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Re: Barber's Adagio

-----Original Message-----
From: Sren Nordholt <dao@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Brass-Band mailinglist <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 21 January 1999 11:04
Subject: Adagio for strings, Samuel Barber.

>Does anybody know if Samuel Barbers, Adagio for Strings is available for
>brass band?
>
>Sren Nordholt, Denmark

If anyone *does* know of such an abomination, could they please keep very,
very quiet about it, please?
Issued on behalf of music-lovers everywhere,
Alec


After dashing off the above posting last night, it occurred to me that it
might be interpreted as me having a go at arrangers, which wasn't what I
meant.

Like white men singing the blues, there are some types of music which brass
bands just can't do justice.  Jazz is one example.  Another is the type of
intensely emotional classical music, of which Barber's Adagio is a supreme
example.  You could also include, say, the 4th movement of Tchaik 6 and the
Elgar Cello Concerto in the same bracket - and I'm sure that everyone could
add their own nominations.  These sort of pieces evoke an emotional reaction
in me which brass bands, and indeed the brass medium as a whole, never does.
I feel sure it must be the same for many others.  And of all the
instruments, the strings seem to do it the best.  Why this should be, I have
no idea.

So even with a skillful transcription and the best band in the world, I
don't think that any performance of the Adagio is going come near the
original.  The emotional intensity just won't be there.

Mind you, one or two brass bands have brought tears to my eyes in the past,
but for quite the wrong reasons!

Cheers

Alec


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