Robin Hanson proceeds with "Who Likes Band Music?"
Smiling politely through yet another performance by my son's school
band tonight, I wondered: why do school bands play music so different
from what the kids, or even their parents, choose in their free time?
Music at parties, movies, etc. is pretty different. The novels kids
read in English class differ from the novels they or their parents read
in their free time, but most people accept that school novels are
deeper, subtler, etc., so that kids learn more by studying them. But
do most people really accept a similar claim about band music? What
gives?
Maybe the point of band music is that many of the instruments are relatively easy to play, or at least they are easy to play poorly. The noise drowns out the children who cannot play much at all. More children playing recruits more parental support and also more support from administrators, who like to point to participation. What numbers would you get if the students had to learn Hindemuth's sonatas for solo viola? Yes, conformity and discipline have some social value but still this does not look like a Pareto optimum to me either.
I chose to go with the questioner’s specification of “different from what the kids” choose to listen to. I doubt any of the songs played are more difficult to play than much of the pop music of the last 50 years. thus negating <>
The answer friends, is tradition, fear of rocking the boat… and the high cost of band sheet music.
Two Points:
1. The prevalence of bands in school over, say, orchestras is primarily due to cost. It is much cheaper for a school to purchase a set of clarinets, trumpets, and trombones than it is to purchase a set of violins, violas, cellos and basses. This is realized both in upfront costs and maintenance (durability as well).
2. Not all band songs are divorced from what kids want to hear. I don’t think any music group playing kid in the 1990s escaped without playing the theme to Jurassic Park, which all the kids seemed to enjoy anyway.
For what it’s worth, I luckily had the opportunity to play in orchestras, bands, and jazz bands growing up in the public school system. Orchestra music was always more satisfying to me, and I am continually disheartened to learn how rare orchestras are in public schools.
Yep, I agree with the above commenters.
1.) A large factor is cost. Cost of a band versus an orchestra, and the cost of sheet music. More popular music means more expensive sheet music.
In a similar vein, have you noticed that high school musicals tend to be sort of random and obscure? My HS put on Once Upon a Mattress. Not the most popular musical. Alternatively, have you noticed that it is the richer school districts that put on the more popular musicals?
2.) A second factor is amount of participation. A band can incorporate some 50 kids. A rock band has maybe 4. A jazz band has maybe 10 – 15. Likewise, an orchestra can incorporate more kids, but then we return to the cost issue.
3.) And what about marching bands? Marching bands, in my opinion, are highly entertaining and unique — not something you see in an ordinary life.
My ex is quite talented as a high school band director. I grew up in a religion that forbade musical instruments. So, what I learned about music in general, and school bands in particular, I learned as an adult.
School administrators love bands, because a successful band program has very large class sizes relative to other programs. So, they can get their student:teacher ratios up without crowding the math and science classes so much.
As for the musical selections the kids play, it’s a mixture of spinach and ice cream.
The spinach is stuff that has (mostly) been around awhile and has been graded for difficulty by a band director’s association. If the band wants to make it to state competition, they have to play the spinach. Kids know this, far more than their indulgent parents, and they generally take to the challenge.
The ice cream is the latest movie scores, or pop hits, or whatever, that have been arranged by music publishing companies for the typical mix of instruments found in a school band. Kids love these. Only problem for the band director is she can easily blow her music budget for the year on just a handful of arrangements.
The instrumentation is determined by the requirements of a marching band, which hasn’t changed much since Sousa’s day. School administrators love football even more than they love band… so the band learns to play the instruments needed for halftime shows and pep band. That’s why it sounds kinda harsh when you are listening to them in the school concert hall.
Barthelme in _Snow White_ has a sentence on band music here
“And all this is the best that has been thought and said, in my opinion, or ever will be thought and said, for the only thing worth a rap in the whole world is the beauty of women, and maybe certain foods, and possibly music of all kinds, especially ‘cheap’ music such as that furnished at parades by for instance the St. Pulaski Tatterdemalion Band of Orange, New Jersey, which can reduce you to tears, in the right light, by speaking to you from the heart about your land, and what a fine land it is, and that it is *your* land really, and my land, this land of ours–that particular insight can chill you, rendered by a marching unit.”
