Comments ~ 2009: December (21st December onwards)

Lots to argue with over you turkey and Christmas pudding as Santa brings a full bag of mail from around the banding world

Mea Culpa Mr Maines

Could you allow me the time to pick up on some points from one of your letters?

John Maines, in his letter to 4BR, notes that he agrees with Sandy Smith regarding "....the lack of music from mainstream composers (young and old!).".

Well that is encouraging to hear Mr. Maines, especially as you are a member of the Music Panel for the Nationals, and so you are partly responsible (along with C. Brian Buckley, Richard Evans, and secretary Alan Hope, according to the Kapitol website) for picking music for all five sections of the Areas and the Finals.

So can we expect to hear that next year's London test piece is by Peter Meechan or Simon Dobson?

Do the works of Gavin Higgins feature at the Areas this year?

I hope so, but I doubt it very much.

The Music Panel is responsible for bands having to play some of the poorest music ever written for brass bands (not to mention badly fitting the sections at times too).

It seems to rely heavily on music by Fernie and Barry, it champions the tosh from Paul Lovatt Cooper, the dreadful output of Robert Redhead as well as completely destroying a fine work from Kenneth Downie which the Panel cut to pieces for London a couple of years ago.
 
Even when you ask the great Peter Graham to write a piece you want it to sound like Eric Ball!!!

So, as pleasing that it is to hear you support Sandy Smith, it is a rather disingenuous position to now take, as it completely contradicts what you have been partly responsible for over the past few years yourself. 

Hands up Mr Maines. Mea Culpa! 

Chris Stratford

Time to make a new Wills

With reference to recent correspondence in the comment sections about adjudication.
 
Open adjudication with two judges seated one at either side of the hall was used as far back as the contests organised by the Wills Tobacco Company in 1970.
 
Times change of course (the test piece was aptly called ‘Embassy Suite’) but it goes to show that other methods have been tried before.  
 
Dave Coble

4BR Reply:
We have dug deep into our repository of historic programmes ourselves Dave.

The WD & H Wills Brass Band Championship Grand Final was held at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester on the 22nd March 1970 (the programme cost 1 shilling and sixpence). Open adjudication was used and the judges on the day were John Baldwin and Allan Street, who wrote the test piece ‘Suite Embassy’.

12 bands qualified for the Final, where Morris Motors conducted by Cliff Edmunds were victorious, ahead of Ransome & Marles, Yorkshire Imps and Newham.

Open adjudication was used in the following events up to 1973 (as was percussion and free bandsmen’s tickets to get into the hall!)

Keep up the pressure 

Thank you 4BR for taking the lead to bring up to date the system of adjudication.

The attempt by ABBA to defend the indefensible is at best misguided, at worst, deliberately upholding a flawed system.

No moderation, no training, no basic standards, and above all, a total lack of understanding of modern methods used to ensure consistency, accuracy and thus fairness. It is my opinion that quantity rather than quality is the driving force behind the shroud of mystery the ABBA has created.

It is time to use tried and tested methods to create adjudicators who have been tried and tested may be even ‘qualified’. This can be achieved, possibly through the QCA, as current examiners, moderators and senior examiners are.

The brass band world has experts who could devise, administer and gain accreditation for a 21st century adjudication system.

I'm sure those in power will find ways of avoiding accountability, but keep going 4BR - quality may prevail
 
 Dave Bishop-Rowe

End of the matter 

Mr. Lawrence has now apologised to Simon Dobson and so in keeping with the spirit of the season, I feel it is only fitting for me to do the same.

I did not realise that Mr. Lawrence’s original comments were tongue-in-cheek, something he has now clarified in his apology, so unfortunately I took offence to his comments and especially those directed towards me.

Perhaps I over-stepped the mark by commenting on his submission of works, and Faber Music’s subsequent rejection of them, and for that I apologise. 
 
Phillip Littlemore
Sales & Marketing Director

4BR Reply:
This topic is now closed

Don't do a Beatles

I am a conductor working in Sweden and for many years I was the leader of the Stockholm Symphonic Wind Orchestra.

When I look back to when I started in 1975, I may say, with a sad voice, that it was better before, much better, but on the other hand others things are much better – such as the music we play. 
Until recently I had never worked with a brass band, but now do so.

The quest for good music is a continuous discussion, but is a brass band competition piece, a work of artistic quality meant to be performed to audiences as a form of emotional musical experiences?

Is it important whether the euphoniums land on the right highest note after the most virtuoso complex configuration found in this competition score?
    
I was very astonished by the way Phillip Littlemore wrote about Phil Lawrence recently.

I was introduced to a number of compositions by Phil Lawrence some time ago and I like them very much. I am very impressed by the way he uses the instruments in the brass band and the percussion, thee way he transform the structure of the sound of the brass band into the musical language of today, giving new dimensions to how and what a band can sound like.

He is in my opinion, enriching the brass band as a forum for communication between composer, interprets and audiences. It is true art!  

So I hope publishers today don't do the same mistake as the one rejecting The Beatles did!
 
Per Lyng
Conductor

Puzzling Leaves 

You describe the performance of ‘Autumn Leaves’ on Scherzo Brass's excellent new CD as being ‘…nothing like that old Edith Piaf number’. 

The recording puzzled me too, as I can't hear any trace whatsoever of Kosma's famous melody.  Indeed, the style of the piece seems to belong more to the world of 19th century British brass bands rather than Paris in the 1940's.

I wondered if there had perhaps been a cock-up in the recording studio?

Alec Gallagher
Bedfordshire

4BR Reply:
According to the recording sleeve notes this version by Jim Alder is a ‘version’ of the original 1945 song by Joseph Kosma – although we agree, it is a a version far removed from Edith Piaf’s little warbler…

Another snobbish attitude 

I have read with interest news items in recent months commenting on snobbish attitudes to brass bands, and thought I would share another "gem" from a posting about a Maurice Andre concert in November 2003, which was posted on a concert review forum by someone called Ian McKechnie, who obviously didn’t like brass bands or their listeners… 
 
“This was not the audience you get in the UK for a classical concert: I was reminded more of the audiences you get in the UK for a brass band concert (though to be fair, the French audience did not smell, were more sober, their knuckles were not trailing on the ground, and relatively few of them were dribbling uncontrollably.”   
 
Brian Lamb

Currently wasted 

I read with interest your article on ‘A Wasted Decade’.

You finish by saying we now have a world rankings of Cory, Black Dyke, Fodens etc.  If the rankings had been reviewed after the result of Brass in Concert, (as is the norm) wouldn't this give a slightly different top two?
 
Come on 4BR - keep up - we want current news!

Jayne Brindley

4BR Reply:
The top three in the 4BR Rankings are now Cory, Foden’s and Black Dyke.

Some mistake?

Surely again you are mistaken with the band of the decade?

It has to be YBS with 9 Championship wins. 5 European (2000-2004); 2 British Open (2001 and 2003); 2 Masters (2000 and 2004) and not discounting 2 Yorkshire area wins (2000 and 2004).

Peter Roberts

4BR Reply:
Close, and we should have mentioned YBS, but the same criteria you use would mean Cory having an extra 8 Area titles and Black Dyke another 3, giving them totals of 15 and 10 respectively.   

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