Editorial ~ 2006: September

This month we give our views on ABBA and their Performance Criteria, the right way to sack someone and lets hear it for the second horn player.

ABBA and the Performance Assessment Criteria

The announcement that the Association of Brass Band Adjudicators has both accepted and is due to implement a Performance Assessment Criteria (PAC) initially presented by Alan Morrison, for adjudication at brass band contests at all levels, should be greeted as good news for the movement.

Under the astute leadership of both Roy Newsome and latterly Derek Broadbent, ABBA has shown itself to be a receptive and open minded organisation, and this latest decision shows that it continues to have a progressive attitude to change and development.

Whether or not the criteria will work in practice may though be another matter. In summery it contains 14 different aspects for the judge to consider when making their deliberations on a performance, and although these are clear and well defined on paper, for it to work and work well in practice it will need a judge of experience, musicianship and with the ability to multi task under pressure and at times for a considerable period of time (something that most men it is argued by the female population, are not that particularly good at doing!).  

Our best adjudicators can already do this, and do this very well, and there are many who through training and review will reach a required competence that will allow them to eventually adjudicate at the highest levels.

However, there may undoubtedly be some who are not, or will be unwilling to fully accept the need for them to change the way in which they approach judging a brass band contest. Paying lip service to the criteria will not be acceptable and it appears that ABBA also thinks so too, as it states that the process will be under ‘constant review'. As with any process of judgment, there are those who are excellent, those who are good, those who are willing to improve and those who should not be allowed to practice. ABBA must also acknowledge this too. 

If there is a small cloud on the horizon though it is with the announcement that there will be a recommended set of ‘highest' marks per section, although that itself is under the discretion of individual judges if they believe a performance merits higher. This just doesn't make any sense whatsoever – it is a bit like the Spinal Tap bass player who had his own amplifier that went up to a maximum of 11 instead of 10.

A much more standardised approach to adjudication will bring a sense of openness to a process that has long required it. Hopefully, the summarised points of the PAC will be printed in every contest programme, whilst every judge will take the opportunity at the end of each contest to explain just how they used it in reaching their decision.

It may take time for the PAC to become fully accepted by both audiences, players, conductors and practitioners alike, but ABBA has looked forward and taken a brave step that should be supported by us all. It may not make a judge's decision any more acceptable to losing bands, but at least they will have a better idea of how it was made.  

What do you think?
Send an email to: comments@4barsrest.com

How to sack someone made easy

There is never an easy way to sack someone. Some cowardly employers have even tried it by e-mail before now, whilst other bosses try to temper it with a sweetner of a pay off, get a subordinate to do the ‘dirty' or just announce that due to ‘reorganisation' there will be a ‘natural re-deployment' of human resources, so that they don't even have to name the employee for the sack.  It's the same with brass bands, and it shouldn't come as any surprise that it does.

Perhaps it says something about the times in which we now live that dispensing with someone's services can now be done in such an impersonal way. Years ago when we didn't have mobile phones, e mail addresses and fax machines the dreaded task of telling a player or conductor that they were for the chop meant talking to them face to face in the bandroom kitchen, or in some famous cases, in front of the band themselves.

It was a right of passage for a prospective band manager to don the black wig of execution and tell someone to leave their instrument and uniform in the bandroom on their way out, whilst it was also an essential part of your banding apprenticeship, be it player or conductor to receive the news of your demise without letting your emotions of disappointment and despair show more than a little tremble of vibrato of the bottom lip.  It was a difficult job to do, and a difficult answer to accept when it was done mano a mano. There were always rumours and ‘pub talk' from the disaffected, but the final decision was invariably done face to face, and with it came some sort of respect, a handshake and a shrug of the shoulders.

That in recent months there have been some notable examples when the coup de grace has been delivered with such a breathtaking degree of crassness that it does make you wonder if some bands are living in the real world. Nothing tells you more about band and how well it is run than the way in which it deals with sackings. There is a touch of irony though about complaints from some conductors when in the past they were quite happy to play the ‘hitman' in pursuit of their own cause.

The question of getting the sack was perhaps best summed up by the demise of the great Brian Clough who once said that from the first day in charge at a football club you are already heading for the chop – and that was said when he had just taken over at the mighty Leeds United. He lasted just 44 days.

Nothing has changed, and perhaps we are naïve to think that it will, but perhaps we should realise that even with the worst job to do in banding there is a right way and a wrong way of doing it.  

What do you think?
Send an email to: comments@4barsrest.com

 
Lets hear it for the second horn (if they play it that is)

You have got to hand it to Professor PhilipWilby. Not only does he write great music for brass bands he also does it with a great degree of affection, wit and the tiniest sense of devilment too.

Vienna Nights, his latest masterful Opus is a case in point.

Here is a magnificent mixture of fantastic brass band scoring - beautiful lyrical music, terrific technical challenges, a great sense of wit and imagination all topped off with a bit of affectionate devilment with an extended solo line for the much maligned second horn player.

The moment of truth will come in the ‘Café Scene' where the composer has taken a real step into the surreal realms of fantasy with an urbane musical conversation between Mozart, Freud and Mahler all in a time frame somewhere in the dance band era of the 1940s. The second horn is coupled with the flugel and the other two horns that are muted. The composer himself has stated that he hopes this will prevent any re-scoring by conductors who will see this as an opportunity to showcase their solo horn rather than their lesser comrade in arms.

So lets hope there are plenty of brave conductors out there who will do just that and follow the composers intentions and place a great deal of trust in their second horn player. It is a demanding 16 or so bars, but well within the scope of a player who has the confidence to make the most of their moment in the spotlight.

Somehow you get the feeling that it may not just work out like that and that the majority of poor second horn players will once again have to make do with a supporting role. It will also be interesting to see if the Stanley Wainwright Solo Award does go to a horn player, which member of the section goes up and collects it.   Good luck to all the second horn players and we hope you finally get the recognition you deserve for your efforts.


What do you think?
Send an email to: comments@4barsrest.com

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