I’m not quite sure that Robin has all the facts right. My kids are in 6th and 8th grades and play in their school bands. They’re playing some fun, cool stuff, like the Batman theme from the old TV series and some of Queen’s greatest hits. Some may call it drivel, but it’s reasonably close to the kind of music that they like, e.g. it’s not some strange classical piece.
band = babysitting
1 teacher, 100-200 students. sounds like a good deal!
popular music = 1 teacher per 4 or 5 students. who can pay for that?
This is a silly question. Comparing the music kids play to the literature kids read is like comparing apples to oranges.
The proper comparison to what kids read is the music they listen to in a music appreciation/history class, and the right comparison to what kids play is what they are assigned to write in a composition class.
Kids should play music that they write. They should compose a piece as a group and then learn to play it. That would be more instructional and more interesting for all.
applying pareto analysis to middle and high school band makes no sense. my guess is that, on average, band students have better g.p.a.’s than other severable student sectors (sports, language club, yearbook, et al..). Learning to play an instrument in a group setting is a skill that pays off in life. I don’t see these types of posts concerning the need to update or eliminate pre-calculus or honors chemistry. Or are you under the impression that kids are doing vector analysis and titrations in their spare time and at parties? maybe you think the schools would be wise to have the AV club entertain the students at a football game or assembly? How about the Latin club, or maybe the national honor society? That all sounds very efficient and cost effective to me.
The only thing worse than a band playing band music is a band playing Achy Breaky Heart.
Band may also be one of the few high school classes where the students are constantly doing something, not just sitting back listening to a teacher — I can see how a lot of students would be drawn to that (yes, myself included) even if the music isn’t always what they would want to listen to.
If high school bands played cool music, then the cool kids would all be in band. And the football teams would suck. And the football parents would be… I’m getting nauseous thinking about that.
Typical “band music” allows for the inclusion of all instruments (or at least all students – certain percussion instruments aren’t used on *every* song). It might be difficult to incorporate the tuba into the music of Taylor Swift.
I’m sure that it’s no coincidence that so many MR readers were involved in band themselves – for various reasons.
All 3 of my children played in middle and high school band. I strongly encouraged them, because it was clear that the average band kids were smarter and better-behaved than average non-band kids. The strongest influence on a teenager is his peer group, and I saw band as a way of getting them a better peer group.
It seems to have worked. None of them spends any time playing music now, but they are all successful college grads with technical degrees. What more do you want?
Band/orchestra music is arranged for a large group playing live instruments. The typical rap song is not going to survive being played by forty students with trumpets and oboes. Most bands do at least a few arrangements of popular songs, but there may be too few skilled arrangers to keep a whole repertoire up to date every year…
As one who played French horn for many years in an excellent wind band in high school, it’s surprisingly hard to find really good wind ensemble music. Most of the REALLY good non-march music for wind ensembles was written in the early part of the 20th century (Holst, Grainger, Vaughn-Williams, etc). That having been said, at the highest levels of high school band music (All-State, etc.), one does see the emergence of something resembling a standard repertoire (innumerable regional and All-State wind ensembles over the years have played Malcolm Arnold’s “Four Scottish Dances” and Bernstein’s “Overture to ‘Candide’”.
Most of the music you hear at middle and high school concerts is far more interesting to play than the alternatives, even though a lot of it sounds pretty much the same. As a French horn player, I can tell you with great certainty that marches are absolutely agonizing to play on that instrument as you are invariably assigned to the “peck horn” role (playing all the upbeats, and ONLY the upbeats).
As for why you rarely see the orchestra and band playing together, most of the standard orchestral repertoire is sleep inducingly boring for the wind players until you hit music from the late 19th century onward, as well as standard orchestral instrumentation being largely incompatible with the standard composition of of middle or high school musical program. When I was in college, I decided to leave the musically more adept orchestra for non music majors are join the wind band because I didn’t want to play music that largely consisted of resting for 20-30 measures at a time followed by holding whole notes for 3-4 measures, followed by yet another 20-30 measures of resting.
@nate
You know you are performing Achy Breaky Heart when the 8th grade band members are embarrassed for the band director.
In my school days, we wind and percussion players played in band because we had to – only the top 3 or 4 trumpeters, french horn players, etc., got to play in orchestra. And to a person we detested marching band. Playing Sousa and dumbed-down TV themes (Hawaii Five-0, anyone) for an audience that couldn’t care less on a cold Saturday in October or November in New Jersey wasn’t a good time.
