Band Librarians: A Tribute
(The above picture actually is from the practice room of The Circleville Pumpkin Show Community Band and shows how new music is distributed to the band members.)
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The following text was written in 2016 in what started out to be a routine entry for the web page, but also to recognize one of the hardest working and unsung heroes of any community band....the Band Librarian.
The article wasn't meant to be written and turned in for any prize or award, others might have written it differently, and certainly even I might have written it differently if I had wanted to spend a lot more time with it.
In spite of all that, it is certainly heartfelt and the job clearly qualifies as one of the many jobs I do not envy, but greatly appreciate that someone else steps in to fill the role.
However, rather than just rotate this specific web entry out and off of the web page, it just seemed fitting to keep it for others to see on its own web page............besides, it never hurts to make friends with the Band Librarian!
Anyway, always tell yourself when things look difficult in your life......it can always be worse.....you could always be the next one asked to be the Band Librarian!
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The article wasn't meant to be written and turned in for any prize or award, others might have written it differently, and certainly even I might have written it differently if I had wanted to spend a lot more time with it.
In spite of all that, it is certainly heartfelt and the job clearly qualifies as one of the many jobs I do not envy, but greatly appreciate that someone else steps in to fill the role.
However, rather than just rotate this specific web entry out and off of the web page, it just seemed fitting to keep it for others to see on its own web page............besides, it never hurts to make friends with the Band Librarian!
Anyway, always tell yourself when things look difficult in your life......it can always be worse.....you could always be the next one asked to be the Band Librarian!
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(reprinted here with permission, because..hey...I wrote it in the FIRST place!)
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12-16-2016:
Well, all of the band's scheduled performances and practices are now "in the books" and everyone is taking some time off before gearing up again for 2017.
Well, actually for anyone who really understands how any kind of band operates, especially a community band, that means that pretty much everyone now takes a break........ EXCEPT FOR THE BAND LIBRARIAN.
A TRIBUTE TO THE BAND LIBRARIAN:
Generally an unsung hero, the Band Librarian, with an occasional helper or two, now has the boring and time consuming responsibility of putting away ALL that Christmas music..........not just the songs that made the cut to the final concert program, but also all the songs that were brought out and distributed during the all of the practices preceeding the Christmas concert in order to see what songs were actually going to finally be used.
"SCORE ORDER"
(the favorite words of every band librarian):
And the music is not just filed away where all the parts for a particular song get placed into a special folder/envelope for that song, but it is put away in "score order".
For those of you not familair with that term, generally placing the song parts in "score order" means that the various instrumental parts for any specific song are placed in order from the higher pitched instruments (piccolo/flute) to the lower (tuba) and with the various percussion parts added at the end.....not that placing the percussion parts at the END of a score order has any significant nefarious overtones......
Why is this usually done?
Well, the answer is generally " convenience".
CONVENIENCE OF SCORE ORDER:
Take the typical community band, like The Circleville Pumpkin Show Community Band.
Generally, the band may have members whose participation becomes fairly "seasonal" for various reasons:
1). The band member started while in high school and attended fairly regularly, but then goes off to college, and can now only participate during summer break, and possibly the Christmas break.
2) . The band member is a "snow bird" of one sort or another, and so you can guarantee that for several months during the year that band member will be in some enviable warmer climate, possibly participating in a band in that geographic area.
3) . The band member is the opposite of a "snow bird", and as soon as the summer weather hits, he/she is typically off in a camping trailer with the family and creating adventures somewhere else.
4). The band has members who have since moved away, but try to make an effort to come back in the area at some point in the year to visit relatives, attend specific fuctions like alumni banquets, family reunions, and the like.
As an example, years ago, the size of the Circleville Pumpkin Show Community Band would increase significantly for the Circleville Pumpkin Show as many of the members who had since moved away would make a special effort to come back to attend the Pumpkin Show and particiapte in the band.
Or............
5. A band member just needs a replacement part because it may have been lost, the dog ate it, it got too wet from being used in that last parade in the rain, etc.
Sooooo......... in those cases, the Band Librarian doesn't generally want to have to thumb through potentially hundreds of pages of paper (think about the concert pieces which may be 4-8 pages long!) in order to find that ONE extra copy of a 2nd trumpet part.
Or, to have to routinely make up 50 music folders when you know that only 35 to 40 may be needed at any given point in the year.
BAND MEMBER'S AGE AND THE JOB OF THE BAND LIBRARIAN:
And that brings up another factor affecting the band Librarian that most people don't think about.......every band member needs his/her own music folder!
Yes, most of us probably shared music folders with the person sitting next to us in high school band........but check out the age range of the typical community band members........they aren't in high school anymore.
