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Re: Brass Band Preservation Society

Tom raises some interesting and valid points. I think perhaps the
biggest barrier to having brass bands augment their instrumentation is
the practical issue: where are you going to find players for those
instruments, and the instruments themselves, when you need them? As
(recently (and thankfully) become ex-) personnel manager for a community
orchestra, I can tell you that it's a major pain in the a**e filling
chairs for the oddball instruments. Try rustling up a couple of harps; a
contrabassoon; an E flat clarinet. Ha! It's very very difficult, even in
a major metropolitan area like the one I live in (Philadelphia). Adding
to the difficulty is the fact that you only need these instruments for a
small part of the program, so they're sitting around idle the rest of
the time (and therefore reluctant to turn out, or needing to be paid
(and that's a debate I'm not going to get into again))

As a certified flugel fanatic, I would love to see a band have the
flexibility to have all the front row cornets doubling flugels. I know
Gregson did a bit of that with Dances and Arias (okay, it was only the
rep. doubling flug.), but that's along the lines we're talking about.
But I'd imagine even that presented logistical difficulties to many
bands. And, more recently, we have a superb arrangement of the Planets
that includes women's choir and harp. This will be very difficult to
stage for most bands (not to mention the physical demands on the brass
players that will be too much for all but the best) simply because of
the logistical difficulty of getting the harp and women's choir together
with the band.

So, while from the musical perspective I agree with the notion of
augmenting the band instrumentation with additional colors, from a
practical viewpoint it tends to make the piece too difficult to pull off
logistically.

Bill Buffam,
West Chester, PA


Tom Sheridan wrote:
> 
> I don't know much about this, but that's never stopped me getting my
> two-penn'orth in before :)
> 
> The brass band history I've read seems to indicate that when they
> first started, they contained a very wide spectrum of instruments
> and tonal colours.  The present setup was standardized due to pressure
> from the contesting side of things.  Orchestras manage fine even with
> french horns, violins, bassoons and harps, and most musicians welcome
> the variety.
> 
> I recognize that the contest scene has made an enormous contribution
> to banding, which far outweighs its drawbacks.  Nevertheless I think
> we should attempt to add and retain diversity off the contest platform.
> I don't buy the 'doesn't fit in' argument.
> 
> In contrast to the brass instrumentation, the percussion side seems to
> be ever more diverse, with some pieces calling for three or four
> percussionists and a truckful of kit, hand percussion, timps, hand
> drums, mallet instruments and tubular bells. OK, I'd really love to play
> them, but only the top bands can afford to buy them, I think.  I'd just
> like overly enthusiastic arrangers to realise that we couldn't even get
> a 30-inch timp through the door of our bandroom :(
>


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