A recent piece of correspondence to 4BR about the adjudication system currently being employed at the Brass in Concert Championship has seen us scrambling around in the history books to find out if such a ‘complex’ system of judging has ever been used before at any other major brass band contest in the UK.

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Nothing new

Not surprisingly, you find that there is nothing new under the banding sun.

British Open

At the 1943 British Open, the three judges had to award separate marks for five different areas of performance on Beethoven’s ‘5th Symphony’:

Accuracy in Time Values and Notes (30 points)
Tone, Tune and Individual Intonation (50 points)
Rhythm, Phrasing, Pace and Continuity (40 points)
Balance, Blend, Ensemble (30 points)
Interpretation and General Effect (50 points)

The winners, Bickerhsaw Colliery gave ‘a masterly performance’, according to one adjudicator Henry Geehl — gaining a total of 194 marks.

Nationals

Much further back, at the 1901 National Championships of Great Britain, bands were scored in each of 10 different categories to give their overall total.

These included marks for: Ensemble; Style; Intonation (20 points each) — as well as individual marks for soprano, solo cornet, horns, baritones, trombones, euphoniums and basses (10 points with added extra points for best soprano, solo cornet and euphonium).

The winners, Lee Mount gained a remarkable 127 points on ‘Gems from Sullivan’s Opera No 3’.

At the 1943 British Open, the three judges had to award separate marks for five different areas of performance on Beethoven’s ‘5th Symphony’4BR

Simples...

It makes individual marks for Music Quality of Performance (A&B); Programme Content; Entertainment & Presentation (A&B) seem positively simple…