the

Brass Band

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ISSUE 9, JULY 1982

YAMAHA MUSICAL PRODUCTS, . ..of Grand Rapids,Michigan has again sent a check to cover the printing, typeset-ting and mailing costs for four additional issues of this newslet-ter. (As mentioned before on several instances, your editordonates his efforts "to the cause"). We all owe the folks atYamaha our sincere and genuine appreciation for the help theyprovide "in building bridges.' This eminent music instrumentmanufacturer has come to the fore in helping visibility of thegrowing brass band movement in Canada and the U.S. And forthis fine assistance we all can, in turn, purchase our brass bandneeds from Yamaha.Their complete line of musical in-struments will fit the instrumental requirements of any brassband. So, we say a special thank you and a tip of the hat toYamaha Musical Products! !

A NEW STORY OF SALVATION ARMY BANDING,. . . isbeing written during June and July, 1982, with the WorldTour of the New York Staff Band and Male Chorus. This tourhighlights the 95 year history of the NYSB and focuses inter-national attention on its ministry in music.

The tour will take the band to Salvation Army Congressesin Norway and Sweden, Centennial Celebrations in Sydneyand concerts in Melbourne, Australia, as well as Festivals inWellington and Auckland, New Zealand,. Over 20 Festival per-formances are scheduled for the 17 non-travel days of the touralone, with 5 days scheduled as "free" for sight-seeing, laun-dry, and catching up on lost sleep. The remaining days aredevoted to traveling and engagements.

Widely acclaimed as "America's Foremost Brass Band," theNYSB has the dual responsibility of presenting the message ofthe Gospel in music and conveying the spirit of God's love.

The band. under the baton of Bandmaster Derek Smith hasdemonstrated its vast repertoire, which ranges fromtranscriptions of the great symphonic works to contemporarysounds to traditional "Army" marchep and hymn-tune ar-rangements, in concert halls and cathedrals, on television andradio, as well as on street corners.

Regularly released, professionallv produced record albums

are available, the most recent releases being "BRAVO,"featuring Philip Smith, CoPrincipal Trumpet with the iriewYork Philharmonic, former cornet soloist with the NYSB, andson of the bandmaster of NYSB, Derek Smith; and "THE AM-BASSADORS," the official 1982 World Tour souvenir album."The Ambassadors" will be available at festival locations andboth are available from The New York Staff Band, 120 West14th Street, New York, N.Y. 100f 1.

The New York Staff Band, comprised of 30 officers andemployees of The Salvation Army in the Greater New Yorkarea, is a volunteer group; time spent rehearsing and playingat engagements is in addition to the bandsmen's respon-sibilities in Salvation Army finance, legal, youth, public rela-tions, property, social service and evangelism departments.

Although this is the first world tour for the staff band, theband has toured the United Kingdom and Europe in the past,as well as extensive tours throughout the United States andCanada.

Activities that will be coming up after returning from thistour include the following:

September 18, Welcome Home festival - CMT - NewY o r k

September 26, Sunset Park Corps. BrooklynOctober 16, Calvary Evangelistic Church - Essex Fells,

N.J.

James C. Kissen Jr.

TIIE EIRST NORTH AMERICAN BRITISH BRASS BANI)CIIAMPIONSHIPS,...aTe being planned for April 23, 1983'The location will be at North Carolina State University inRaleigh. This past May, the British Embassy brought over Mr.Peter Wilson, former organizer of Great Britain s NationalBrass Band Championships and present Editor of THEBRITISH BANDSMAN, to help the Founding Committeedevelop plans, operations, rules and regulations, and policiesas close as possible to the way the British contests are run.Although not quite complete as this issue of THE BRIDGE"goes to press," plans for the funds to administer the Cham-pionships, prize money to be awarded, and other such

This issue is brought to you by the YAMAHA MII

necessary financial support are being sought from a large in-ternational f i rm. Negotiat ions should be completed in the verynear future and public announcements wil l be rrade. The Foun-ding Committee for the f irst NABBB Championships is madeup of the fol lowing: Bi l l Bennett, Harvey Bosell , RichardTrevarthen, Perry Watson, Bert Wiley, and Peter Wilson.

