With rumours flying that at another top championship band may on the verge of demise, it is sad to note that exactly 100 years ago, perhaps the most famous brass band of the Victorian age left its mortal contesting coil and disappeared to the choir invisible in the sky.
Help
In 1908, the truly great Cyfarthfa Band, formed in 1838 by the tyrannical Robert Thompson Crawshay in Merthyr Tydfil, petitioned to the local authority for help.
Last chord
It was the last chord for the band that in its heyday conquered the contesting world, winning the Crystal Place Contest in 1860 and becoming a byword for the very epitome of a ‘works band’.
It was the last chord for the band that in its heyday conquered the contesting world, winning the Crystal Place Contest in 1860 and becoming a byword for the very epitome of a ‘works band’4BR
Finest players
Such was Crawshay’s wealth that he specifically set about hiring the finest brass players of the day to come to the South Wales iron working town, including a French musician called George D’Artney who specifically arranged many of the great opera selections to be played for the Iron Master’s pleasure at functions and family events.
Original works and instruments
Many of these pieces in their original bound folios still survive today and are displayed at Cyfarthfa Castle, the mock baronial limestone mansion built by the family overlooking the town. One such piece is the ‘Tydfil Overture’ written by the great Joseph Parry (he of Myfanwy fame) and probably the first specific, original brass band work.
Rolf Harris
So too are a number of the original band instruments, many from leading Austrian makers of the day, plus a portrait of the bandmaster, painted, by the great grandfather of the entertainer Rolf Harris.
Peak
At its peak the band was quite unlike any other. The 1860 win was reported in the Times newspaper (the band played ‘Nabucco’), and whilst they competed rarely they still won the Welsh National Eisteddfod held in their home town in 1881.
God forgive me
Crawshay himself had played in the band for over 20 years until rendered deaf by a bout of meningitis. He tyrannical behaviour towards members of his family and his workers saw him becoming a reviled figure in his later years. He too perhaps knew of his shortcomings, and his simple plea to his maker is embossed on his tomb – ‘God forgive me’.
Decline
With Crawshay’s death in 1879, and the passing of the age of iron, the band declined.
With no formal support the band limped on until 1908, when the local authority took over the band with a strict set of guidelines. It became the Cyfarthfa & Merthyr Municpal Band.
It was the end of the original band, and although it survived under a new identity until 1928 the original Cyfartha Band had ceased to exist.
For more information on the band go to:
http://www.britishtrombonesociety.org/resources/articles/cyfarthfa.php
