Recently I received a holiday postcard from the Harvard University Band, with whom I spent much of my social time while I was an undergraduate. On the back, they proclaim:

When it comes to music and merriment, the Band continues to be “the best in the business.”

I’m not going to argue whether that statement is accurate or not, but I will say that when I was in the Band, there was easily an equal emphasis on music and on merriment, and if anything, it leaned more heavily towards merriment. The band thumbed its nose at traditional marching bands by banning walking with the beat when we “marched” from the Band Room down to the stadium for football games, and it’s still a strolling band today. It chose humor over precision with “bang formations” during halftime shows where instead of flowing in ordered lines creating elegant geometric transitions from one formation to another, the conductor would fire a blank gun (BANG!), at which point everybody was expected to run (or walk when playing) in a straight line to their next place on the field, resulting in a what looked like a chaos of ants between formations. (I read now that this made the Band a “Scramble Band.” I learned something new!) We had a different show for each football game which meant we had very little time to practice the music and the formations. Some music would have been freshly arranged by a fellow band member less than a week before the game.

I played trumpet in the band, and although I was never a very good trumpet player, I had a ton of fun. I was a band officer for two years in a row and regularly participated in the brainstorming sessions where we would come up with ideas for half-time shows. As the pianist for the Harvard Wind Ensemble (which was related to the Band), I even had the opportunity to perform under the baton of “Professor” Peter Schickele. (a.k.a. the composer who “discovered” P.D.Q. Bach), one of the great modern musical humorists! However, as I felt increasing pressure from my more “serious” musical pursuits in classical piano performance, musicology, and as a singer in the University Choir, I decided that I shouldn’t be spending so much time with the Band. I began to look for approval from “serious” musicologists and performers and I began to believe that the Band took away from my credibility as a musician. I worried that the time I spent co-creating clever jokes and learning pop songs was taking away from my development as a pianist and professor.

Now I know that the Band was exactly what I needed as my musical soul began to shrink back and contract into itself in reaction to academic and conservatory pressures. Looking back, I regret not making more time for the Band towards the end of my college years. As I’ve written many times and in many ways, as the years went on, I lost touch with the fun and pure joy of making music and only rediscovered that fun and joy recently.

Receiving the Band’s postcard today reminded me again of how much fun I have had in and around music and renewed my determination to remind myself everyday that for me, music is meant to be joyful. And if I ever feel my joy of music slipping away again, I only need to remember the Band’s motto:

 illegitimum non carborundum
“Don’t let the bastards wear you down.”