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Bringing brass bands to the (classical-minded) masses. Or not, as the case may be....

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Bringing brass bands to the (classical-minded) masses. Or not, as the case may be....
From: Bill Buffam <brass@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:34:50 -0500
User-agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6 (Windows/20050716)

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I just had an interesting experience I'd like to share with the brass
banders of the world.

I'm teaching a Classical Music Appreciation in night school
(http://www.buffam.com/NightSchool/ClassicalMusicAppreciation/ ). I
thought this would be a good opportunity to raise the profile of brass
bands and introduce brass music to an orchestral-oriented group. So with
some apprehension, I introduced them to Holst's Moorside Suite. To my
surprise and delight, they liked it. Not only liked it, but two of them
(there were only 6 students) rated it their favorite piece of the entire
class. One of them even went onto the Chandos site and bought the CD
(Grimethorpe, Brass from the Masters Vol 2, CHAN 4553). And this from a
class of Americans who'd never even heard of a brass band before. I must
say that it really helped them understand the piece to have my map in
front of them, with me checking off the milestones as we passed them
(see
http://www.buffam.com/NightSchool/ClassicalMusicAppreciation/Introductory_I/Handouts2.pdf).

"Okay," I thought, "this is great. People who appreciate classical music
can relate to brass bands. I can really promote the medium through this
class."

Ha! Then came the let down. In my second class, I followed through on
the plan and introduced Prometheus Unbound as an illustration of a tone
poem. I was surprised and disappointed that the universal reaction was
"boring." They didn't get it at all. (And one of the students in the
second class also took the second class -- and she'd liked Moorside
Suite.) I'd made no map of the piece this time -- just let them listen
to it with my program notes
(http://www.buffam.com/NightSchool/ClassicalMusicAppreciation/Introductory_II/Handouts2.pdf
) to help provide some explanation.

"All right," I thought, "maybe the lack of a map left them a bit
disoriented. It can't be the brass sound that's putting them off. After
all, the first class really liked Moorside, and /this/ class really
liked the Phillip Jones Brass Ensemble playing Elgar Howarth's /Rose
without a thorn/ by Henry VIII."

So I forged ahead and used /Belmont Variations /to illustrate the
theme-and-variations form. To my dismay, that fell flat as well, in
spite of my map
(http://www.buffam.com/NightSchool/ClassicalMusicAppreciation/Introductory_II/Handouts3.pdf).
In discussing their reactions with the students, I got the feeling that
the unfamiliar instrumentation was at the root of their failure to
relate to it. The brass band ensemble sound is quite unfamiliar to them,
and it doesn't resonate with them.

[Hey, I know this is a long ramble, but hang in there with me -- I'm
working up to a major insight here.]

Looking back, I think I can identify with feeling disoriented by
unfamiliar sounds. I myself was a brass band bigot until I was forced to
get to grips with orchestral music to get my music O-level (even though
I'd been playing in the local youth orchestra for 4 years). But having
the Haydn 102 force fed to me eventually led to my really liking
orchestral music.

Okay, let's get back to the brass thing. They liked Moorside Suite. They
liked Rose Without a Thorn. They didn't like Prometheus Unbound or
Belmont Variations. Why? What's the difference? Here's my working
hypothesis: the pieces they liked are /thinly scored/. The pieces they
didn't like are /densely scored/. (Okay the Holst march is dense, the
Belmont 6th variation is thin, but you get my drift). The students
seemed to agree with this hypothesis. The thin scoring gives a
transparency that lets them appreciate individual instruments. The dense
scoring yields a rich ensemble sound that hides the identities of
individual instruments in an aggregate that their ears are unprepared for.

I haven't yet figured out where to go from here, but I wanted to run
this experience and tentative hypothesis by all you brass band
aficionados out there and get your reactions and insights.

And if you're still with me, thanks for slogging away right down to the end.

Bill Buffam,
West Chester PA

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