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Here We go Again!

To: <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Here We go Again!
From: "Colin Randle" <colin.randle@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 09:52:12 -0000
Reply-to: "Colin Randle" <colin.randle@xxxxxxxxx>

Hi there fellow listees - well, it's that time of year again - The Areas, and it
hasn't taken long for the same adjudicatorial arguments to resurface once again.
Don't get me wrong folks - there was a time, long ago when I would brood for
weeks over a perceived lousy decision form an 'incompetent judge'.  It only made
me and my nearest avoid me for a few days, (and lets face it folks, nobody else
gives a monkeys where your band came but you - Nick Childs has it right when he
says on 4BarsRest, ((good site by the way chaps)), contesting is the sport of
brass banding).

In the grand scheme of things, can I venture to suggest that we brass band
musicians may have lost the plot over the last few years.  We start out being
musicians, of all standards, with the best of musical ideals, and end up as
snarling, aggressive, unhappy competitors ready to fight the world based on one
performance on one day.  I hope the following quote may have a calming influence
to those who are unhappy with their placings - or soon will be, in the present
round of area contests.

"The band left technique behind and gave us sheer music.  A beautiful, somewhat
unique tone, with excellent balance and blend.  Close tuning, intensity of
emotional experience without the morbid slowness of the theatrical, plus
artistic restraint on the part of the conductor were points which made for a
real soul stirring recreation of the composer's conception.  Soloists were
uniformly good but always part of the whole and few experienced listeners lost
this rare chance of forgetting instruments and men to just listen to the music,
and, if there were technical blemishes of any importance, which I doubt - I was
too affected by the interpretation to notice them.  Thank you gentlemen"

The above quote is by Eric Ball written in 1931, in an extract from a book of
the history of the City Of Coventry Salvation Army Band, who apparently at that
time were held in high repute, and was in response to a performance of King Of
Kings, (now there's one for YBS to record on Essays 4!), by Eric Ball.  Eric
Ball was in the audience at the time, the quote is his, and he was "...moved to
tears of deep emotion during the bands playing".

The last time I felt like that, of which there will be many more to come I hope,
was when I heard Harrisons Dream last year.

Good luck folks - but moreover - be happy.

Colin Randle.




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