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Horning
in on Hollywood
Terrier band high on low brass
By David J. Craig
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The BU Terrier Marching Band recently bought new tubas using money earned for appearing in the current movie blockbuster Mystic River. Photos courtesy of BU Music Organizations |
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Clint Eastwood built his acting career on stoicism, so it wasn’t
surprising that he demanded a little from BU’s Terrier Marching
Band when directing his latest film, Mystic River. On a warm day about
a year ago, band members tramped up and down a barricaded South Boston
street for several hours, playing a medley of Spanish bullfighting songs
over and over while the movie’s stars, Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon,
watched from a few feet away. The band was hired for the film’s
culminating scene on the recommendation of organizers of Boston’s
Columbus Day parade, which BU marches in annually.
“
The parade was filmed to look really big, but besides us there actually
was only one float,” says Chris Parks, director of BU Music Organizations.
He conducts several University non–music major ensembles, including
the marching band. “We basically marched from one end of the street
to the other end and back, and we did that all day.”
Prior to filming,
Eastwood’s crew planned to dub in audio of a
professional band, but the famously understated actor and director — who
also is a jazz pianist and composed Mystic River’s original
score — had a change of heart when he heard the BU musicians play. “He
said, ‘Wow, what a band, what a sound,’” Parks says. “So
for the last several passes up and down the street, they had microphones
above us.”
The medley eventually was dubbed over because of royalty
issues regarding its arrangement, but the band’s star turn netted
$4,000, which went toward new bell front marching tubas to replace the
group’s
60-year-old sousaphones. (A marching tuba has a range similar to a sousaphone,
but its smaller bell projects sound farther, and with the bell facing
upward, the instrument can be adapted for use in a concert band.)
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Members of the Terrier Marching Band tuba section: (from left) Michael Chiappardi (CAS’06), Matthew Prince (CAS’05), Michelle Chan (ENG’06), Roheet Shah (CAS’06), Casey Fuentes (CGS’05), and James Kim (CAS’06). |
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In August,
the band bought six marching tubas for $2,000 apiece, augmenting the
Hollywood earnings with money brought in last year by its parade
appearances. The hefty price tag helps explain why the outdated sousaphones
stuck around so long.
“
We could have bought new horns for the entire rest of the band with the
money we spent on the tubas,” Parks says. “But these instruments
will last a long time, and you can absolutely tell a difference in their
sound, which is much purer. The old instruments weren’t horrible,
but after 60 years you get a lot of rust and corrosion and leaking, and
all sorts of gunk growing in there. It can be pretty unpleasant.”
The
band is saving up for at least two more tubas. “We’re
always looking for interesting performance venues,” says Parks. “In
addition to doing around 70 home sporting events a year and a lot of
band competitions, we play in about four parades a year and at the end
of the Boston Marathon. It keeps the band feeling good about what we
do, and with budgets being tight, it’s an important way of being
able to replace our inventory.”
7
November 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations