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Test Pieces

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Test Pieces
From: Tim Morgan <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 17:59:05 GMT
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In response to J. Alexander's posting on test pieces.

Firstly, my comment was simply a suggestion towards what the cyber band should 
play.  Nigel Wears had asked for suggestions for the programme,  and I made one. 
Whether this was an adequate reason for such a heated outburst on my 
personal integrity as a musician, and the musicality of brass band players on 
the whole, I don't know.
     Why on earth should we as brass band players oppose the commisioning of new 
test pieces?  And what is the point of a test piece that doesn't test?  I'm not 
sure exactly how much J. Alexander knows about British brass bands, but give a 
top section band a fourth section piece, and they'll have it ready to a winning 
standard within the hour.  British brass bands have two modes - concert and 
contest.  Of course, concerts are for the public.  No conductor would dream 
of putting a major test piece on for a park job.  Contests on the other hand 
are different altogether.  The main benefits the band derives here come not 
from the performance itself, but the work done during the two weeks before the 
big day.  When the day itself comes, the band plays for the adjudicators, it 
plays for the audience on the day however big it may be, but most 
importantly, it plays for itself.  It may sound selfish, but that's the way 
it is.  
    The list of magnificent test pieces from the last 20 years cannot be capped 
either.  Paganini Variations, Revelation, Cloudcatcher Fells, Sounds et al.  The 
list goes on.  They should sit side by side with Pageantry, Diadem Of Gold, 
Journey into Freedom and Variations on a Ninth.  It is this contrast of old and 
new that has to go on...to ensure that banding as we know it, the chosen hobby 
of thousands of people in this country who would be otherwise musically 
inactive, goes forward into the next millenium.

Best wishes,
-- 
Tim Morgan, Bass Trombone, Woolley Pritchard Sovereign Brass.


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