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French Open

A few people now have approached me and asked about the French Open, so here 
goes...

Last year, France held its first ever National Brass Band Chapionships in the 
picturesque town of Amboise in the Loire Valley, home of Brass Band instrument 
makers Courtois.  In it, there were three categories: 1, French Brass Bands, 2, 
French Brass Ensembles (French horns and trumpets too), 3, Open Section.  The 
first two categories were made up of invited bands from France.  Exactly what 
they had to do to get invited I don't know.  The Open Section consisted of 
invited bands from other countries (us, and two Swiss bands).  We got our 
invitation via one of our players.  Our Principal Cornet, Paul White, had 
recently assisted Courtois in the design of their new cornet.  In return, our 
band got an invitation to this competition, as they were the main sponsors.  In 
the contest itself, we had to play a rhythmic piece (we chose Stephen Roberts' 
arrangement of 'Pastime with Good Company' by Henry VIII), an original piece for 
brass band (the cornet solo 'Cleopatra' by Damare), a classical transcription 
(Mozart's 'Ave Verum' arranged by Stan Bennett) and then we had a free choice of 
any other piece (Ray Farr's arrangement of Stravinsky's 'The Firebird').  This 
made up 80% of our marks, the other 20% came from a 20 minute outdoor programme, 
where we were judged on deportment alone.  We were lucky to be invited to the 
first contest of this kind in France.  The prize money was around 2,500 GBP (I 
think) combined in cash and Courtois instrument vouchers, which is more than 
most major contests in Britain.  We have been invited to defend our title at the 
end of May, but unfortunately, too many players in the band were busy.
     The organisers of this contest could teach Britain a thing or two, 
particularly because they gave each band a 20 minute warm-up session in another 
part of the building where we could blow as loud as we liked! :)

Best wishes,
Tim

PS - Those of you who have a copy of July/August 1995 Brass Band World, will 
notice Richard Evans slating a British band in his column for not turning up to 
the results at a continental contest.  Well, that band was us, we admit it.  
However, we always have and always will protest our innocence.  It was a 
language problem.  The only player to speak any French was our sop player, and 
she spoke it with her ususal broad Scottish accent, so we had a little trouble 
being understood, and understanding them! 
-- 
Tim Morgan, Bass Trombone, Woolley Pritchard Sovereign Brass.


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