on campus.
I didn't own my own horn, and had no opportunity to practice in the summer following my freshman year. I misunderstood the audition schedule, and ended up playing the audition on my first day to play the instrument in three months, literally sight-reading the material. Of course, I didn't make it in, and I didn't play the tuba for the following eight years.
But I clearly remember playing the finale from Shostokovich's 5th, Lohengrin, Borodin, Festive Overture, Porgy and Bess, and other great transcriptions. I remember playing a concert at TMEA (and staying in the guest bedrooms of Aggie Club members), and playing on the Rudder stage with the leader of the Singing Cadets (the one good Corp music group) as a soloist. He looked mighty funny in his dress uniform singing "Bess, you is my woman, now, you is!"
I recall using the term "CT", which refers to any member of the Corps, in front of my visiting parents. When my mother asked what it meant, my father, who was an Aggie himself, preempted my response with "Corps Type." Using the same approach, BQ means "Band Qualified." That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
Rick "to whom the music imprinted more deeply than names and faces" Denney