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Re: Adjudication correct?

This is the problem with making contesting the centre of the universe.
Obviously adjudicators have to have some idea of how the music should go
and something to judge against. Why hold this against them?
In 1994 Horowitz made a major point about the importance of very subtle
tempo chamnges in the test piece and IMHO, BNFL got savaged in the
marking because they pretty much ignored the markings. A wonderful and
exciting performance was not even in the top 6 and Blsck Dyke won for a
much inferior job but faithful tempos.
But that's contesting. Brass bands need to forget contests and get on
with music. A way too much energy goes into writing music never heard
again in order to test players. Has resulted in great playing standards
for what are still more or less amateurs but its time to move on.
Just my opinion.
Dave Buckley.

andy wooler wrote:
> 
> W had similar comments from Philip McCann at Basildon where he told the
> bands that the grazioso movement would be the one that won the contest. And
> it proved so (according to him) - he was particularly watching the tempo
> and anyone who took it too slow (his opinion, not mine) was wrong. However,
> i take the view that music is an art form and should be appreciated as such
> - i.e. don't go into it with preconceived ideas, accept what you hear as an
> interpretation in it's own right and then judge it as such.
> IMHO, our version of that movement had a hell of a lot of musicality in it
> - we were running it around crotchet = 103, well below the minimum 116 mark
> on the score - but for us it worked!
> It has always annoyed me that in the brass band world, we don't allow our
> conductors the same freedom of expression that an orchestral one would have
> - as an example, I have 2 recordings of the Barber Adagio for Strings - one
> conducted by Ormandy & one by Bernstein. The difference in tempo is very
> wide, the piece lasting 7 minutes in the Ormandy version and 10 1/2 in the
> Bernstein. Now, I for one do not feel that anyone has the right to say that
> either is wrong!  Can you imagine the reaction you'd get from say, Andre
> Previn or Karajan if one of our esteemed judges told him his tempi were all
> wrong?!
> 
> I recall an adjudication from Maj Peter Parkes a few years ago - "wow, this
> is fast - but it works!" - a much more enlightened view.
> 
> Kris Leech wrote:
> >Concerning the recent area contest for the Midlands area, First Section
> >Contest, performing Purcell Variations...etc
> 
> >Any comments, or am I just being a sore loser? Sorry, I don't mean to be,
> >but it gets right on my tits when this apparently mindless judging occurs
> 
> Encore!!
> 
> Andy Wooler, Conductor, Uckfield Concert Brass
> MD "The Classic Dance Band", Trumpet "Sussex Symphony Orchestra"
> awooler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (home),
> andy.wooler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (work)
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/awooler
> 
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