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Own choice contests

Can anyone tell me why so few 'progressive' bands (i.e. ambitious 1st/Champ 
bands) do not use the wealth of new contest works written over the last 10 
years.  Pieces like Connotations, Contest Music, The Year of the Dragon, 
Dances and Arias, are all extremely popular and if you went to an own choice 
you would be sure to hear them, but they're all 70/80's pieces.

Lets take for example the RAH pieces set over the last 10 years.  How many 
of these have you heard played since?

Alderley Edge.  To early to tell if this will be in common use in years to 
come.

Isaiah 40.  Wonderful piece and Congratulations to the Reading BB Guild for 
using it for their annual contest last year, but has it been used anywhere 
else or by anyone else?

Songs for BL.  Controversial piece, I know, but would it be such a brave 
choice for a reasonable band who would certainly benefit from playing it, if 
they hadn't already done so?

Theme and Co-operation.  Horowitz at his best IMHO.  Terrific piece of work 
with one of the most imaginative and exciting finishes I've ever heard, but 
it seems, dead and burried.  I've never heard it played by ANYONE since.

Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.  Heard it about two months afterwards at 
Leamington Spa Contests (I think it was Banks' Brewery, who had played it 
one the day at the RAH).  Perhaps the most technically difficult piece ever 
used for London, but not impossible.  The performance I heard at Leamington 
was technically flawed and didn't win, but it made a change from hearing 5 
performances of Connotations.

The New Jerusalem.  Is this really only ever going to be Grimethorpe's 
piece?.  Used a year or two later at the Mineworkers, but again, has been 
avoided like the plague at own choice!!!

Energy.  I know wasn't written specifically for that years contest, but I've 
never heard it before or since.

English Heritage.  A great piece, but why should it be the only one of the 
ten that been used to any great extent.  (BTW, the start of the middle 
movement, am I the only one who thinks George Lloyd was watching an episode 
of 'Blackadder' when he was writing it!!).

Odin.  I'll be honest here and say I've never actually heard this piece, yet 
I don't remember anyone saying that it was an odd one.

and finally....

Seascapes.  Perhaps my favorite of the lot, WHAT A PIECE, again though it 
seems, 'TTFN', 'Shan't be needing you again for a while'.   WHY???

I could say the same about the Open pieces.  Masquerade, Salamander etc...

What's the story?

Adrian Dalton
BBb (Hepworth and Hudds Uni Band)


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