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Re: Registration - to be or not to be

The normally perceptive Alec wrote:

> I have an even better idea.  Abolish all contests.  They stifle creativity;

What???  Whether I'm planning a contest programme, rehearsing a band, 
composing a work for competition I'm at my most creative - critical 
faculties are honed by the comparative/competitive element.

> they prove absolutely nothing, because any adjudication in a brass band
> contest is necessarily subjective;

but not purely subjective.   Wrong notes, split notes, out of 
tune notes, missed entries, incorrect tempi (to an extent) etc.etc. 
etc. can be measured empirically and weighed in the balance...  I'd 
agree that most adjudicators don't seem to understand this.

>  they have restricted the repertoire

not true for me...when I list my ten favourite pieces and then cross 
off those composed/commissioned for contests I'm left with only one.  
The tremendous advances made in the concert repertoire by such as 
Howarth and Snell were initially inspired by the need to have new 
music for contests - see Elgar Howarth's book 'What a Performance' 
(Robson Books 1988 pp154-5) in which he outlines the importance of 
the Granada Band of the Year contest on shaping his ideas..

> they have restricted the instrumentation;

Not necessarily.  Where composers have asked for two flugels or 
four percussionists the rules have changed.   Would you argue that 
the string quartet or the male voice choir has a restricted 
instrumentation and if so does it matter?   P.S. The non-contesting 
band in the city where I live hasn't a percussionist - they don't 
perceive the need for the very limited repertoire which they play....

>  they have hindered brass bands in
> gaining respectability and credibility as a musical medium

So why are there competitive elements to nearly every facet of 
musical life?  Do the Leeds Piano Competition or the Cardiff 
Young Singer of the Year lack musical credibility?  (In 1986 I was 
Lloyds Bank Young Composer of the Year!).  

> in 99% of cases
> they cost the competing band money

as do most hobbies and interests.  If contests are too expensive 
for you I suggest you steer well clear of golf or skiing...  

> they are of absolutely no interest or
> consequence to anyone outside of those directly or closely linked with brass
> bands

but they have consequenses wich are important to very many - new 
pieces on CD and in concert, high standards of performance...

> in short, contests have held brass bands back from the day they were
> invented.

Since what were invented, bands or contests?  Didn't the two 
arrive at about the same time?  (answer - yes!).  Brass bands may 
have survived for nearly 200 years without contests but I'm not sure 
that I would gamble much money on it and it certainly isn't a risk 
I'd want to take in the future.

>  They are utterly futile

but an awful lot of people derive considerable pleasure from them.  
When I asked the band I conduct recently which contests we should 
attend in coming months the answer from many was 'why can't we enter 
all of them'.  The social side - meeting people from other bands and 
spending time drinking, relaxing and listening (yes!) with members of 
your own band - is very important.
> 
> I don't think you're evangelical enough, Andy!
> 
But even Angelical Andy sits on committees which organise 
contests...

Yo
David


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