The Brass Band Forum

Here is a copy of an item I put on the brass band mailing list:

I have a question about concert bands (aka military bands and wind bands).
I have formulated an opinion, which I freely admit is out of ignorance of that
movement and wanted to post that opinion here since some of you may have
experience of that instrumentation and can let me know how correct or
otherwise I am to feel this way. I would like to be proved wrong since I am sure
that the concert band medium has much to offer and is an untapped resource.

I have always felt that concert bands' conservatism makes brass bands appear
positively open armed in its choice of music. What I mean by that is
that the music that they play is only old marches, film music, music from
shows/films of the '30s and overtures. Now do not misunderstand me, this
music has much to commend it, but it seems to me that that is *all* they play.
When I confront people with this I am always told that I am wrong, but when I
ask for concrete examples (and I don't mean just the odd exception that proves
the rule - I mean examples of village bands playing more thought provoking
programmes) no examples are forthcoming that convince me.

Also I realise that we in the brass band movement aren't always blame free,
nearly all programmes are predictable and lack even one item that can be said
to be courageous, but we do at least play some challenging music, even if
that is usually restricted to the contest arena. [ Aside - the situation is far worse
in the UK than overseas in this respect ] [ Aside 2 - too many boringly
predictable programmes of yet more arrangements of TV theme tunes and the
like isn't going to attract a new audience to our movement ].

My thesis is that the reason for this is the contest scene is much weaker in
the concert band arena, and this has not helped that movement. Discuss (to
coin a phrase).

[ I do not include symphonic wind bands in this statement, they often play very
exciting and demanding music on the part of the listener ]

-Nigel

Nigel, Concert Bands,Wind Orchestras,Military Bands,Symphonic Bands and the like use the same wide range of music as Brass Bands In fact bands like Croydon Symphonic Band, Kew Wind Orchestra, XBY[Ex Bromley Youth], Linden Wind Orchestra often play music written in the last 10 years or premiere pieces.
Of course they choose pieces from the last 200 years as they see fit! Just as any Band might choose to do.

If you contact BASBWE or any of the Bands mentioned I am sure they would fill in the details.

Eddie,

Thanks for your reply. Please clear up a point for me.

"Croydon Symphonic Band, Kew Wind Orchestra, XBY[Ex Bromley Youth], Linden Wind Orchestra often play music written in the last 10 years"

1) They're all wind orchestras, not concert bands, so may come under this phrase: "I do not include symphonic wind bands in this statement". Admittedly I'm just assuming from the name of the bands, it may be that they are all community wind bands, not symphonic bands/orchestras.

And also here's a point for me to clear up.

2) The age of the piece is not the issue here, the Rite of Spring is nearly 100 years old, it is the style that is my point.[/quote]

Nigel,
The names, rather like Brass Bands eg;- Welfare, Silver, Temperance,CO-Op, mean little in practice.
Croydon...up to 60+ players; community class band for contests under BASBWE auspices.
Kew...30 players; open[championship?] class forBASBWE contests.
XBY....40 players;open class as above.
Linden....30 players;would be open class if they cared to resume contesting......and so on.
They play[currently] Bourgeois, Sparke,Ellerby,Woolfenden, Bernstein,Shostakovich,Tchaikowsky,Walton,Hess,Arnold Morton Gould,Percy Grainger,Binney,Copland .....need I go on[?]
Just like Brass Bands even 'the lesser lights' select from all eras according to their capabilities,
Eddie
PS;- Money dictates,as with almost all Bands, what they can buy and thus play.

Maybe it's a regional thing then? Because I've never seen
any of that type of music played around here.

-Nigel

Following on from my earlier thread about moving over from brass bands to concert bands,
I went along last night to my first concert band rehearsal for a long time, where they ran through
a simple march of mine that I know works for brass band. I wanted to learn how much I would need
to work on it to make it suitable for concert bands.

I was not ready for the imbalance between the brass and woodwind. Let me reword that, the imbalance
was *much* larger than I had expected. Naturally one knows that the brass section will balance louder
(particularly if the conductor isn't on top of balance all the time) and one must never generalise from
one example, nevertheless I was not ready for how large this gap is. In that sense I achieved from the
evening just what I wanted, to start to learn about writing for concert bands. I'm going to re-orchestrate and take
it back next week and see if they'll run through it again.

-Nigel