James Yelland
Active Member
Peter Parkes, normally such a sensible and talented chap, has made a number of comments in this quarter's Brass Herald that make me wonder if the strains of age are catching up on him. For example:
Why do we have to compete against each other? We all know the answer - without contesting their would be little or no new music and certainly nothing at all from first rate composers.
Well, it all depends what you mean by first rate composers, of course, but I can think almost instantly of several dozen repertoire items by people that I would count as first rate which were never commissioned, written or intended as contest pieces. And with a bit more time to think, I'm sure between us we could come up with several hundred more. I'm not sure if Parkes is including those composers who bandsmen tend to think of as 'in-house' composers as first rate - Philip Sparke, Edward Gregson and so on - but even amongst them there are dozens, if not hundreds of non-competitive works. And from other sources, well..........Harrison Birtwistle, Robin Holloway, Thea Musgrave, George Benjamin, Stephen Oliver, Alan Rawsthorne, Peter Dickinson, Alan Hoddinott, Hans Werner Henze - the list goes on and on. The idea that there would be no new music if there were no contests is demonstrably untrue. And even if we didn't already have a large body of work to disprove Parkes' theory, the implication that individuals, bands and associations would not commission new music, or that composers would not simply write new music unprompted, is absurd.
Since 1928 almost every one of Britain's greatest composers has provided at least one work for use as a test piece.
Except perhaps Benjamin Britten, Sir Michael Tippett, William Walton, Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, Sir Harrison Birtwistle..........
Again, it depends on who you consider to be a great composer of course. Parkes mentions Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams. Then again, there are many who would argue whether the last two mentioned come into that category. Parkes did well to say 'almost every one', but even so, it was a rather thoughtless statement.
Parkes goes on to contrast the alleged lack of 'great works' in the wind band medium compared to the brass band medium.
Where is the catalogue of great works for their medium? It hardly exists....(except for Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy).
Again, it depends on what you call 'great works'. Parkes implies that the brass band repertoire is bulging with them. If you accept that great works are only written by great composers, I wouldn't say that the brass band repertoire is exactly overflowing with them, would you? Parkes mentions the works of Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams. Whether all three are truly great composers is debatable, as is the question of whether the pieces they wrote for brass band are great.
My knowledge of wind band repertoire is limited, but even I know that Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Gounod, Milhaud, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Peter Sculthorpe, Alan Bush, Dominic Muldowney, John Corigliano, Robin Holloway, Thea Musgrave. David Bedford and Paul Patterson have all contributed to the wind band repertoire - and if Parkes' defintion of 'great' includes our 'in-house' composers, you can add Philip Sparke, Edward Gregson, Philip Wilby, John McCabe, Derek Bourgeois, Gordon Jacob and Joseph Horovitz to the list.
I've had enough now. I would have written to the Herald to put these points but they don't seem to have a letters page. i'll probably get much more feedback and debate here. :wink:
Why do we have to compete against each other? We all know the answer - without contesting their would be little or no new music and certainly nothing at all from first rate composers.
Well, it all depends what you mean by first rate composers, of course, but I can think almost instantly of several dozen repertoire items by people that I would count as first rate which were never commissioned, written or intended as contest pieces. And with a bit more time to think, I'm sure between us we could come up with several hundred more. I'm not sure if Parkes is including those composers who bandsmen tend to think of as 'in-house' composers as first rate - Philip Sparke, Edward Gregson and so on - but even amongst them there are dozens, if not hundreds of non-competitive works. And from other sources, well..........Harrison Birtwistle, Robin Holloway, Thea Musgrave, George Benjamin, Stephen Oliver, Alan Rawsthorne, Peter Dickinson, Alan Hoddinott, Hans Werner Henze - the list goes on and on. The idea that there would be no new music if there were no contests is demonstrably untrue. And even if we didn't already have a large body of work to disprove Parkes' theory, the implication that individuals, bands and associations would not commission new music, or that composers would not simply write new music unprompted, is absurd.
Since 1928 almost every one of Britain's greatest composers has provided at least one work for use as a test piece.
Except perhaps Benjamin Britten, Sir Michael Tippett, William Walton, Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, Sir Harrison Birtwistle..........
Again, it depends on who you consider to be a great composer of course. Parkes mentions Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams. Then again, there are many who would argue whether the last two mentioned come into that category. Parkes did well to say 'almost every one', but even so, it was a rather thoughtless statement.
Parkes goes on to contrast the alleged lack of 'great works' in the wind band medium compared to the brass band medium.
Where is the catalogue of great works for their medium? It hardly exists....(except for Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy).
Again, it depends on what you call 'great works'. Parkes implies that the brass band repertoire is bulging with them. If you accept that great works are only written by great composers, I wouldn't say that the brass band repertoire is exactly overflowing with them, would you? Parkes mentions the works of Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams. Whether all three are truly great composers is debatable, as is the question of whether the pieces they wrote for brass band are great.
My knowledge of wind band repertoire is limited, but even I know that Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Gounod, Milhaud, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Peter Sculthorpe, Alan Bush, Dominic Muldowney, John Corigliano, Robin Holloway, Thea Musgrave. David Bedford and Paul Patterson have all contributed to the wind band repertoire - and if Parkes' defintion of 'great' includes our 'in-house' composers, you can add Philip Sparke, Edward Gregson, Philip Wilby, John McCabe, Derek Bourgeois, Gordon Jacob and Joseph Horovitz to the list.
I've had enough now. I would have written to the Herald to put these points but they don't seem to have a letters page. i'll probably get much more feedback and debate here. :wink: