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Re: Australian National Championships



Mark Corben wrote:

>I think a 
> special mention must be made regarding Warringah, in their first 
> attempt in 'A' Grade they did extremely well and should be very 
> proud of there playing indeed.

> 1st- Fosters Ackland  (NZ) 
> 2nd-Willoughby City  (NSW) Also Higest Placed Australian Band
> 3rd- Waratah-Mayfiled (NSW)

  Thank you for the thought Mark. We are over the moon with our 
result: overall 4th out of eleven, second in the test piece and equal 
first in the hymn (thanks partly to Wilby's wonderful arrangement of 
'the day thou gavest'). Too bad we couldn't maintain the standard in 
our own choice. 

 Regarding Ron Grice's comments:

 I am a firm believer in the role of luck in Brass Band 
adjudications. The different musical tastes of different 
adjudicators means that some will mark different bands and 
interpretations of music differently to others. There is simply no 
single objective measure of a brass-band's performance, and to win 
you have to be lucky to get an adjudicator to agree with your 
conductor's choice of interpretation. Some like strict tempos, others 
like a more personal intrpretation. Some like pedals, others mark you 
down for playing notes which are not on the score. The best band will 
emerge as the one which wins most frequently.

 I personally think it is a good idea to continue to involve high 
musical achievers who are not necessarily intimately involved in the 
brass-band scene as adjudicators. That way, hopefully, the artistic 
achievement will eventually dominate the adjudication.

  Ron has a point about the march though. It should be clarified 
whether we are restricted to standard quickstep marches, or whether 
we can also include symphonic transcriptions, such as Snell's 
arrangement of the march from Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony and similar. 

  For those internationals interested in this event, I hope to be 
putting up a small Web Page about it on our server, with full 
results and  scanned informal photos of Newcastle and band people at 
the contest. I have a great photo of Mark 'tucking in' to some fish 
and chips!

Philip Anderton


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