Now aged 95, Geoffrey Brand is perhaps the last great polymath to dominate the brass band movement. 

His knowledge and expertise spanned numerous activities – from performer and conductor to arranger, author, publisher, newspaper editor, BBC producer, educator, lecturer, advisor and much, much more.  

His acumen for business was every bit as insightful as his talent for music making. Never afraid to grasp an informed opportunity, it is perhaps only in the last few years that the scope of his influence has really been appreciated. 

That was certainly shown with this ostensibly obscure, yet substantive recording from 1974 that focussed on the music of Malcolm Arnold. 

Different cloth

The pair were well acquainted and had great respect for each other’s talents (which resulted in the 1975 National Final set-work, ‘Fantasy for Brass Band’) - even if artistically as well as temperamentally they were cut from vastly different cloth.

By the mid 70’s the gloss had begun to tarnish on Arnold’s career; his decline hastened by depression and alcohol, a corrosive mix that saw him lose friends and reputation, although both were revived in later years.  

In addition there is a wonderfully lean account of his ‘Quintet’ featuring the emerging student talents of trumpet players James Watson and Nigel Boddice, alongside Frank Lloyd (horn), Roger Harvey (trombone) and John Smith (tuba).  

This project however interested him greatly and he was impressed by the performances of City of London Brass (formed in 1971 by Brand from talented students at various London Colleges) who provided rumbunctious renditions of  ‘Padstow Lifeboat’  and  'Little Suite No.2 for Brass Band’.

In addition there is a wonderfully lean account of his  ‘Quintet’  featuring the emerging student talents of trumpet players James Watson and Nigel Boddice, alongside Frank Lloyd (horn), Roger Harvey (trombone) and John Smith (tuba).  

Song of Freedom

The centrepiece is  ‘Song of Freedom’, commissioned by the National Schools Brass Band Association in 1972. 

It was the result of a nationwide competition built around a series of poems on the theme of ‘Freedom’ from children that Arnold said was of such a high standard that, “…I had great difficulty in not making the work twice as long”.

The seriousness of the writing – Arnold combines dark wit with stimulating forcefulness, melancholy with a positive sense of hope, speaks of a composer who found their narrative both moving and relevant.  

In four movements (‘Prelude’; ‘Hymn’; ‘Intermezzo’; 'Postlude’) it is a touchingly optimistic choral symphony of youthful thoughts and feelings that 50 years later still retains a vibrant, resonant immediacy.  

Aspirations

The seriousness of the writing – Arnold combines dark wit with stimulating forcefulness, melancholy with a positive sense of hope, speaks of a composer who found their narrative both moving and relevant.  

It does not contain one bar of patronising pretentiousness.

Instead, you are left to wonder what happened to the aspirations of the young poets (and each is credited) who wrote the battle cries, “Freedom is our Right”; “We will work for Freedom”; “Freedom will Come”  and  “All People Must be Free”  - sung with such spirit and eagerness by the 200 schoolgirls from seven Harrow schools.  

And what indeed became of their dreams as they now approach the autumnal  ‘Intermezzo’  of their lives half a century on?    

Iwan Fox

Play List:

Side 1:
1. The Padstow Lifeboat, Op.94
2. Little Suite No.2 for Brass Band, Op.93
3. Quintet (for two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba), Op. 73

Side 2:
1. Song of Freedom, Op.109
i. Prelude
ii. Hymn
iii. Intermezzo
iv. Postlude