Posted by Rick Denney on July 04, 2000 at 22:05:33:
Fireworks are better when accompanied by real band music.
So says my fiancee and her mother. We watched small-town fireworks in Purcellville, Virginia, which is so far on the fringe of Metro DC that they refuse to acknowledge the connection. The display was accompanied in real time by the Loudoun Concert Band. Despite the many distractions--the fireworks required the crowd to sit with their backs to the band, and there were approximately 24 small children for every responsible adult, all running in all directions at once twirling those luminous necklace things--the band got applause after every piece.
Like every all-comers community band, the pianissimos seemed to accompany the hard bits where only the bold and fearless plowed through leaving the timid to move their fingers but not their air.
Even so, there's no denying the energy put off by such a group. We all love wonderful playing, but there's a place in this wide world for enthusiastic but decidedly non-professional performance (as long as it doesn't represent itself as something it's not). I think when they start up rehearsals again in the fall, I'll be among them.
Rick "And the conductor is a first-class tuba player in the AF Band" Denney