THE CAPITOL ENGLISH BRASS BAND IN SALT LAKECITY, UTAH, . . .had many good rehearsals through thewinter months (having had to cancel only a couple of t imes dueto severe snow storms). We had several concerts this spring.In one performance, the St. Patr ick's Day Parade in Salt LakeCity, the band rode on a f loat provided by Capitol Glass Com-pany, our sponsor.

Roland Held, our f irst chair tuba player, is doing a tremen-dous job on two luba solos: "Tuba Tapestry" by Michael Brandand "Rondo" from Mozart 's 4th Horn Concerto. Roland wil lperform one or both of these solos in future concerts. Otherconcer t se lec t ions w i l l inc lude - "Punch ine l lo , " "Men o fHarlech," "Pirates of Penzance," "Ir ish Washerwoman,""Paloma Blanca," "Rondo" Mozart arransed for Eb tuba."Russ lan and Ludmi l la , " "P laymares" (corne" t duet ) . "Wal tz ingMat i lda , " "B i l l y Boy , " " Imper ia l Echoes, " and "Bat t le Hymn o fThe Repub l ic . "

,rack Wynn, our conductor, is doing some f ine writ ing and ar-ranging for our band. Some of his arrangements now in ourl ib rAry inc lude - "Come, Come Ye Sa in t i , " "Bat t le Hymn o fThe Republic," "Paloma Blanca," "Beauti ful Dreamer,""Alford Fantasia," "Russian and Ludmil la."

Armed Forces Day held at Salt Lake's Fort Douglas was agood exposure for the band playing a noon concert. Among themany visi tors to the Fort were two guests of the band sponsor,Doug Brown and his wife, Joy. ?he visi t ing couple, Mr. andMrs. Richard Earle, hai led from England's charming town ofBogner Regis on the south coast. These brass band enthusiastssaid the most enjoyable number played by the band was "Sen-sation," a dixieland number arranged by conductor JackWynn.

The band also played for the tradit ional Memorial Day ser-vices before a very f ine audience which had many mil i tary aswell as city dignitaries. Once again the band was highly prais-ed for i ts performance. A st irr ing Echo Taps was sounded bymusicians Manuel Garcia and Dave Runyan, our solo and assis-tant cornet players. The July 23 and 24 concerts wil l again bepresented in the Mormon Tabernacle here in Salt Lake City.

The Band has grown in strength to twenty f ive dedicatedplayers, so this should improve the band's performances dur-ing the remainder of the summer season.

- Cecil T. Garrison

SINCE ITS REORGANIZATION A YEAR AGO. . . theChester Brass Band has made musical str ides that place i tamong the f inest community bands in the Marit imes. Underthe direct ion of Gordon McGowan, the fame of the band hasspread to the point of recognit ion in the international bandpress on both sides of the Atlantic. As one music cri t ic hassaid: " i t has now been transformed into a complete and highlytrained brass band, including both local talent and other brassenthusiasts from a wide area."

At i ts f i rst concert last November the Chester Brass Bandwas given a standing ovation before a large and enthusiasticaudience. On that occasion the Band was heard in concert withthe Dartmouth Choral Society. The idea of bringing togethervocal and instrumental talents was continued in "SoundingBrass and Voices," a Festival Concert produced on Sunday the16th May at the Chester Municipal High School. On that occa-sion the choral talent was provided by the Aeolian Singers,under the direct ion of Claire Wall . The Band was conducted byGordon McGowan, and the Master of Ceremonies was RonHill, host of CBC Radio's program "Bands in Concert."

The Aeolian Singers, a choir of some forty women's voicesfrom Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, come from various musicalbackgrounds and col lect ively sing in f ive languages with adiversity of repertoire spanning f ive centuries. The choir hassung in numerous communit ies in Eastern Canada and beenheard frequently on CBC Radio and Television. For theC h ^ q t e r 1 n 1 1 . : r ] + l c g h ^ i a f e 2 l g f c . l a r . i i c \ \ ' r r -

