Nick Schumacher

Dr. Burkhardt

Conducting III

8 December 2016

Observation 9: Symphonic Band, November 29, First Half

During this rehearsal, Dr. Galyen and Symphonic Band worked on their goal to become

better sightreaders after their concert in early November. For this part of the rehearsal, the

ensemble read Holst’s First Suite. Before reading the work, Dr. Galyen spoke with the ensemble

about their high school large-group festival experience. Specifically, he talked about how the

event has changed since he was in high school, mostly in regards to the sightreading portion of

each band’s performance. He notes that this was good for high school ensembles because they

would practice their sightreading on a regular basis. Now, high school bands in Iowa “teach to

the test” and don’t really touch on learning the the concepts and skills necessary to be successful

musicians. This has translated into ensemble auditions here at UNI, as Dr. Galyen notes that

most people’s skills are lacking. I didn’t understand why sightreading was a part of my first

audition here at UNI, but I understand completely now and actually really enjoy it now. I think

it’s a good challenge for making you think about multiple parts of the music very quickly.

Dr. Galyen also spoke about the history the First Suite and how it was one of the first

idiomatic works written for a wind ensemble (or military band). Dr. Galyen also discussed how

most high school bands wouldn’t dream of playing pieces that are considered staples of the band

repertoire because they carry a stigma: by choosing these works, band directors are worried what

others will think of them for choosing works like this. Adjudicators at large-group festival are
also notoriously hard on bands that play these pieces, but this has a negative impact on the high

school band program across the country, as the majority of high school bands aren’t considered

good enough to play these works well. His last advice before they actually read the piece was to

find others in the ensemble that have a part identical or very similar to yours and work to try and

match them. He explained that the quality of an ensemble’s sound changes drastically when they

sightread, and this is because most members are focusing on small clusters of individual notes

instead of trying to make it expressive and musical. Looking at larger groups of notes simplifies

the sightreading process and allows each player to get up out of the score and watch the

conductor. This has to be incredibly frustrating the conductor -- I know that it’s frustrating for

me in our conducting class when people don’t watch -- but it’s a necessary part of building a

well-rounded ensemble and is something that I wished I had worked on more earlier in my

musical career.