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When I can make it I like to get to ASU Band Day for a portion of the event. It is a marching band contest hosted at Arizona State; this time of year there are many of these competitions all over the United States.
As to the high school groups I heard they all sounded very good. Several had mellophone soloists featured and the bands had between three and ten mellophones on the field (with I believe two of the groups marching B-flat marching French horns instead of mellophones).
In 2009 the Arizona State University Sun Devil marching band was the largest ever fielded in Arizona, with nearly 400 members and a line of 22 mellophone. In 2010 however we smashed this record number with a line of 35 mellophones!
Today was the first time I had the opportunity to hear the line play, and I must say I was very impressed with the HUGE sound of a line of 35 mellophones. I had never before heard such a large section of them and it really was quite impressive to hear and see. For equipment types out there, they were using Jupiter Quantum mellophones with Curry 1TF mouthpieces. The sound up in the stands where I sat was great; big sound, in tune, providing lots of middle that to my ear often seems lacking in marching bands and drum corps. It also helped that the arrangements were very good and voiced the mellophone parts like horn parts; in drum corps they are often voiced a bit higher and begin to sound like low trumpet parts instead of middle brass to my ear.
Another element of course was the ASU band was more than four times bigger than any of the high school bands on the field and the performing level was a good bit higher overall. The difference in volume was huge but at the same time the sound was not loud and cutting, it was big and full. Bravo to ASUSDMB director James Hudson.
Going back to the high school groups for a moment, I did hear one thing I have never heard; one school (Dobson High School) had a bassoon quartet (!) miked and playing a solo section on one work! The same show started and ended with a mellophone solo so in my book that group got high marks. Also I would mention the rep, which in general was very nice and certainly exposed the audience to a variety of musical styles. Sure, it was arranged pretty heavily, but still I thought the group that did The Rite of Spring (Mountain View) in particular sounded and looked quite impressive. But again all did well and that speaks well about the music educators active in this state and the effort they put out there for the students.
To close, the mellophone has been a bit of a journey for me in recent years. I played eight years of marching band myself but never marched with a mellophone–one year of trumpet and seven years of double horn! As I have mentioned in other articles, when I started teaching college at SUNY Potsdam full time “life was good” as a horn teacher, as we had no marching band; mellophone was totally not an issue. When I arrived at ASU they were still using a line of B-flat marching French horns so life was still good as they among the options out there have more naturally the same playing qualities as a horn. Then, following national trends, a switch was made to a line of mellophones and I realized that the the immortal words of Yosimite Sam were correct, “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” From a band directors perspective they are a great instrument, and if played with a suitable mouthpiece and if managed well they can be a valuable part of the training of the instrumental music education student. I know that goes against the thinking of many horn teachers out there but for sure they are a part of the reality of our middle register landscape. Mellophone is not a topic we can ignore. For a longer introduction to the mellophone check out The Mello Zone.