" - r

THE RIVER CITY BRASS BAND OF PITTSBURGH. BOBBERNAT. CONDUCTOR

T H E M E T B O P O L I T A N S I L V E R B A N D O FTORONTO, . . .through Laurie Brookes, sent this writer arecording of the band and a very informative letter. It is ourpleasure to share this information with our readers. Lauriewrites as follows: "This band goes back a long way. We havejust celebrated our fift ieth birthday. The band is unique inthat it was originally a church band, playing at theMetropolitan Church every Sunday morning and evening andin the summer in the afternoons. We presented band concertson the lawn, etc. Over the years the band has changed (as weall do) with the church sti l l as our home but most of the con.certs occuring in and around Toronto with frequent trips outof town. Our repertoire is very broad, as you can tell from therecord, as we play to a wide variety of audiences. We are alsovery fortunate in that our band manager, Ken Allen, is an ac-complished arranger, which helps enhance our repertoire. Youwill hear one of his arrangements "Here's That Rainy Day" onthe record. Our membership averages forty with a wide rangeof ages from late teens to middle seventies. Many of themembers literally grew up with the band and at one time therewdre several father and son combinations. We are also proudof the membership of a young lady on flugelhorn, which breakswith old traditions of male only. We have made a total of threerecords, all successful with the last recording down to the lastremaining dozen records. Have any other bands cut records?How about tapes?

We are pleased to share this information about this bandwith the readers of this newsletter. The recording receivedwas well done and contained a nicg assortment of l ight andentertainig music. Thanks to Laurie and the MetropolitanSilver Band for sharing this information with us. Laurie maybe contacted at 649 Glengrove Avenue W, Toronto, OntarioM6B 2H9.

\ICAL PHODUCTS of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Elgar and Martini in classical vein, and devoting one section ofthe program tb a group of folk songs.

The Chester Brass Band played music by Meyerheer, Gor-don Jacob, and brilliant arrangements by the most popular ofcontemporary writers for brass band - Gordon Langford. Theconeert was the occasion of a premiere performance of theDivertimento by the dean oI brass band composers - EricBall. This three movement work was written for the brassband contests that are a feature of the international bandmovement. It provided a highly technical and musicalchallenge to the band, yet one which appealed to the generalaudience for its melodic content and contrast of style. Toround out the program three selections paid tribute to the F.E.Butler Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, this yearcelebrating fifty years of existence and service.

- J.R. Fraser

O N O N D A G A C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E B B A S SBAND, . .better known as their Brass Sinfonia, conducted byProfessor James Mosher, was invited to participate in thatcommunity college's Festival of the Arts this past April. Jimwas kind enough to send a program indicating the type ofmusie they are performing and a list of their personnel. This isthe typieal brass band utilizing a conical bore instrumentationin conjunction with the two tenor and one bass trombones.Among the music the Brass Sinfonia presented was "A FestivePrelude" by the American, Stephen Bulla, "Arioso andCaprice" featuring Stuart Smith on flugelhorn solo, by RonaldHamner, "Summetime" featuring Fred Houser as vocal soloist,by Gershwin, and "Call of the Sea" an overture by Eric Ball.

CHARLES LIETWILEB HAS SENT THE FOLLOWINGINFORMATION. . .for the pleasure of our readers. Charlesreports that he went to hear the U.S. Army Band's new brassband last April. He says they are using French horns and anEb trumpet due to intonation problems with the tenor hornsand Eb cornet. Charles states that their program was ex-tremely ambitious and included twelve different selections.Among those were Elgar Howarth's "Parade" and Dean Gof-fin's "Rhapsody in Brass." James Cox was featured as hornsoloist in "Swiss Melodies," John Muller was featured aseuphonium soloist performing "Believe Me if all ThoseEndearing Young Charms" and Henry Sgrecci played "Napoli"on cornet. Charles writes that this brass band will not be ableto play another concert until the Fall because of the very fullschedule of other commitments. Captain David Dietrick is theconductor of this brass band. He has a Salvation Armybackground and wanted the brass players to have the oppor-tunity to play something other than the music they normallyplay for ceremonies and other functions.

The Rockville Brass Ensemble has worked out an arrange-ment with Dr. Ernest Wolfle and the Montgomery CommunityCollege. Dr. Wolfle will become the conductor of this groupand this band will rehearse at the college giving two concertsper semester. He will also direct any outside coneerts thisbrass band presents.

