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2003 4BR AWARDS:
Test Piece of the Year
Read our nominations below for the above category. To vote, follow
the links at the bottom of this page.
Perhaps not a vintage year for test pieces – the selections
that is. The European once more turned up a cracker, but the Nationals
and Open both made choices that due to time constraints were cut
and chopped up into rather inedible musical chunks. Less bands more
music was the lesson to be learnt from Birmingham and London for
sure.
Elsewhere Eric Ball was well served in his centenary year (although
how we longed for Festival Music) but just a rather pathetic celebration
of Berlioz who was 200 years old. A cut up version of “Judges”
at the Mineworkers was a poor act of remembrance for someone who
has provided brass band audiences with some great material over
the years.
Still, good works test good bands and the five we have in our list
really did that. Some others are worthy of a mention (“Chivalry”
and “Resurgam” especially), but these are the ones that
took our fancy.
 Aubade: Torstein Aagaard - Nilsen
The European Championships have thrown up some great test pieces
in recent years (although it must be said they have also thrown
up a few turkeys since 1978 as well), and “Aubade” –
“Dawn Songs of the Fabulous Birds” deserves to ranked
up there with the likes of “Montreux Wind Dances” and
the composer’s own “Seid”.
It came out of the left field of brass band compositions, but it
still wasn’t too avant-garde to upset the traditionalists.
Great effects, colours and timbres and with a wicked sense of the
fantastic and slightly absurd in the musical portraits of the birds
that would have made David Attenborough chuckle and laugh. Great
modern brass music and a great test piece. Well done EBBA.
 Kensington
Concerto: Eric Ball
If bands and conductors thought the choice of Eric Ball’s
most personal and introspective test piece was perhaps too easy
a test for both the Elite Section of the Norwegian National Championships
and the First Sectional National Finals in Dundee, then after playing
it, they were certainly made to think again. It made our list last
year after mainland Europe found it too difficult to overcome and
this year it still destroyed too many unsuspecting bands.
Not one band all year caught the exact atmosphere of longing and
regret that is so evident from the very start of the piece and many
MD’s tried to find some sort of “hidden” meaning
in their interpretations that was patently never there in the score.
Eric Ball had laid it all out before them as clear as day, yet just
about every MD walked blindly into a musical fog of confusion.
Prague: Judith Bingham
OK. Some of you will be think we may be stark raving bonkers, but
we really liked Judith Bingham’s evocative and very atmospheric
piece.
It wasn’t what the traditionalists liked (and neither did
a lot of players or conductors to be fair), but surprisingly the
initial hostile reception it received cooled somewhat after hearing
the piece in context from the contest stage. The MD’s and
bands who didn’t try and understand it, thankfully fell foul
of the judges (although there were one or two odd results), but
overall it really did sort out the best from the rest. Just what
a good test piece should do.
 Lydian Pictures: Simon Dobson
Last year young Mr Dobson won our “Best Newcomer” award
for his fine effort in winning the European Composer’s Competition.
We said then he was a talent to look out for, and in 2003 he more
than confirmed it.
His “Lydian Pictures” was a super test piece for the
fourth section bands at the Regional contests. Full of colour and
clever yet intelligent ideas, the players and MD’s we spoke
to both before and after said it was one of the best test pieces
they had worked up for a contest for years. We can only hope that
he continues to write more for brass in the future and perhaps in
a few years we could be reviewing a National Finals test piece.
He is that good.
Festival Music – Eric Ball
The piece that should have been, but never quite was in 2003. Not
to be disrespectful to the Pontins Brass Band Championships, “Festival
Music” should have been played by the best bands in the land
at either Symphony Hall in Birmingham or the Albert Hall in London,
not the Fun Factory Ballroom, Prestatyn.
This was the chance to honour the great man in 2003 with a work
that would have tested the best both technically and musically to
the limit, but the organisers in their opinion didn’t think
it cut the mustard. It was the great disappointment of the year
– especially after hearing some fine efforts in Pontins. What
would YBS or Dyke, Fairey’s, Brighouse and the rest have done
with it though?
Previous winners:
2002:
2001: Albion – Jan Van
der Roost
© 4BarsRest
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