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ALL-STATE AUDITION ETUDE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
“WHY DID G.M.E.A. BEGIN COMMISSIONING OF ORIGINAL ALL-STATE AUDITION ETUDES (ASAE)?”
The Band Division council voted in 2002-03 to begin the project of commissioning 96 originally composed audition etudes per year for all woodwind, brass and percussion instruments used in all-state bands and wind sections of orchestras across the 3 levels (middle school, 9th/10th, 11th/12th). The impetus for this project was twofold: 1) the plethora of errata, updates, revisions, and changes to the material to be played from published etude/solo books made keeping up with what exactly to prepare for the all-state audition very time-consuming and difficult to track for band directors, parents, private teachers, GMEA staff, and most importantly, students; 2) due to the many different editions and versions of published etude/solo books being used, many students were coming to all-state auditions with incorrect and/or incomplete audition material prepared. Consequently, way too many students (more than one is too many) were sent away from all-state auditions having prepared the wrong material in some form. Since the inception of the originally-composed ASAE available to print from the GMEA site, this problem has virtually disappeared.
“WHY CAN’T PUBLISHED ETUDES OR SOLOS BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET AND DOWNLOADED, JUST AS THE ASAE CURRENTLY IN USE ARE?”
Prior to the decision to go with commissioned, originally-written ASAE, this option was investigated thoroughly. It seemed the perfect panacea: have tried-and-true, published material for each instrument, combined with the ease and clarity of downloading and printing the exact music to be played, all in one. But, publishers of copyrighted material, much of which is still not public domain, are not willing to post material they own for at-will, unlimited downloads that can be printed on any computer. This obviously would not be a sound business decision on their part, since they hold rights to the purchase and reproduction of much of the audition material previously in use.
“OKAY, I SEE WHY WE HAD TO GO WITH ORIGINAL MATERIAL. WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THESE ETUDES- WHY DO THEY SOUND WEIRD SOMETIMES?”
ASAE are written as audition tools, not “great works” or pieces intended to become mainstays of the solo literature for that instrument. As such, melodic content and harmonic schemes may not always follow standard structure or progressions. Rhythmic content may at times seem unusually active or unnecessarily inserted (in terms of “musicality”). Excessive or sudden dynamic and range extremes may be present. Phrasing may be odd. These things, and more, appear in ASAE with the intent of giving all-state judges as complete an idea as possible of a student’s ability in hearing them perform a 1-2 minute piece per etude.
Additionally, ASAE are written under the assumption that the student will have some sort of professional guidance, either from their director, private teacher, or other (hopefully) capable mentor. They are not composed with the intention of being supplemental, student-directed or “student only” material.
So, the goal of composing an assessment tool that can be used to quickly determine a student’s ability overrides desirable, aesthetically pleasing musical content. Hopefully, though, the etude is not completely devoid of musicality, and is at least understandable and achievable by an all-state caliber player in 13-19 weeks of guided preparation. Good ASAE teach the student something they maybe did not explore yet on their instrument, but are not insurmountable tasks for a true all-state level player.
Judge ASAE, then, not on quality musical content or their destiny as great works for the instrument…this kind of music for each instrument only came to be so through decades of pedagogical usage and re-interpretation. Judge ASAE on how well-suited the etude is to demonstrating lyricism, technique, range, etc. to an audition judge in an approximate 7-minute long audition that also includes scales, sight-reading, etc.
Finally, ASAE have been reviewed by a panel of GMEA band directors, across all levels, serving as all-state committee members. They are volunteers in overseeing the all-state audition process and the welfare of the event itself. Based upon their experiences with the etudes they were assigned to review, and input given to them by colleagues and the input gathered by the state band division chair, changes and recommendations for each one as necessary are made. Using the perspective outlined above concerning the intent and purpose of the ASAE, it is the committee’s goal to develop and refine the sets of etudes as they are used in rotation through the years.
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