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Re: Brass families

Thank you for your Response Adrian.  Here in America and I suspect
elsewhere in the world as well have accepted most all of the traditions of
the BBW from Britain.  After playing with the Brits for 35 years and
opening the movement up from a few Salvationists to the brass world at
large, I have experienced a much wider concept of what banding can involve.
Now be assured, the Brass Band has lead the way in what it really means to
be a band:  amatuers bonded together in music, friendship and often
drinking with a certain comradery but fierce competition.   Our enrichment
comes in the way of questioning the venues of service, the use of uniforms,
the government of the unit.

I also agree with the comment made that we cannot turn our back on change
and over the past 30 years we have seen alot of it.  I still think that the
advent of the Sovereign has given us a sense of imbalance that most bands
have still not recovered from.  The Eb bass has become a symphonic Tuba,
the cornet has come closer to the flugel, the alto horn has become a tenor
horn.  All of these changes I like.    I have a concern about the Euphonium
going a bit too dark and I am encouraged to see both Boosey and Yamaha come
back to a smaller bell.   The Trombones have lost the non-conical edge they
were designed to have and that has really hurt our timbre.  Add to that the
infiltration of the Schilke soprano and you've got a formula for the death
of ensemble as we have known it.

I know, here in America as NABBA works for a sound somewhere between
Sellers (with McCann at the Podium) and the dynamics of Desford or
Grimethorpe that we have enough to thrill us for years to come.   The
battles we are facing with french horn and trumpet players are keeping us
too busy for additional experiementation such like that found on Dyke's
Revelation album.   That stuff probably holds as much thrill for the Brits
as the established Brass  Band sound holds for us Americans.

Maybe its a role exchange!

Harmoniously
John Aren
http://freeway.net/~tbbb


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