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Re: some brassband questions from BELGIUM!

Hi Ruben,

This is not really a reply on the pronunciation of Brighouse because
although I was born in Huddersfield, just a few miles away, my Yorkshire
accent is sadly a thing of the past. So others would be better qualified to
tell you. 

I was interested in the Belgian bands though. During 1990 I lived in
Brussels and played for the Buizingen band. This was at the time a
traditional British brass band and in the National contest I think we were
second to Willebroek. For some reason I could never figure out, I think
Midden-Brabant were disqualified that year. Are Buizingen still going and if
so how are they doing ?

To answer a question from Jack Alexander, when I was in Belgium there were a
ton of variations in instruments in other bands. The first contest I played
in I watched a couple of bands in the lower sections play and saw a few
strange sights. For a start there seemed to be no limit on number of
players, there were bells pointed in several directions and some bands used
about 10 valve trombones (10 players, not valves). Also players were allowed
to play with more than one band as long as they were in different sections.

We won the contest but as I discovered later we should have, as we were the
only band in the top section !!

I did one solo contest while I was there and played against all kinds of
brass instruments. You had to choose a piece of music from a set list which
included a lot of trumpet and french horn concertos. Bit of a give away as
to who the contest was aimed at ! Anyway I played some slow melody and got
completely hammered by two orchestral adjudicators because of my vibrato. 

Variety may well be the spice of life, and I did enjoy myself, but I was
glad to get back the the British scene.

Paul.



At 04:00 AM 3/13/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Hello, I'm am a  Brassband-Player from Belgium ("De Noord-Limburgse Brassband")
>and I have some questions especially for Brassband-Players in the UK 
>(or Europe).
>Here they come :
>- Is 'Blackpool' an Area Contest for the Nationals? How many Areas are there
>  anyway and which are normally the best bands in each Area?  
>  Is Black Dyke already out of it?
>- How do you pronounce 'Brighouse & Rastrick' : like 'Brickhouse' or 
>  more like 'Bright' and 'light' ? This is maybe a stupid question,
>  but I just want this clear. By the way, I have a CD from the 
>  Brighouse & Rastrick, called 'Convergents' and it is conducted by
>  Jan de Haan . He's from the Netherlands and has been the conductor
>  of the Brassband Soli Deo Gloria for many years. Does anyone know
>  him or that band?
>-Our most famous bands in Belgium here are Brassband Midden-Brabant
> conducted by Benny Wiame and Brassband Willebroek conducted by
> Frans Violet. Does anyone have any comments on these bands,their
> conductors or their performances in the past ?
>-Which bands are going to compete in the European Championships?
> From Belgium it is Brassband Midden-Brabant.
>-Are there some British bands going to perform at the WMC at Kerkrade,
> Netherlands in July? If any, on which date(s)?
>
>Well, thats all for now. I would appreciate any comments very much.
>You can send your reactions to me directly at the following address:
>Ruben.Vanveggel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  (or send them to the list).
>Thanks! 
>
>
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