The Performing Arts Proletariat vs. The Band Directors
The Performing Arts Proletariat vs. The Band Directors
A brilliant inquiry into the history of music education, particularly the origin of the band director in the authoritarian social relationships of capitalism.
I grew up and went to a high school in Davison, Michigan. There, manga and comic books were not considered high art or literature, and if we asked any questions about Socialism or Unionization we were forced to read Animal Farm or 1984. Yet, in my schoolbag, I had a secret weapon which was not a gun or a sword but Tezuka Osamu's first chapter of his greatest work Phoenix. The Phoenix in this series is immortal which is a blessing and a curse, she watches over humanity's sufferings, struggles, wars, conflicts, and accomplishments. Characters die but also reoccur in multiple stories, not only to emphasize renewal but also to hope that good will overcomes all terrible things. The theme throughout is that it's not merit, money, wealth, or immortality that you should value but that humanity, life, and love are the greatest merit and are worth fighting for.
When students are taught early on that Socialist people like myself are the horribles, the twits, the reds, the commies, the unfits, they are not prepared for the real monsters who manipulate others, turn kind people against each other, and use and abuse the labor of students to claim as their own. They are not prepared to face the most frightening of human monsters The Band Directors.
The Origin of The Band Director
As long as music has existed musicians and performing artists have always been considered laborers of their craft which is their music-making and performances on stage or the road. Even in larger ensembles like the orchestras and choirs of Bach and Handel, there were still amateur musicians who performed alongside the greats. When doing so they earned money and resources that they never could get on the streets like clothing, education, and a roof over their heads.
Handel wrote his Oratorio The Messiah while he was stuck in a debtor prison where people had to work menial jobs in horrid conditions, many victims were people who lost their jobs and could not afford rent, or servants who were paid very little by the upper classes. Handel was also raised in the Lutheran Church much like Bach which promoted free education, access to reading and writing, and charity. After finishing his work he made all proceeds to performances of The Messiah to help all debtors get out of prison.
It was not until the rise of the Second Holy Roman Empire and the Thirty Years War that we got the development of not only the Military Band, but musicians and composers owned by The Court, like Haydn and Mozart, to compose pieces for musicians selected as the best to perform for The Court.
Beethoven and Schubert marked a time when the composer was independent from both The Church and The Court along with social movements like Sturm und Dram and the Wandervogel who protested industrial mining, factories, and displacement of people by industry by camping, singing, and collecting folk songs.
Volksmusik was seen as pride and freedom from classist Composers like Verdi and Strauss. All this happened in Europe while America had a Civil War, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, and began the Second Industrial Revolution. Both composers Johann Strauss Jr. and John Phillip Sousa have something in common, they were both military men and were the first time we see the title of Band Director. Both had cults of personality with Strauss being The Waltz King and Sousa being The March King.
Despite many Classical pieces being featured in media like cartoons, films, circuses, and commercials the genre has a history of abusing power, wealth, and gatekeeping. The Band Director has the keys that he gives with a false promise that if you work hard enough you may get one key that is available and obtainable when it hardly works on the doors you need to pass through. If you can't be a classical or jazz musician, there is always the marching band or corps which are dangerous roads you'll take as a musician and performing artist if you have just enough money and courage. There is a danger in the worship of The Band Director not only as a Gatekeeper but as a God.
What is a Proletariat?
A proletariat is any person or persons who use materials for labor or work together with their craft to make a product. Many animators, musicians, dancers, composers, and creative people start as handy craftsmen. Ub Iwerks was an artist who labored doing life drawing and drafting in art school but was not prepared for a man named Walt Disney. They created Laugh o Gram studios and made money on short cartoons and adverts. During America's greatest crisis, while trying to survive a Kansas City winter, he sketched out the design of Mickey Mouse.
Now that Steamboat Willy made in 1928 is in the public domain, more people are educating themselves and rethinking the story of Mickey Mouse, not from Walt, but from Ub Iwerks who got nothing in return but a toxic relationship with Walt. When a kid asked Walt to draw Mickey he handed the paper over to him. For this poor kid, it was like being told Santa is not real. The mythos of the famous train ride to Burbank began to crack along with an event that more people need to know about in every animation class, the 1941 Animators Strike.
There is a reason why sociologists like Max Weber and the Frankfurt am Main School warned about what happens when corporations use religious and cult-like tactics or tools of religion to lure more consumers. One sociologist studied who was the target audience for Disney Movies and he discovered it was the children of Middle-Class workers who lived in Fundamentalist Christian households. When I wanted to figure out what places are targets of DCI (Drum Corps International) and how they target public school music programs I did the same thing the Frankfurt am Main School did but with a new-fangled technology called Google and the USA Poverty Map based on the county of each governing DCI body corps. What I found was that each community they had a governing body in was in a low-income county, with a loss of major supporting industries, and their main audience was low-income music students who had no other options after a DCI or BOA program took over a school.
The Band Director teaches kids in Middle School that the only way to make money and survive as a performing artist is to compete with other people. Many team-building exercises in marching bands and corps are not exercises in cooperation, teamwork, kindness, emotional health, or for the well-being of the group. How many times have you heard how a band director talks, or how he views his students and his values? I have from people in r/drumcorps and r/marchingband and I share their stories that no person in music education will hear, because of their focus on the latest inspiration or poverty porn story of the week.
About the one Autistic or Down Syndrome kid who can march in a band without being sidelined or not quitting because of bullying, discrimination, or the most deadly thing the Band Director does: hazing. They prefer to look at all that glitters and is gold about a band until you rip off the wallpaper and find the rats, earwigs, and roaches inside the rafters along with the bedbugs. The marching artist is a performer and worker, not a slave to the whims of whatever the Band Director desires.
When a high schooler leaves the performing and marching arts they have learned nothing but how to win and abuse others to win again. Yet they do not ask questions about why they sleep in a gym or on a concrete floor with air mattresses bound to pop. Why does the food taste so horrible and is not equal and communal? Why they can't go to the bathroom or have medical or mental care when the worst happens? Why people's needs, wants, desires, and dreams are not accommodated. To end a system where these horrible abuses occur you have to find the root cause which is DCI and BOA themselves and how they operate to exploit students as their labor to win prestige and pride.
This is why learning how to unionize and the history of unions in all artistic labor is important. The leader of the animation strike turned out to be Walt's highest-paying and most talented animator Art Babbitt. His fight is no different than your fight against DCI and BOA and a culture of abuse that is called tradition and family. Traditions are supposed to include everyone, and great families are not supposed to abuse people. When DCI or BOA is no longer a family or a source of community, you fight them back like Bill Cook did when he left with Star of Indiana, met Canadian Brass, and laid the foundation for the show Blast.
Workers of the World Unite! That includes you!
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