2003 WASBE Conference

The opinions expressed
herein are those of the
authors and not
necessarily the opinions
of WASBE.

Conference Article Archive

Friday, 04 July — Random Writings

Today's article is a catch-all for some of the little things I have experienced during the week. For those of you reading this somewhere else in the world (or reading this at a later date in the Conference Archive), hopefully you'll get a bit of the flavour of our experience here that might not come from another type of article.

Hump Day

For those of you unfamiliar with this term, "Hump Day" does not refer to the latest coming-of-age sexploitation film playing in your local cinema. It is a term I picked up at the famous University of Calgary (Canada) Wind Conducting course. On the middle day of the three-week course, everyone celebrated Hump Day—when you had reached that point, you were "over the hump" and it was a downhill ride the rest of the way (in that good, "you can see the finish line" kind of way). Wednesday was officially Hump Day for the WASBE Conference. In my particular case, it was day 10 of 19 away from home, so it was doubly Hump Day for me.

A strange thing tends to happen in and around Hump Day: many people seem to reach their tiredness threshold—they "hit the wall." This happened to me in San Luis Obispo in 1999 and it happened to me again this year. In 1999, I opted to skip the afternoon concert on Hump Day in favour of a visit with Mr. Sandman. This year, I managed slightly better: I missed the second half of two concerts rather than one whole one. One of my Canadian colleagues didn't exhibit Hump Day effects until Thursday, but I suspect that the extra celebrations surrounding Canada Day on Tuesday kept her adrenaline level up an extra day before the crash.

When I come to a WASBE Conference, I try to take it all in, which can be a daunting task. I've often wondered if it might be good to put a break or a "lighter day" in the middle of the week somewhere during the Conference. Even God took one day out of seven off! It could be a sightseeing day (probably still with an evening concert), or could be one where WASBE Networks, national sections, and/or special interest groups could have low-key, mostly-social meetings for part of the day. Perhaps certain non-plenary sessions could be repeated mid-week to create the same effect but allow people who could only attend part of the week to take advantage of more of the great information that comes out of a WASBE Conference. There could be other ways, of course, and putting a break in the middle does cause some logistical problems, but Hump Day will have some effects on the Conference whether we manage it or not. Something to think about.

If you haven't guessed by now why this article didn't make it to press Thursday morning (right after Hump Day), it's simple: I would have had to write it on Hump Day and I was too tired!

Everything is made of wood!

OK, that's an overstatement. And it would also be a gross oversimplification to say that Sweden is furnished like one massive IKEA store. But in relative terms, coming from my North American, never-been-to-Europe-before perspective, I see a lot of great care and attention taken with interior aesthetics, and a lot of those nice touches involve wood. Take, for example, the Brasserie Bravo, the lunchtime "cafeteria" for the week. I am used to utilitarian metal and arborite tables and chairs on a cement floor—not a pleasant dining experience, just a functional one. This "cafeteria", however, has wonderful wood tables and chairs on wood floors with a vaulted ceiling that lets plenty of light in even with the heavily overcast skies we have experience the past few days. (The food, however, is in the tradition of a cafeteria.)

hotel door card The thing that made me write on this topic, however, was the room key at our hotel. It is one of those credit card-type models that you insert into a slot in the handle to unlock the door. As you may be able to detect in the picture, there is a rather pleasing woodgrain to the card. Upon closer inspection, however, you realise why: because it is made of wood! Leave it to the Swedes to come up with "an Eco Card product made of genuine Nordic Birch." Hats off to Swedish design!

Repertoire Sessions

I think the Repertoire Sessions were a great idea and have been valuable. I've certainly picked up some new repertoire ideas for my band. Thursday, though, I thought that Bruce Yurko's Night Dances was presented in a fashion that would not convince anyone to play it. In response, let me advocate a bit on the piece's behalf. I had the pleasure of being in the band that supported the aforementioned Calgary Conducting Program in 1993 or 1994 when Jerry Junkin brought Night Dances in manuscript form as one of the pieces to be studied. The piece is musically very satisfying and accessible, and while you would need a very good Grade 3-level band to play it, a Grade 4 band (or greater) would find plenty of merit in preparing it. It has some wonderful and active percussion writing (four parts if I am not mistaken) and there are three separate flute parts (which is great for working on sectional playing, especially with the size of flute sections these days). This is definitely not "standard band fare" and deserves your consideration, especially if you have an intermediate-level ensemble. Night Dances is published by Ludwig.

Anthony Reimer, WASBE Web Publisher