I was surprised because I didn't expect their performance to be enough to come third in the contest. I'm not suggesting that they didn't deserve it but didn't think that they brought it to life as much as some of the other performances I heard.Originally Posted by Leggy
I didn't expect Burry Port to be placed 20th either!
I'm not saying that the adjudicators got it wrong but just that I was surprised by the outcome!
You could always say that you clearly won the singing contest in the Goat on Saturday evening!!!
No doubt about that!!!
I agree, Major Parkes was very good, both on the day and in the lead up to the contest.
The Championship section has become like the Football premiership in that some bands have money to pay expenses, ship in players from Europe and/or the Southern hemisphere and generally attract some of the best players.
We, like several other bands 'competing' have no sponsorship so raise our own funds and cut our cloth according to our means. We had quite a few inexperienced members (my only previous test pieces being at the area and Ebbw Vale). We had to be realistic and target 'mid-table' as a good result. Major Parkes was realistic all week. He said that we could not out-blow the big bands so had to make another approach.
We would play the dynamics concentrating on the quiet parts of the piece with graduated controlled dynamics as it was after all a transcription of an orchestral piece. For example at figure 12 the violins would be playing so a fortissimo tremelo would not have to be blown off the copy.
The tempo was important as Major Parkes predicted the fast and loud approach of many bands. The Allegro assai has a tempo of 136 minims.
The whole piece is written in 4/4 or 2/2 so the importance to all sections was stressed that we did not play compound rhythms. Listening to each other, a simple concept, would help in tuning.
Unfortunately with a draw of 13, the styles were already given to the adjudicators before we came on.
The opening is pianissimo and with the bands I heard before and after us, the Solo Horn played at least mezzo piano in the interests of safety. Baritone and Cornet are only at piano and most were mf. I would stick my neck out and say that we were the only band to play the correct dynamics at the beginning!
I heard some super exciting performances which rightly placed bands above us but in several areas the bands played in compound rhythm, many above tempo and most above dynamics.
In our performance, there were nerves shown in some split notes and a few tuning issues and also we did not have a vast dynamic range. However I feel that adjudication should deal with fundamentals such as dynamics, tempo, rhythm and tuning and not knock a band for being too quiet at pianissimo.
I must stress that these are only my views and on a positive note, I really enjoyed my first taste of the Nationals, hearing (and seeing) some outstanding bands and players. I must also express my gratitude to Major Peter Parkes for his hard work, encouragement and obvious disappointment for the band. I and the rest of the band learnt a lot from him!
Mike Saunders
Solo Horn - Cardiff Canton Band
http://www.cantonsa.co.uk
Solo Horn - City of Cardiff(Melingriffith)
http://melingriffith.co.uk//
Update: This weekend I will post the results of the fun tMP Prediction Competition. Apologies for the delay in getting these results up and on display for you all... I am in the USA at present on business and literally choc-a-bloc, but will be back home on the weekend when I can get this all sorted for you.
Please help promote tMP...!!
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Carl, any comment? Perhaps highlights from the two Regent Hall concerts plus the winning performance?
You could truthfully say you were 1st.
(from bottom, in very small print)
Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, however wrong it is...
All adjudications are now available from Kapitol's website:
http://www.kapitol.co.uk
Chris.
... and interesting reading they are too!
Igg
- great that Kapitol are making them public as such!
It's not how you play ... it's the way how you play it!
tMP Banding Boffin Award 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, tMP Saddo Award 2007, tMP Best Picture Award 2008
My Public Domain Arrangements
....as it appears that none of Messrs Whitham, Read and Relton can tell the difference between an Eb soprano cornet and a Bb cornet !!!
Mike
I dont seem to have seen them yet .any news?
Did anything happen with this?
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