tam-tam said:
It is a difficult topic, one I am sure many adjudicators have had a few problems over in the past........and I am sure they will continue to in the future too.
I'm sure they will too.
My personal opinion is, surely, a contest is about who plays their chosen piece the best.
How does the adjudicator know the band who played Little Suite is a championship section band? For all he knows Little Suite was played by a 2nd section band and because they played it "perfect" then they should get top prize. Is that not how contests are supposed to work?
A little story for you. Many years ago I was at a contest with a band in the 2nd section. Can't remember what we played but that doesn't matter. One of the bands (2nd section - remember) played a Robert Simpson piece - Energy I think it was (or Volcano). One of them. I think there was about 9 bands in the section. Now, I am one of those people that DOES listen to other bands at contests especially those playing in the same section and the band that played the Simpson were really quite poor. Anyway, when the results were given out that band were announced as winners and the whole hall for a second or two was completely silent in disbelief. Then there was polite applause and - as you can imagine riotous cheering from the winning band.
Get to the point - I hear you shout. OK I will.
After I muttered a few expletives about "How the devil did he come to that decision?" (or similar), one of the winning band members turned around to me and said: "You know why we won. We won because we played the most difficult test piece". I retorted: "Yes you did, but you played it badly" to which he replied "Maybe so but we had a go".
My questions, therefore, are: Do adjudicators REALLY think like this? Is that really a reason to give a band first prize? Has anybody else experienced anything like this?
Surely no adjudicator would think that just because a band plays a more difficult test piece they should win no matter how they play it.
Which brings me full circle to the point of this thread. The band that played Little Suite played it perfect. Surely they should win. I know it's a 'lower' section test piece but if other bands have flaws in their performances then, depending on how the adjudicator marks, they should have points deducted for those flaws which would, therefore, make their performances not as 'perfect' as the other.
I'm rambling now - I'm sorry. Little Suite for Brass wins it for me.
Matt