Posted by Volker on September 10, 2002 at 14:03:11:
In Reply to: Re: Military bands on the wrong track posted by Doug Whitten on September 10, 2002 at 09:25:50:
With all due respect to your good intentions, motivations, and musical performance that U.S. and various other military bands should be praised for, from my point of view, you refer to quite complex applause reasons:
1. The Berliners like Americans and remember gratefully their support in the 50s and some following decades. This gives a lot of bonus in general.
2. Whenever brass configurations play "non-conformistic" music, they get applause for the courage and attempt to play on an unusual "terrain" - like a seal, an excellent swimmer in it's element - the water, that does it's best for walking on the beach.
This metapher is applicable for Americans playing German folklore in Germany as well as playing rock and pop as a soldier. The bonus is given for the unusual and the approach to the foreign country.
However, neither has the seal the legs for running on land, nor soldiers the Lederhosen
and the Maß of beer like the Bavarians while singing "In München steht ...".
So, all this is giving you an extra bonus, but if you professionally play expressive (and thus impressive) temperamentful military music of the more or less sophisticated kind (maybe a mix of both) and show a perfect drill (or better: Choreography), the audience who paid for tickets to listen mainly to this kind of music will enthusiastically applaude for the music itself and for the musicians skills - without any extra bonus.
PS. About 50 years after the war nobody would have considered U.S. troops in Berlin as occupation forces anymore - no matter what music they play.