If you look closely, the members of the typical community band (and at my age, I certainly have to work through my own special issues in this regard) now have to deal with trying to read music with:
1). bifocals,
2). trifocals,
3). special glasses made JUST to be able to read music based on that particular instrument (EXAMPLE: trying to read music while playing a trombone is SIGNIFICANTLY different than with the trumpet. The bell of a trombone and the slide position forces you to look more out of the corner of your eye to read music than does trying to read music over a smaller trumpet bell, etc).
4). A need for better lighting
BAND LIBRARIAN'S JOB AFTER THE CONCERT:
Then comes to work of the Band Librarian AFTER the band concert.
Putting a song back in order to be placed back into the library where extra copies of the song that didn't need to be distributed have to now be melded in with all those parts that WERE distributed (and some copies come back in from the band members in some suspiciously disturbing condition with folds, sticky notes, paper clips attached for other reasons, phone numbers, various appointment times, etc.) and now takes in an increasingly frustrating amount of time.
And this usually needs to happen around holiday season(s) when the Librarion also has a thousand other personal things to do, or the weather is so bad that sitting at home in front of a warm HD, flat screen TV sounds dangerously tempting as opposed to driving down to the Band Hall.
WHEN BANDS CHANGE MUSIC:
Because, think about it:
1). Bands generally change music out after Christmas concerts, so the Librarian is sitting somewhere sorting music around the filing cabinets, in front of at least one work table, either around the Christmas or New Year holidays, or just AFTER New Year in order to try to finish up in time for that first practice in January of the next year..........Who DOESN'T have a thousand other things to do during that time, or other places to be, or just that ANYTHING now seems more attractive than sitting (generally) alone in a storage room of questionable warmth and even worse lighting?
2). Bands will generally preapare special concert programs, or bring out those few special pieces, for Memorial Day and Fourth of July.....Yep........that's what I want to do in the summer instead of watching other band concerts and going to picnics and Bar-B-Ques.......be sitting somewhere distributing, sorting, and filing music!
BAND LIBRARIAN WORKOUT PROGRAM:
And lastly, as something else for the rest of us to consider, just think of the physical demands made of the Band Librarian.
1). Band music and band folders are HEAVY.
2) . Lugging all that stuff back and forth from the filing areas/rooms to the flat work space is a chore.
3). Trying to move music around in the filing space to be able to read the song title on the envelope is work. The filing spaces are always already jam packed, and now you have to take half of that stuff out in order to find the specific song you are after.
And, of course, your library now has 29 songs that start with the word "Christmas", so finding "The Christmas Song" out of that mess is MUCH harder than finding the soundtrack to "Xanadu" (An Olivia Newton John musical............Google it!)
4). And the reverse is also true. Trying to force fit 25 files folders of music into a filing drawer/shelf only made to fit 20 folders is a workout that shoud be recorded and submitted as an infomercial on late-night TV.
Because, as probably only the Librarian knows best, there is never the correct ratio of music storage space to the amount of music the band actually has.
So.....during this holiday season, while:
1). you are your family are having get togethers,
2). you are attending all the family, school, community, and church functions you can both emotionally handle and you can squeeze into your schedule; and
3) . you are also probably taking some time off from practicing your respective instrument(s),
......just give some thought to the workload of the Band Librarian.
I do....EVERY day......and I am always extremely thankful that someone else has volunteered to do the job, and that I don't have to!
In the words of Mr Kerns: "Now go home and practice!"
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12-16-2016:
Well, all of the band's scheduled performances and practices are now "in the books" and everyone is taking some time off before gearing up again for 2017.
Well, actually for anyone who really understands how any kind of band operates, especially a community band, that means that pretty much everyone now takes a break........ EXCEPT FOR THE BAND LIBRARIAN.
A TRIBUTE TO THE BAND LIBRARIAN:
Generally an unsung hero, the Band Librarian, with an occasional helper or two, now has the boring and time consuming responsibility of putting away ALL that Christmas music..........not just the songs that made the cut to the final concert program, but also all the songs that were brought out and distributed during the all of the practices preceeding the Christmas concert in order to see what songs were actually going to finally be used.
"SCORE ORDER"
(the favorite words of every band librarian):
And the music is not just filed away where all the parts for a particular song get placed into a special folder/envelope for that song, but it is put away in "score order".
For those of you not familair with that term, generally placing the song parts in "score order" means that the various instrumental parts for any specific song are placed in order from the higher pitched instruments (piccolo/flute) to the lower (tuba) and with the various percussion parts added at the end.....not that placing the percussion parts at the END of a score order has any significant nefarious overtones......
Why is this usually done?
Well, the answer is generally " convenience".
CONVENIENCE OF SCORE ORDER:
Take the typical community band, like The Circleville Pumpkin Show Community Band.
Generally, the band may have members whose participation becomes fairly "seasonal" for various reasons:
1). The band member started while in high school and attended fairly regularly, but then goes off to college, and can now only participate during summer break, and possibly the Christmas break.
2) . The band member is a "snow bird" of one sort or another, and so you can guarantee that for several months during the year that band member will be in some enviable warmer climate, possibly participating in a band in that geographic area.
