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Re: Enjoying Contests (long)

Dear Norm,

It's Ed Martin here. I'm in Karratha staying with Monkey. I'm 2000km North of
Perth. I'm up here doing my best to encourage brass playing throughout West
Australia and would appreciate any advice you'd like to offer me in my small
project Mate.

Ed



PS - it's 10:22pm WA time - 278C and I'm going fishing 1 hour before sunrise
tomorrow.

Cheers Mate

Ed



Norm Harris wrote:

> David, you make some good points yet no-one has mentioned the clout of the
> publishers. The publishers have more than a vested interest in all this and to
> change the line-up would make s (with an S) of the stocks they currently
> hold.
>
> It's very difficult to change any culture, especially one that is so entrenched
> in the psyche of a few. Bandies are very protective and defensive of their
> ensembles. To suggest change is akin to blasphemy.  Brass bands are *elitist*
> now 'cos they cater to the tastes of so few members of the general public.
>
> Norm
>
> David Read wrote:
>
> > Cameron Mabon wrote:
> > > However, I was referring to
> > > the whole brass band movement when I was talking about it being
> > > evolutionarily stable.
> > ...
> > > As long as more people like contests than don't, and as
> > > long as more people like
> > > what they hear at contests than don't, then contesting will survive.
> >
> > As a bird living in a tree (for example), to make the best music I want
> > the best environment to enable me to do that. In the contest tree I will
> > sing like all the other birds. In the bandstand tree I'll sing marches
> > and Floral Dance the best. In the third tree I would find lots of
> > different birds making wonderful music in fresh and individual ways.
> >
> > The contest tree has free chocolate ego bars so is popular. The
> > bandstand tree is often used in the summer to raise a bit of money to
> > buy extra chocolate. And unfortunately the third tree is mostly in the
> > shade with no chocolate.
> >
> > > the varieties of band that included French Horns (or other
> > > peculiarities) were found wanting compared to what is now considered to be
> > > the standard brass band. Since no new brass instrument has been invented
> > > recently (with the exception of silly things like flumpets), there is no
> > > alternative variety to challenge the evolutionary supremacy of the
> > > traditional brass band.
> >
> > Tools do jobs. The trad. band might have been good 100 years ago, but
> > the jobs of today are different (see music changing in my last post) and
> > so a different tool *might* do it better. The french horn might be the
> > shuttle to bring us into the space age. If it is pants then fair enough.
> > But should we not try it out?
> >
> > The fact is you can't try it out because banding is about contesting
> > which doesn't allow french horns. So the only way it might get a foot in
> > the door would be if a top band did some concerts with some. Unlikely
> > perhaps for a number of reasons. But you have to admit, such variation
> > is rather stultified in banding.
> >
> > I'm not questioning whether banding is about to die. Of course not, but
> > I am a little worried about the huge emphasis that is put on contesting
> > and where it leaves us musically. I want to see more of festivals,
> > commissions, interesting interpretations, music not rated on how
> > challenging it is technically or even pats on the backs of bands from
> > the federations for playing great music. Any other ideas or thoughts?
> >
> > Respectfully,
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > --
> > David Read			     Queens' College
> > dtr20@xxxxxxxxx		      Cambridge CB3 9ET
> >
> > --
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> --
> Music is my first love, after Jan and the billies.
>
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