WorldScape Blitz

Year after year, elite musicians flood to Marshall University in West Virginia. In their quest for music mastery, they annihilate any opposition in their paths, just so they can strive to become better musicians.

Once a year, the high school members of Glenwood’s prestigious band take a trip to Marshall University. There, members of Marshall’s many musical groups pass on their knowledge of music. Along with musical education, attendees of the Marshall Band Festival have many memorable memories. “My favorite memory was having to wait outside for 25 minutes while waiting for Travis to find the humongous yellow macho-van, which he could not see for some reason.” Said Alex Williams, first chair Saxophone from Glenwood High School.

   The students from Glenwood that go to Marshall get a very diverse musical experience. They learn how to play different kinds of music, different ways to care for their instruments, and they get to meet new people while doing it. Each member who signs up for the Band Festival gets pre-accepted, but they have to audition for band placement. On the first day, Thursday, Feburary 18th, they go up to audition after school, they don’t find out their results until the next day. “I felt very confident about my audition, I felt that I nailed my scales and audition piece.” Said Alex Williams, the only member of Glenwood’s band to make it into the prestigious John Marshall Band, referred to simply as “first band”. Only three people have made it into the John Marshall Band while Travis Pierce has directed the band, Sara Estep, Tyler Horsely, and now Alex Williams, so it’s a much wanted and greatly respected honor to get accepted into it.

The students have an hour-long bus ride every morning  and every evening to get to Marshall and back, some use the ride as a nap time, yet others do not. Alex Williams said “I played my DS, read my statistics homework, did my Upward Bound work, and did NOT read the Illiad.” On day two, the students  get their results, as mentioned above, Alex Williams made the John Marshall Band, Travis Grant and Meredith Holsinger made the Thundering Herd Band, and Sara Adkins and Ashley Braden made the Marco’s Marauders Band. The last two bands are split evenly from the audtionees that did not make the John Marshall Band.

After the students find out what band they are in, it’s time for practice, practice, and more practice! The bands practiced for “About ten or so hours.” Said Alex Williams when asked. On day two, after they get their audtion results, the students have a morning practice session, a ten-minute break period, then another practice session. After the second practice session, the students get a lunch break, then they go back to have another rehersal session. After all of the practice, the students are weary from all of the work they did that day, so students from Marshall University’s various music groups put on a concert for all of the students from the varied schools from West Virginia, Ohio, and even Kentucky. The musical groups themselves were also varied, there were brass quintets, a wind symphony, and even a rock band! After the show put on by Marshall’s students is over, the members of the Festival Band then go to their “Master Classes”. Master Classes are informative classes for all of the students from each band. Each section gets their own Master Class, percussion, trumpets, clarinets, saxophones, etc. At the master classes, a music major that specializes in the specified sections then teaches the Festival Band attendees various things about their instruments. When the Master Classes are over,  the students then have a dinner break, after the dinner break, the students go back to practice for another hour. When that last session is over, they are free to leave. Glenwood’s students left for Marshall University at 7:30 a.m. that Friday morning, they did not get home until approximately 9:30 p.m. that evening.

On the final day, Glenwood’s band members left at 7:30 a.m. again. When they arrived, they had a morning practice session, followed by a break period. After the break period, they were allowed to leave for a lunch break, after the lunch break, the bands each had a dress rehersal. After the dress rehersal, the bands had time to warm up for the concert. The concert was supposed to start at 4:30 p.m. Marco’s Maruaders played first, displaying a fine mix of music, then the Thundering Herd Band performed, who also had a nice medley of music. After the Thundering Herd Band performed, the John Marshall Band took the stage, they had a wonderful arrangement of complicated music. “My favorite song that we played was ‘Metroplex’.” Said Alex Williams. Metroplex is a song that depicts Manhattan, the first part of it is a slow, powerful fanfare that paints an image of the scyscrapers of New York, the next scene depicts a Jazz Club in underground Manhattan, then finally the last scene depicts a crazy taxi ride through the streets of New York. All in all, it was a very impressive concert. After the concert, the satisfied students left Marshall with fine music filling their heads. They arrived at the school around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday evening. What is Alex Williams’s favorite part about Marshall? He answered “Having the opprotunity to play in larger ensembles than what I can here; and playing more difficult music.”