The musical life of Edwin Firth has been marked in an outstanding manner by Foden’s Band.
100 years to the day on which he was killed serving in France in the First World War, remembrance services were held at the cenotaphs in the villages of Elworth and Sandbach to honour the former principal cornet player and others who made the ultimate sacrifice.
What other victories?
Two identical concerts were also given; both at Sandbach School Theatre featuring music that celebrated his tenure with the band – one that started in 1909 and encompassed five British Open titles and one National Championship success.
What other victories could have come their way if he had returned from France?
He died aged just 29 – less than six months before the end of the conflict.
The music resonated with an evocative sense of history; ‘The Cossack’ march leading into an original recording of Edwin playing ‘Cleopatra’ and later ‘Pandora’ - revealing a player of remarkable technique and musicality, delicacy and finesse.
The current incumbent Mark Wilkinson also displayed his artistry on an unearthed gem, ‘Fodenian’ - on the 1902 cornet owned and played on by Edwin, as well as ‘Goodbye’ - a Victorian ballad with heartbreaking resonance given that the band had recently been presented with a picture of him, that on its back he had written a small note to his newborn son, who he was destined never to see.
The music resonated with an evocative sense of history; ‘The Cossack’ march leading into an original recording of Edwin playing ‘Cleopatra’ and later ‘Pandora’ - revealing a player of remarkable technique and musicality, delicacy and finesse.
Tributes and memories
The march ‘Westward Ho!’ which Firth won a national composition competition was dusted off with aplomb, whilst ‘Gems of Schubert’, the test piece which Foden’s (with him as principal cornet) won the 1910 National Championship was played with tasteful understanding.
Tributes and memories – from Allan Littlemore’s excellent compering and the tribute to those lost but not forgotten men of the villages by Rev David Page, to ‘The Lost Chord’, ‘Hymn to the Fallen’, and ‘Henry Geehl’s beautiful ‘Threnody’, led to the delightful ‘Light Cavalry’ to close - a work that Firth made his own as a player.
It was a fitting end to a fine concert and an equally fine remembrance of a truly remarkable musician.
