University Daily Kansan, November 9, 1962
Entertainment
Leadership, hard work bring marching band success
By VINCE HESS Staff Reporter
Assorted musical instruments — brass,
woodwind and percussion — biared forth in
unison. Then a reprimanding voice came over a
megaphone.
"That's about 40 percent of the sound you need on these first two measures.
"If that's all you're going to play, you might as well go home."
With those words of advice, Robert Foster, director of the KU marching band, began band practice Friday afternoon, attempting to prepare his musicians for their performance at Saturday's football game, the last home game of the season in this. Foster's year at KU.
The band's activities Friday began with the Homecoming parade at 2:30 p.m., after which the band played at a rally in the stadium parking lot. The musicians assembled at the base of the Campanile Hill at 3:30 p.m. for a short rehearsal, then entered the stadium to practice their pregame and halftime shows for about an hour and a half.
THE FLAG TEAM and the pompon squad joined the band, and the three assistant band directors. James Barnes, Ron McCurdy and Jerry Anderson take side the band, instruct individual members.
"This is the last time. Let's do it good," he said to the band as it played the halftime show a few times.
Foster stood at the top of a ladder on the sidelines, using a whistle and megaphone to instruct the 290 band members. He led the count of instructional instructions to band members — by name.
Foster said he recruited as athletic coaches did. Band members come from many states.
"They come to KU because they want to be in the KU band," he said.
A trumpet player in the band, Perry Alexander, Platte City, Mo., junior and an engineering major, said he had been in the band three years.
"It's a whole lot different from what I do all day long," he said.
The band has a new halftime show for every home football game, Foster said before the rehearsal. The band rehearses the show Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons on a field behind Oliver Hall. Then the band plays an afternoon and on Saturday morning at the stadium.
"I believe that people can bring their destiny to a very great extent," he said. "We are committed to helping these young people be the best individually and collectively as they can."
FOSTER SAID he had to give up his career interest in trumpet and football to pursue a career in bands. After seven years as an assistant at the Florida Institute of Music, Florida, he became KU's band director in 1971.
The band has grown and matured, he said,
after years of only male members, the band
has grown.
Another big change, Foster said, was marching down the Campanile Hill before football games.
The band met around 12:30 p.m. by Marvin Hall for the march to the stadium. Playing "I'm a Jayhawk" and chanting a cadence, the band walked to the Campanile Hill.
Saturday, the band members practiced from 9:11 a.m. However, some band members arose earlier for sectional rehearsals, and the tuba players met at 7:30 a.m. to polish their gold and
The band marched in the walkway under the east side of the stadium. While the percussionists played on the track around the playing field, the other band members entered the stadium. At about 1:15 p.m., they ran down the steps on the north side of the stadium onto the field.
THE BAND MEMBERS performed the pregame show, which included the "Sunflower Drill." Then they went to their seats in a roped-off section in the east stands.
During the game, the drummers beat their drums to accompany such cheers as "Fumble" and "Defense." A few band members, with "Go" and "Roll," start playing the band played during stops in the game action.
Stidham, who directed the band while it was in the seats, said the band provided entertainment at halftime and maintained crowd's spirit during the game.
"Most every band I've been associated with, like this band, has more than enough spirit, and I can sense the energy of it."
About four minutes before halftime, the band returned to the track. The 16 '½-minute-long halftime band, based on the Homecoming theme song by the band's 2008 singles as "Strike up the Band" and "In the Mood."
Foster and assistant director Stidham directed the band from ladders on the sidelines.
"It sounded good. We thought we did pretty well." Foster said after the show.
Foster said the planning for the halftime shows began in the spring, when he and his team met on campus.
Foster said he planned most of the marching formations, although Stidham did the planning. He added that it was "very
Andy Sandlin, Wichita sophomore and a trumpet player, said a high school band added a new song each week to its routine, while a new band performed in an entirely new halftime show every week.
“It’s an extremely good extracurricular activity to pursue.” he said.
Julie Parka/KANSAN
Brent Watson, Gordon Castle and Doug Waston, Lawrence freshmen and KU band members, read music from pads conveniently hung on nearby tree branches.
JOE LENIGAN, Emporia senior and a drum major for four years, said his position involved more than marching at halftime.
"There's a certain leadership that goes with the job," he said. During the game at
"You put on a different color of uniform, and you've got to talk a little more gently. I guess,"
Kansas State University, several members of the KU band were hit by orange. They turned around to confront the K-State fans, Lenigan said, but he told them not to say or do anything.
One of the graduate students who works with the band, Larry Archambo, Tulas graduate student, said the success of the band depended on him and his four assistants working well together.
"If you like bands," Foster said, "KU's a nice place to be."
On campus
TODAY
LINGUISTICS COLLOQUY, "Numeric Directionals and Space Grammar: Moving in the Mind," will be at 7:30 p.m. in 207 Blake Hall.
TOMORROW
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST will meet at 7 p.m. in the Big Eight Room in the
PRE-MED CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union.
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP'S Bible study and fellowship will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Union.
'The Sand Castle' to portray family conflicts
CATHOLIC CENTER WORSHIP will be at 12:30 p.m. in Danforth Chapel.
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CLUB will have a games meeting at 7 p.m. in the Trail Ranger
UNIVERSITY FORUM, "The First Experiment of National Communism in the Ukraine in the '286 and '30s," will be at 11:45 a.m. at the Ecumenical Church Ministries Center.
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER session will be at 7:45 a.m. at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Center.
"The Sand Castle" will be presented at a p.m. Friday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 9th and Vernont streets. It is the master's project of Johnson, Elim Simmons, Paula, Olia, graduate student.
All families have disagreements, but the characters in "The Sand Castle" show how people can sever family ties permanently with unresolved conflicts.
One character said the play dealt with realistic problems in families.
"The play is an expose on simple, everyday people. It is about what goes on beneath the surface of a seemingly normal, average family."
"Within the course of one hour and 15 minutes, playwright Laford Wilson digs into the characters and their relationships with each other. Christensen, Omaha Junior, who plays Irene.
The action centers on the Reynolds family and its members' broken relationships with each other.
The mother, Irene, is a poet in her 40s with three children: Owen, 21; Joan, 20; and Kenny, 20.
In the beginning of the play, everyone is happy and getting along with each other, she said. But as the play progresses, conflicts arise over the family and the family's friends.
There are many sources of conflict in the play. One is that Owen has been in love with Jill, an old friend, for many years. The problem is that Jill is married to Calvin, a friend of the family.
"None of the conflicts are really resolved," she said. "I "is a very sad play."
Naturally, this causes Calvin and Owen to be enemies. But because of family ties, they must be cooperative.
Another aspect of this triangle is that losing Jill makes Owen live in the past.
Because of the arguing in the play, many actors were required to speak at the same times, Bernard said. The actors had some trouble adjusting to the simultaneous dialogue in the play, he said, because it is normally not used on stage.