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Re: Instrumental straightjackets

Alec Gallagher wrote:

>(not to mention the contest piece time constraints, which almost alienated one 
>of our own composers recently, but that's another topic for discussion!)

> Who was this last-mentioned person, please?

Edward Gregson, concerning "Of Men and Mountains" chosen for the
National Finals 
a few years ago. The committee withdrew it, saying that it was "Too
long"...... 
There's vision for you!

> And what a pity our predecessors did not take this advice 90 - odd years
> ago.  Here in the UK, the brass band fraternity have been so preoccupied
> with the futile activity of contesting, that they have let world-class
> composers slip through their fingers.  What do we have to show for rubbing
> shoulders with the great composers?  Elgar (one piece), Holst (one piece),
> Vaughan-Williams (two pieces, one of which never saw the light of day until
> the 1980s), Tippett (one piece - or was the Festal Brass & Blues taken from
> something else?), 

The blues section of Festal Brass with Blues is taken from his Third
Symphony, 
the solo cornet part in this case being originally scored for Soprano
voice.

> If bands want "to be taken seriously", as the phrase goes, they could
> do a lot worse than play the music of composers with which the concert-going
> public are familiar.  Then, people might think that bands are relevant in
> the big wide world of music.

I couldn't agree more.

Cheers,
Adrian J. Raven


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