Brass Band Logo

NJH Music Logo

Some of the contents of the pages on this site are Copyright © 2016 NJH Music
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Test Pieces

David Williams wrote:

> John.  Thank you for putting me right about the piece.

;-) Sorry, just thought I would bring it up.

> Being "old squares"
> we thought it was one of the recent compositions.

Technically it is. In 73 it was considered ahead of its time, so wasn't
published until the early eighties.

> Our first "open" at Belle
> was in the days when Fairey's with Harry Mortimer won three times on a row I
> think and the test pieces were "Pride of Race", "Henry V"....etc.  We would
> listen for hours to "Life Divine", Eric Ball,s "Festival Music", etc.   I
> suppose these are fourth sections pieces now !

These pieces aren't played now because they simply don't score. Some of them are
still top/first section pieces. Everybody's taste is different though. I would
rather listen to a band play 'Contest Music' than 'Life Divine'. The fact is you
can't pick them as an own choice piece if you want a real chance of winning a
contest (unless Alan Hope's in the box ;-) Band's have to play the big new
pieces to score.

> The point I was making is that we can still recall these pieces ...even
> "Spectrum" and the like.  But I cannot recall what "Energy" for instance
> sounds like.   I suppose contests are not intended for the likes of us,
> nowadays.

I played it at the RAH in '91, and know a lot of people who went to the contest
on the strength of the testpiece. I suppose 'Spectrum' would have done the same,
but we've had the arguement here that the band's need to be pushed, and new
works, great, good or mediocre, are necessary for that.

> Cheers.  David.

<JT>


--

[Services] [Contact Us] [Advertise with us] [About] [Tell a friend about us] [Copyright © 2016 NJH Music]