100% agreed!
Whilst I often rant and rant on here, and often make people fall asleep at the same time! I agree 100% with Mr Bousie and the others on this one.
The problem banding has at the moment is that everything is contest driven (more or less). We have a cultural drive to compete against each other and improve. However, if the actual contests we attend are not run by one body that bands are a part of and have a say then it is a bit absurd. With the greatest respect to the BfBB what can they do even if every band gave them a little more money ? Could they take over the running of all the contests ? Possibly, very slim I'd imagine.
The repertoire situation particularly irritates me. There are some who hark on about looking back at the tradition that British brass bands have got. Yeah, fair enough, everyone has to appreciate those who have invested their lives into the running of band contests etc. BUT if we listen to these people who say "aye, it wer good in the olden days" then a) we wouldnt progress (or rather we'd regress as Mr B I think said) and b) we wouldnt evolve with the musical times and would remain a museum culture that people would fondly go and hear when they want to think of the olden days when they were young. ONE LESSON that we could take from contesting in the past is however, a commisioning policy that meant new pieces commissioned for every 8 out of 10 years at the National, a feature that often occurred at different times during the 1930's, 40's and 50's either in the British Open or National final. Check the facts and you'll see what I mean. There are other issues as well, such as the amount of different adjudicators from different backgrounds used, you can also see these in any historical data that you can get hold of (this is digressing too far off the point!). If people insist on ranting on about the past and how good it was, then lets employ the facts as they were in the past, i.e new commissions every year, and all the other things that used to be utilised.
Its a sad state of affairs altogether when a person who can take bands to another audience and not just band fanatics is jostled out by a company who even in name is a promotional entity i.e all they care about is how much money they can get out of the punters who go to the final in London. Mr Hindmarsh leaving will no doubt pave the way for more transcriptions at the contest because the punters used their feet to come to listen to Enigma Variations a million times, whilst probably noticing that people weren't so fond of the contemporary music that has been played of late i.e Maunsell Forts or Prague, admitedly in the Open and Area respectively. Whilst having a large crowd at the finals is always nice, with all due respect the general public don't attend these contests, banders and band fanatics do, but Joe Bloggs who comes to most of our concerts don't even know there is a National Finals let attend it. We are in danger of narrowing our audience to a specialist only event and as was pointed out on 4barsrest comments, there seems to be less and less bands going to contests or in existence. Does this suggest that we are gradually declining as a movement ?
After having played Holst and Elgar in the Majors last year I hoped that would be the last we would see of transcriptions for at least another for or five years. If you want to play a transcription to an audience, you can do it in your concerts ?? The audience there would perhaps know it better than most in a contest audience. The transcription was a vehicle that bands needed to find an audience, it used them at the beginning of contesting for this purpose. Yet over a hundred years later we still want to rely on them ! Perhaps it would be interesting if the transcriptions were from Mahler, Bruckner or Shoshtakovich or even push the boat out and have a large scale contemporary work written by a living composer transcribed with his permission ? I'd probably bet now that the next transcription will be something by Mozart or Beethoven. Today, here, now, in the 21st Century its about time we developed our repertoire even further by having more original music, intended for the purpose or use of brass bands and not return to being the proverbial magpies that steal other genres music.
I have an idea of how much Mr Hindmarsh likes brass bands since I am currently being taught at Sheffield University by his brother who is equally curious about brass bands but works as a professional in other sectors of music. It is sad that we inherently shoot ourselves in the foot continuously when it comes to changing and introducing new repertoire, not to mention getting rid of those who could possibly have an ounce more perspective on music than those wholly integrated in brass bands who perhaps do not have the required amount of perspective to give clear ideas on the direction that banding should take.
Rant well and truely over!
