Marching band. Pep band. The ambitious "wind symphony," the pejorative "field band."
No matter what the score says, 'the band' is what it is, indeed: a wonky hodge-podge of dynamic inefficiencies, timbral limitations and nebulous intonation whose very origin resides in the courts of Babylonian savages.
Moreover, given its lack of a real instrumental family on par with the orchestra's strings (after all, they may one day explain the entire world), as well as the dearth of quality literature from quality composers, alas, 'the band' remains an aesthetic cul-de-sac.
But before turning it to the street, thus forcing it into a meager existence of awkward orchestral transcriptions, do realize that 'the band'--herself--is not to blame.
It's not her fault that she hasn't been exposed to the more sophisticated techniques of post-World War II art music (e.g. integral serialism, micropolyphonie, metric modulation, just intonation).
She's not to blame for being dumb to the prevailing ideologies of pre-9/11 musical discourse (i.e. neo-Romanticism, mystical minimalism, wholesale totalism).
Ultimately, the strength of 'the band' lies in her weaknesses.
At the end of rehearsal, 'the band' is, in fact, a unique, even fascinating amalgam of sound-emitting devices.
And while her world's worth as an artistic artifact will be forever hindered by her own intrinsic nature, well, perhaps that's just the scrape of "the band," herself.
