Jill's Journal: Glad to stay until the final note was played
I’ll be honest. Last week was a long week for your local newspaper editor. It was homecoming week at Brandon Valley, and as usual, the week was filled with an assortment of spirited events to be covered. The celebratory week – and seasons – are steeped deep in Brandon Valley tradition and pride, and most weeks, I’m privileged to have a front row seat to all of it. Having a camera and a press pass obviously helps.
It started with Monday night’s coronation of King Landon Dulaney and Queen Reagan Morrell, extended to Tuesday’s Lynx cheer and dance invitational, Friday afternoon’s Class Olympics at the high school, the football game that night, and on Saturday night, a return trip to the BVHS Stadium for a night of high school bands from Minnesota and South Dakota bringing some toe-tapping music and bright colors to the turf where just hours before, a football game was played.
Although I arrived at the Big Sioux Review just after the Pipestone Area Marching Band had performed, I settled in for what I initially planned, would be a hour or so of snapping pictures of the visiting bands. It didn’t take long for this former “bando” to decide I was going to take in the entire evening of music.
Back in my day, we performed halftime shows at home football games, but certainly nothing to the extent of what marching band has since transitioned into. I remember heading out to the practice field with makeshift yard lines. Our music was not memorized, and in fact, I had the steps and directions I needed to make penciled in above the music attached to my clarient liar. We didn’t have props, just a simple road map of where to march to and when to be there. Our rehearsals were somewhat limited – largely to the class time allotted. Nonetheless, we were prideful in what we were doing.
Fast-forward 40-plus years, and the band directors of yesteryears would likely be scratching their heads on just what the Marching Lynx and all of the visiting bands on Saturday put into their shows today.
By the numbers, I can’t imagine what the bands at the Big Sioux Review combined total would be.
For starters, the hours and hours each of the 16 competing, plus Augustana University and the Marching Lynx have put into bring their themed shows to life are beyond expectations.
It starts long before the music is even put on stands before these high school musicians. It starts with the creative minds of band directors and their staffs. They envision themes, identify the perfect music, imagine visuals, and then spend countless hours bringing all of the pieces together for a minutes-long performance.
Every July, we see the process begin in Brandon. It begins with percussionists dotting the local landscape, rehearsing in separate areas at the high school and middle school, and eventually bringing them all together. Next, we see kids marching in a parking lot painted with yard lines, drum majors atop their perches, while the directors keep watch on areas that need to be perfected.
After weeks of day-long rehearsals – the Marching Lynx give us a preview of their show at the always-entertaining Marching & Melon Madness event, followed by a few more weeks of rehearsals before they finally begin their competition season.
These kids are talented. These kids are musician-athletes. These kids put in the work, and it shows each time they take the field. As for the directors, they, too, deserve a huge pat on the back for bringing their ideas and visions to life.
And then there is the BV Band Parents, who work tirelessly behind the scenes when the Marching Lynx are in full competition season. We’ve all seen them – wheeling marimbas on and off the field, setting up props electrifying all that needs to be electrified.
If no one’s said it before, thanks for bringing music to our tiny piece of the world here in Brandon Valley. And I’m glad I stayed for it all.