As far as partying with the team? Fuggeddaboutit. The team looked down on us and we felt the same about the team, to the point of openly rooting for the team to lose, because winning meant we would have to waste an hour marching down Main Street while the team went off to the showers and the rest of their Saturday. At one point, towards the end of a 56-3 loss, a lone trumpeter stood and played “Taps”.
By contrast, orchestra was fun and played challenging music. (Well, okay, concert band played some okay stuff, but it just was more fulfilling to play with a full orchestra). Several of the orchestra members (string, wind, and percussion) from my class went on to study music in college, and have since gone on to musical careers with regional orchestras.
The question is (a) why bands? (i.e., why no strings?) and (b) why band rep?
My guesses regarding (a):
(i) Band instruments are less expensive; they’re less fragile; they require less knowledge to maintain. String instruments, by contrast, are sensitive to things like temperature, humidity, and being dropped; plus, they require technical skill to change strings and to tune before each use. Band instruments are more easily played outdoors, standing up, or in crowded locations such as found at schools.
(ii) As Tyler says, the learning curve is less steep for these instruments. In particular, at lower skill levels, important questions of technique (hand position, etc.) such as pianists and string players must deal with aren’t as important (although this doesn’t necessarily mean those who come through band programs will have solid technical foundations without supplementary instruction). As a result, it’s less discouraging for students than playing strings in the absence of personal instruction.
(iii) It’s relatively easy for an instructor to develop proficiency across a variety of instruments.
(iv) These instruments are louder, or at least more carrying, especially if the students are not highly proficient.
(v) Bands and band music doesn’t tend to have the same restrictive scoring as orchestral music, which typically specifies the number of each type of non-string instrument. Hence, not having any bassoons doesn’t ruin the music.
Regarding (b):
(i) this is available for the instrument combinations in part (a).
(ii) it is typically highly rhythmic, which makes ensemble playing easier (jazz being an obvious exception)
(iii) the tunes are memorable, which makes it easier for the musicians to understand (and hence play together) than, say, Hindemeth or Bartok.
(iv) obvious reasons related to usefulness at school functions.
(v) it’s traditionally what bands play (dating back to Sousa’s time…)
First thing, most students furnished their own instruments in my school. The only instruments the school furnished were the very expensive ones (String bass, cello, baritone sax, etc.). People who find music a waste should understand that the concepts of teamwork and responsibility are alive an well in band and orchestra. Nailing that 12 measure solo is just as pressure filled and satisfying as making the game winning touchdown. In addition, both young men and women participate equally. Surely this is something of real value in later life. In regards to performance choices, that is up to the director. Some school music teachers are more demanding than others, just as in math, English, etc.
Band, orchestra, choir, football games, pep rallies, the entire American high school experience — with government funding and overseeing the whole operation, the total cost and political difficulty of concocting a more relevant way for our youth to spend their time is simply too great. High school bands will still exist 100 years from now, playing the same instruments, wearing polyester uniforms, and puzzling economists. Fortunately for us all, Holst’s Military Suite in E-flat will still be the tune of choice, and it’s pretty darned good.
The music that I played in band was some of the most fulfilling stuff that I have ever had the pleasure of participating in. I absolutely loved almost all of it, and it gave me some of the best times of my life. They were wonderfully complex and interesting pieces with great tunes that I would hum for weeks on end but at the same time endless complexities and details that would afford new discoveries at each listening or playing.
And besides that, playing the music taught me so many lessons in life that would make me that much better of a person. Our director instilled in me the desire to strive for absolute perfection, to help others to, and to revel in the ability to fit together a million complex parts. I was taught the humility to be a piece in the puzzle and the pride that would make it unacceptable to make a mistake.
And the comparison between literature read in school and books read for fun works perfectly for band music as well. High quality wind ensemble music is wonderfully complex and rich, filled with intricacies and delights, just as true literature has so many layers of thought and commentary and is enjoyable on a much higher level of thinking than most popular books. Playing popular music may be entertaining and fun on a superficial level, there is so much more to enjoy on so many more levels in the best music for bands.
Comparing songs like Lincolnshire Posy, Suite of American Dances, Holst’s First Suite, Molly on the Shore, Handel in the Strand, Blue Shades, Mannin Veen, and Rocky Point Holiday (all of which I played in high school) to popular music is very similar in my mind to comparing Shakespeare or Dickens to popular books.
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