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Re: Own choice contests

Yo

>  A. Dalton A9750388 wrote:
> > 
> > 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.

David Buckley wrote:

> Surely the reasons are obvious? Almost all of the contest pieces are
> totally unpalatable to any audience unless they are played at the
> absolute top level of skill. Some of them are not palatable even then.
> To suggest that anyone would try to build an audience for brass bands by
> playing contest pieces is ludicrous. The top bands build their audiences
> beyond the hard core brass lover by playing transcriptions of the
> classics and by lollipops cleverly arranged to show their technical and
> musical skills.

Absolute tosh!!!   When I have conducted test pieces in concerts, or 
attended band concerts where brass music is being played it is 
very often the 'serious' repertoire which draws the best response.  
Audiences do like to be challenged from time to time and the notion 
of a balanced programme (which I presume we all aspire to) implies 
that we mix familiar with unfamiliar repertoire.   One of my local 
fourth section bands recently commissioned a new piece - a ten minute 
test-piece type work -  and at the concert when it was first played 
it drew a tremendous response from a very non-specialist audience.  I 
think that many bands fall into the trap of underestimating their 
audiences and catering for the lowest common denominator.  (In any 
case, given the subject title, I guess that Adrian Dalton was asking 
why bands didn't contest with these pieces quite so often - a 
slightly different issue since for contest purposes conductors will 
select pieces that they feel best suit their band). 

To describe Triumphant Rhapsody, or Paganini Variations, or even 
Cloudcatcher Fells as being "totally unpalatable to audiences" really 
doesn't convince me that you know the music you're condemning. 

> The brass band world seems to judge music by how difficult it is to play
> not by how good it is. People keep getting me to listen to pieces that
> they rave over but that to me offer little but a brief technical rush.

A good deal of orchestral or chamber music is also very technically 
difficult - simplify it and you take away much of it's excitement - 
that's the real reason why composers of all types write difficult 
music.  Still not many amateur orchestras round here play 'Le 
Sacre...' and the string quartet down the road won't touch late 
Beethoven...  Most band folk I know think the hardest music is slow 
and soft.

> No Beethovens, Mozarts or Tchaikovskis seem to have shown up in the
> brass band world yet.

But compare like with like.  Would you say the same about Big Bands, 
for example: how would you compare Duke Ellington and Count Basie 
with Mozart and Beethoven...the comparison is silly.  We'll all 
have our own opinions about who the best composers are but the best 
works of the band repertoire by Ball, Vinter, Gregson, Sparke and 
Wilby et al are classics within this genre. 

It's interesting too that you cite composers who were all dead by 
the time the brass band was really established.  Are there any 
composers this century who you would rank alongside Mozart or 
Beethoven?  (PS I find Tchaikovsky rather bombastic, over-sentimental 
and generally dull - my loss I'm sure!).

> Sure I think Resurgam is a gem but still not in
> the same league as The Pathetique Symphony.

What a ridiculous comparison.  Cheese is better than chocolate?

> As technical skills improve  - is there room for improvement at 
 > the top level - at levels below the
> top, the quality music will be more frequently played. The Year of The
> Dragon probably is an example. Maybe the Horowitz piece may come to
> favour. It struck me at the RAH in 1994 that it was outstanding music
> that might be rearranged for concert bands and possibly even orchestras.
> To me that is a hint of musical acceptance.

Why?  The transcription of Resurgam for concert band makes nonsense 
of a lovely piece.  I prefer to hear music as the composer intended 
it.

> Lets set our tastes higher even as we enjoy the unique joys of playing
> brass music.

Agreed!  So let's play some more brass music and fewer tacky 
arrangements of second-rate orchestral music which invariably sound 
better left where the composer put them!   Rant, rant, rant...

> Dave Buckley.
> 
Cheers

David


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