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Re: Enjoying Contests (long)

To: <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Enjoying Contests (long)
From: "Alec Gallagher" <alec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 20:47:15 +0100
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: Cameron Mabon <cmabon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 08 May 1998 18:51
Subject: Enjoying Contests (long)

>On Fri, 8 May 1998, Alec Gallagher wrote:
>
>> Couldn't you get your teeth into a difficult piece of music without
having
>> to wait for the next contest?  You are allowed to, you know!!
>>
>> Isn't up to you, the musician, to provide the challenge to the public?
>> Music would never develop if  musicians and composers did not provide the
>> listening public with new challenges...
>
>
>I'm sure that we'd all love to be able to set a challenge for an audience
>by performing works from the "serious" brass band repertoire.
>
>Unfortunately, when the audience consists of little Jimmy and his granny,
>an ice cream salesman from Tobermory and Mrs G. Pinnet of 9 The Cuttings,
>Basingstoke, they'd much rather listen to the "Floral Dance" than
>"Fornications for Band" or whatever the latest test-piece is.

1. Don't make the mistake of equating 'new challenges' with 'something
musically incomprehensible to the general public'.
2. I strongly suspect that little Jimmy and all the others mentioned above
don't really *know*  what they are listening to, and are subconsciously
content to be gently steered towards something a little different.
3. I wonder what set of bizarre circumstances would bring together Mrs G
Pinnet of the Home Counties and a Scottish ice-cream salesman under one
concert hall roof!!

>
>Contests provide (amongst other things) the platform to perform good
>music to an audience (albeit a small one at times) who want to listen to
>it.

It isn't the size of the audience which peeves me - it's the fact that it
consists entirely of other band members and their supporters.  The brass
band movement - if movement isn't too strong a word for something relatively
static - is remarkably introspective. The words 'navel' and 'contemplation'
come to mind.

Of course, they also promote social and musical cohesion, improve
>individual and ensemble musicianship, and provide a good excuse to drink
>a lot of tea (or whatever that tea-coloured stuff with the white stuff
>on top is)...

It's called cappucino.

>Cameron
>
Best wishes

Alec

________________________
Alec Gallagher
alec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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