Editorial ~ 2005: November

This month we give our views on Dr. Pickard and the adjudication question; Wales and the European, and brass bands as Swingers.

The question of the judging process

The comments made by Dr John Pickard to 4BR following the National Finals in London should be seen as a clarion call for those who believe the time has come for fundamental changes to the way in which we adjudicate our leading brass band contests.

The tone of his remarks may have initially upset many who believed he was attacking the professionalism and integrity of the three men in the box on the day, but on closer analysis his display of mystified puzzlement was more accurately aimed at the process of adjudication they had to work to, and with which we as a movement have come to accept as being inviolate over the years.

Perhaps it was because he was an outsider looking in rather than an insider looking out that may have touched the raw nerve has always surrounded our adjudication ‘problem' in the movement. Perhaps it was because he said it in light of what some people thought was a ‘dodgy' result. More pertinently, perhaps he said it because as a renowned composer and a musician with clearly defined and articulate views, free from the shackles of our age old obsession with the question of ‘perceived trust' concerning the adjudication process, he felt it time to state what he felt was fairly obvious to him: the system that we have used in the brass banding world to judge at our major contests is now hopelessly outdated.

It was an uncomfortable reminder that as we progress musically in our movement, for those who view us from the outside, we seem not have progressed very far in the way we make our judgements about what we perform. Rightly or wrongly, Dr Pickard has done us all a great favour and shown us that the time has come to bring our adjudication process into the 21st century.

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Wales and the European

For such a small nation, Wales has always punched above its weight. In banding terms it has produced great players, great conductors, great composers and even great organistional figures who have shaped the destiny of our movement.

Yet it has always had an innate ability to tear itself apart at the drop of a hat due to the dark brooding Welsh nature and feelings of self doubt and importance that are never far from the surface. Never has a truer word been spoken than by the man who once said, "Put three Welshmen in a sealed room with the oxygen running low and the first thing they will do is not find a way out, but form a committee to discuss the matter in principle."

The mess that now surrounds the Principality and its relationship to the European Brass Band Association shows this in full. Wales made an initial decision that had consequences so complex that all it could leave itself left to do was to discuss, report, debate and argue not about a way to ensure that Welsh representation could continue at the EBBA contest, but argue over a point of principle that makes Jarndice versus Jarndice in Bleak House look like a small claims case in the local magistrates court.

Wales needs to be at the center of the European brass band movement not on its outside looking in. The situation has now reached a point that if something is not done to resolve the matter and done quickly there will be a very realistic situation whereby Wales will be unable to have any representative performing at the Belfast Competition next year. Rules are rules, and at present there is nothing in the rulebook to allow a non EBBA member country to send a band to the contest.

It can be done – and more importantly, 4BR understands that some enlightened souls may try to do it. Lets us hope they succeed. Wales needs the Europeans, but the Europeans certainly need Wales.

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Swingers?

Why is it that there are certain things a brass band cannot do? Some may suggest the ability to play quietly with a full round sound and clear articulation may well be one of them given the struggles many bands have certainly had of late when playing older works from our repertoire at contests.

It seems that in our pursuit of greater technical proficiency we have lost the art of mastering what used to be recognised as one of the fundamental strengths of the brass band: its unsurpassed beauty of sound – especially at the quietest of dynamics. That is certainly true.

Perhaps a little less serious but more painfully concerning is the lack of understanding of bands, their players and conductors in particular – and we are talking from our very best bands right down to the those in the lowest sections, to being to play music that swings.

Just about every CD recording, every concert and entertainment contest sees bands try and swing. And the results are invariably horrendous. Of late we have heard releases from some of our best bands that have swung like a convicted criminal on the gallows at Pentonville Prison, at concerts where they have ‘swung', if that is the right word, with as much pendulous beauty as the bosoms of the model Jordan and at entertainment contests where they have sounded as stiff and free moving as an inmate in a straight jacket at the local Bedlam hospital.

Why can't we just put our hands up and seek help instead of ploughing along with a blind indifference to the musical destruction we are wrecking on classics of their genre?

When it is done, and done well – and of recent times both Fodens and Grimethorpe have just about cracked it, a brass band can swing just about as good as the pros. When it is not – and there are far too many examples horrifying examples of late it makes us sound cheap, nasty and blindingly amateurish.

Perhaps the time has come to get down to our local record shop and for the MDs to really listen to the likes of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and even Glenn Miller.

As Duke Ellington himself said: "Jazz is music, swing is business". At present too many brass bands are swinging bankrupts. 

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