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Nabba Part II

To: band list <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Nabba Part II
From: David Buckley <davebuckley@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 14:33:12 -0400

Part 3 still to come.

Dave.

Adult Brass Ensemble Competition

This competition,  held in the beautiful Memorial Chapel at Fort Myer,
may be the most important of the events surrounding the main band
competitions. Small chamber playing is the foundation of brass band
playing which is really chamber music on a large scale. Captain Andrew
Esch after the Gala Concert told me that he and Russell Gray had been
discussing this very matter. Solo playing seems always to have been the
holy grail but in terms of making beautiful ensemble music, small group
playing is tremendously useful.

This competition showed excellent skills in this area, albeit with some
variance in achievement and concept. In reviewing my notes I find
comments such as "tuning good", "limited volume range", "not always
precise", "very artistic slow movement", "over arranged", "1st movement
lacked energy", "not very convincing", "excellent", "best yet".

It must have been very difficult for the judge(s) to make decisions with

the various groups and styles presented. We had groups from "Hotcha
Gotcha", a Dixieland Ensemble from the Illinois Brass to the tubaeuph
quartet "Gravity", along with a Trombone Octet from the Cincinnati Brass

and several more traditional ensembles. Music ranged from Dixieland to
an old Eric Ball quartet entitled "Jewel" - very nicely played by the
SASF Quartet from Asbury College. Actually I had them in the top three
but the judges didn't agree. (I did have two of the top four so my
record was 50%. I'd be a star in baseball).

Results showed that the judges gave at least as high a grade to novelty
as to more traditional musicianship. The Prairie Brass Quintet's
performance of the Ewald Concerto #2 tied with Hotcha Gotcha's dixieland

for third place. Gravity's rendition of the Flight of the Bumble Bee was

second. This to me was rather controversial as the performance showed
technical skill but did not explore other aspects of ensemble playing.
The winners, The St Louis Brass Quartet, well deserved their win with a
fine performance of Timepiece by Peter Graham.

Unfortunately no announcements were made during the first half of the
competition so I cannot report a complete list of what was played. Sorry

about that.

David Buckley.

Weston Silver Band.



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