THE EARLY YEARS OF THE SOUTHERNERS (cont.)

However, its main duty was to perform with the band - any time the band performed, Ballerinas performed. I considered majorettes to be ineffective because of the great difficulty, if not impossibility, for the group to perform with a high level of precision. Also, majorettes do not have the show potential that a highly skilled dance group does. The Ballerinas had a featured dance spot on every field show. To be a Ballerina, one was required to successfully pass a spring class and try out for the group each year. A professional dance teacher was to conduct the dance training and design the choreography for the fall shows. At the time of the organization of this group, I was not aware of any other group like the Ballerinas. There were several groups, over the Nation, performing with bands. However, other than doing some dance steps, they were largely drill teams. I organized the Ballerinas as a group of dancers who also marched and performed with the Southerners. The inspiration for the Marching Ballerinas was the Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall in New York. Another advantage of the dance group over the majorettes is that large groups may be used for dance groups where large groups of twirlers would not work. The large dance groups, many times between twenty and thirty in the Marching Ballerinas, are able to perform with great precision. These groups are spectacular on the field. Because baton twirling does have a place in the marching band, we did use two excellent feature twirlers. Each of these twirlers was capable of outstanding solo performance as well as precise duet performance. Since they were specialty, feature twirlers, their function was not the same as the majorette group.

Changes were made to arrive at the Southerners' "trademark" sound. Largely, the foundation for the first Southerners sound was that of the existing Brass Choir. I organized and conducted the Brass Choir, mostly, out of my brass students. I had the good fortune of being able to teach my concept of sound to the Brass Choir, since many of these players were my private brass students. Large bore trumpets and French horns, such as used in the symphony orchestra, were added. Low brass instruments include such as the Bach 45B and Conn 88H trombones, and the Conn 20J Tubas. The Conn 20J tuba is generally not used as a symphony orchestra tube. However, the big tubas provided a solid foundation for the Southerners sound. There is no comparison between the sound of the tuba and the, predominantly used, sousaphone. When one adds true, large bore bass trombones and the large bore tenor trombones with the F attachments, one has the heart of the Southerners sound. The one reinforces this with the horns and euphoniums of comparable structure and adds the symphony style trumpets to produce brilliance and "sizzle." Great attention was given to the proper size of the large mouthpieces used with the large bore instruments. We adjusted the back bore of some of the mouthpieces. All of this provided the "machinery" for the Southerners sound. As familiar as this seems, back in the previous days, these ideas were virtually unheard of for band use. The Southerners sound shocked many of the traditional band people because it was such a departure from the small, "homogenized" sound of the bands in those days. There were some derogatory remarks made about the "loud blowing band upstate." Volumes, on the field, ranged from whispers to the very loudest sounds. We did not play everything loud. Our goal was to play as musically as possible and to be very spectacular. I have not written anything about actually producing the desired sound since this is impossible to manage on paper. It comes from training the body of "machinery" to do specific tasks, using the correct equipment and focusing the mind toward a specific concept that one has built through careful listening and hard practice.