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] Enjoying Contests (long)
On Fri, 8 May 1998, Alec Gallagher wrote: > Couldn't you get your teeth into a difficult piece of music without having > to wait for the next contest? You are allowed to, you know!! > > Isn't up to you, the musician, to provide the challenge to the public? > Music would never develop if musicians and composers did not provide the > listening public with new challenges... I'm sure that we'd all love to be able to set a challenge for an audience by performing works from the "serious" brass band repertoire. Unfortunately, when the audience consists of little Jimmy and his granny, an ice cream salesman from Tobermory and Mrs G. Pinnet of 9 The Cuttings, Basingstoke, they'd much rather listen to the "Floral Dance" than "Fornications for Band" or whatever the latest test-piece is. Contests provide (amongst other things) the platform to perform good music to an audience (albeit a small one at times) who want to listen to it. Of course, they also promote social and musical cohesion, improve individual and ensemble musicianship, and provide a good excuse to drink a lot of tea (or whatever that tea-coloured stuff with the white stuff on top is) with like-minded silly people. I have also heard that band contests can cure all known diseases and put an end to London's traffic problems. Cameron P.S. In evolutionary terms, brass bands (including all facets of the movement such as contesting, silly uniforms etc.) can probably be regarded as an E.S.S. (that is, an evolutionary stable strategy). The modern brass band exists because it works (for whatever reasons - musical, social or whatever), just as we all have eyes because they enable us to see, and seeing is generally a good thing to be able to do. Any changes to the brass band (whether the addition of French Horns or the loss of contesting) wouldn't last because, generally speaking, bandsmen like things the way they are. As Alastair pointed out, unsuccessful attempts have been made to include French Horns etc. in bands. Similarly, dodos didn't survive amidst the myriad of other, more successful Aves because they were generally a bit useless. Of course, even the dinosaurs died out eventually (after having dominated the Earth for an extremely long time...even longer than the time since England last won the world cup). No-one can say that in fifty years time, brass bands won't suddenly change because something new and unpredicatble happens (the invention of a new brass instrument with a ten octave range, mellow but variable tone and perfect tuning, for example). BUT (and this is the crux of this rather exaggerated point), the alternatives currently available to the brass band do not work as well as the one we use. That concludes todays lesson: tomorrow, we shall be learning why a brass band is like the Forth Rail Bridge, and designing a new kind of underwear for people with extremely large helical instruments. Cameron -- Cameron Mabon (International Biologist) cmabon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Piano, cornet and duck-call Fundamental Brass http://users.ox.ac.uk/~newc0349/fun City of Oxford Band http://www.jesus.ox.ac.uk/~cmabon/COSB.html -- unsubscribe or receive the list in digest form, mail a message of 'help' to listserver@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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