3) . The band member is the opposite of a "snow bird", and as soon as the summer weather hits, he/she is typically off in a camping trailer with the family and creating adventures somewhere else.
4). The band has members who have since moved away, but try to make an effort to come back in the area at some point in the year to visit relatives, attend specific fuctions like alumni banquets, family reunions, and the like.
As an example, years ago, the size of the Circleville Pumpkin Show Community Band would increase significantly for the Circleville Pumpkin Show as many of the members who had since moved away would make a special effort to come back to attend the Pumpkin Show and particiapte in the band.
Or............
5. A band member just needs a replacement part because it may have been lost, the dog ate it, it got too wet from being used in that last parade in the rain, etc.
Sooooo......... in those cases, the Band Librarian doesn't generally want to have to thumb through potentially hundreds of pages of paper (think about the concert pieces which may be 4-8 pages long!) in order to find that ONE extra copy of a 2nd trumpet part.
Or, to have to routinely make up 50 music folders when you know that only 35 to 40 may be needed at any given point in the year.
BAND MEMBER'S AGE AND THE JOB OF THE BAND LIBRARIAN:
And that brings up another factor affecting the band Librarian that most people don't think about.......every band member needs his/her own music folder!
Yes, most of us probably shared music folders with the person sitting next to us in high school band........but check out the age range of the typical community band members........they aren't in high school anymore.
If you look closely, the members of the typical community band (and at my age, I certainly have to work through my own special issues in this regard) now have to deal with trying to read music with:
1). bifocals,
2). trifocals,
3). special glasses made JUST to be able to read music based on that particular instrument (EXAMPLE: trying to read music while playing a trombone is SIGNIFICANTLY different than with the trumpet. The bell of a trombone and the slide position forces you to look more out of the corner of your eye to read music than does trying to read music over a smaller trumpet bell, etc).
4). A need for better lighting
BAND LIBRARIAN'S JOB AFTER THE CONCERT:
Then comes to work of the Band Librarian AFTER the band concert.
Putting a song back in order to be placed back into the library where extra copies of the song that didn't need to be distributed have to now be melded in with all those parts that WERE distributed (and some copies come back in from the band members in some suspiciously disturbing condition with folds, sticky notes, paper clips attached for other reasons, phone numbers, various appointment times, etc.) and now takes in an increasingly frustrating amount of time.
And this usually needs to happen around holiday season(s) when the Librarion also has a thousand other personal things to do, or the weather is so bad that sitting at home in front of a warm HD, flat screen TV sounds dangerously tempting as opposed to driving down to the Band Hall.
WHEN BANDS CHANGE MUSIC:
Because, think about it:
1). Bands generally change music out after Christmas concerts, so the Librarian is sitting somewhere sorting music around the filing cabinets, in front of at least one work table, either around the Christmas or New Year holidays, or just AFTER New Year in order to try to finish up in time for that first practice in January of the next year..........Who DOESN'T have a thousand other things to do during that time, or other places to be, or just that ANYTHING now seems more attractive than sitting (generally) alone in a storage room of questionable warmth and even worse lighting?
2). Bands will generally preapare special concert programs, or bring out those few special pieces, for Memorial Day and Fourth of July.....Yep........that's what I want to do in the summer instead of watching other band concerts and going to picnics and Bar-B-Ques.......be sitting somewhere distributing, sorting, and filing music!
BAND LIBRARIAN WORKOUT PROGRAM:
And lastly, as something else for the rest of us to consider, just think of the physical demands made of the Band Librarian.
1). Band music and band folders are HEAVY.
2) . Lugging all that stuff back and forth from the filing areas/rooms to the flat work space is a chore.
3). Trying to move music around in the filing space to be able to read the song title on the envelope is work. The filing spaces are always already jam packed, and now you have to take half of that stuff out in order to find the specific song you are after.
And, of course, your library now has 29 songs that start with the word "Christmas", so finding "The Christmas Song" out of that mess is MUCH harder than finding the soundtrack to "Xanadu" (An Olivia Newton John musical............Google it!)
4). And the reverse is also true. Trying to force fit 25 files folders of music into a filing drawer/shelf only made to fit 20 folders is a workout that shoud be recorded and submitted as an infomercial on late-night TV.
Because, as probably only the Librarian knows best, there is never the correct ratio of music storage space to the amount of music the band actually has.
So.....during this holiday season, while:
1). you are your family are having get togethers,
2). you are attending all the family, school, community, and church functions you can both emotionally handle and you can squeeze into your schedule; and
3) . you are also probably taking some time off from practicing your respective instrument(s),
......just give some thought to the workload of the Band Librarian.
I do....EVERY day......and I am always extremely thankful that someone else has volunteered to do the job, and that I don't have to!
In the words of Mr Kerns: "Now go home and practice!"
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