Charles also writes to remind everyone that he hastransposed parts for many brass band selections for Bb tubasand trombones. Some other instruments also have bass clefparts. For further information please contact Charles atLll2SSchuylkill Road in Rockville, Maryland 20852.

BRITISH BAND WOBKSIIOPS,...were offered this sum-mer in three different loeations. John Kincaid held a brassband workshop from Monday, June 28 through Friday, July 21t {estgrn State College in Gunniso4, Colorado. As readers ofTHE BRIDGE might remember, John has traveled to NewZealand twice to visit brass bands and the National BrassBand Championships there. He also attended the SoundingRrass offering at Marlborough Cnllees ir t lnrrcpd He hai

visited a number of brass bands now organized throughout theUnited States. Also offering a brass band workshop wasRobert Bernat and the River City Brass Band of Pittsburgh.Mr. Roy Newsome, internationally recognized conductor, ad-judicator, composer, and arranger, was the special guest ofthis event. The dates for this event: July 12 through July 23.This offering was sponsored by the William C. Whitney Foun-dation. Finally, North Carolina State University held a fourday short course on July 6,7,8 and 9. Richard Trevarthen, con-ductor of the Smoky Mountain British Brass Band and yourstruly provided the leadership for this offering. Glenn Call serv-ed as guest clinician and soloist as well as participating in thisshort course.

A YEAR WITH THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN BRITISHBRASS BAND,. . .Being a general manager of a brass barrdmakes it uniquely possible to see the band operations on a dai-ly basis; to keep in very close, literally daily contact with thedirector; it gives one the opportunity Jo see a band grow, todevelop, and to see the moments of crisis, pressure and jubila-tion.

All these I have seen and more too, in my first year asmanager of the Smoky Mountain British Brass Band. I am aconfirmed believer in the brass band. I love the sound, themusic, the camaraderie. But it is a full life, a busy life themanager leads.

group, and the number of programs presented.Within the past year, approximately September of 1981 to

July/August 1982, the band has performed well over twentytimes. There have been relatively few ehanges in the person-nel. We are not yet playing to overflow crowds, but every per-formance is enthusiastically reeeived, often with cheers,bravos, standing ovations, and lots of applause. This makes usall feel the worthwhileness of our endeavor.

Weekly rehearsals, selection of new music, arrangingworks, writing and commissioning new works for the band. . .ifthe growth has been tremendous, so has the work and the in-volvement of each person within the group. The band hasplayed on college campuses, for local arts councils, governmen-tal agencies, the Knoxville World's Fair, and self-sponsoredconcerts. One of the highlights of our year was to be a par-ticipating band in the Fifth Annual British Band Festival heldon the campus of NCSU in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 24.

The band has been so well reeeived that we often get requests to play and have even had to refuse offers to perform.But we are seeking the opportunities to share our tremendousmusical heritage with others.

Yes, it costs money to travel, to buy music, to print prcgrams, and to keep our currently small operations going. Weare financially in the black, we are most happy to report, butpresently nearly our entire income must be steered towardpayments for our fine Yamaha instruments, The commitmentof each band mernber is truly unique as we all must travel longdistances to our weekly rehearsals. This does not representsaerif iee, but outitanding dedieation to the organization as no

Smoky Mountain Brit ish Brass Band isrs old. but the th has been absolu

member receives even travel expenses at this point. We are inhopes that will change before long.

We are setting our goals very high and thus we look forwardto another year of making music and sharing this music withmany audiences.

- Bert Wiley, manager

BASS CLEF PARTS,. . .for brass band music are becomingincreasingly available. There are several music publishers nowsupplying both treble clef and bass clef parts for the tenortrombones and Bb tubes. (In certain instances, euphonium,baritone, and Eb tuba/bass clef parts are also provided.) Thesenew additional bass clef parts are available lrom the followingaddresses:

Magnamusic-Baton, Inc.10370 Page Industrial Boulevard

St. Louis. Missouri 63132

Rosehil l Music Publishing Co., Ltd.The Old House64 London End

Beaconsfield, Bucks. HPg 2JDEngland

Wright & Round, Ltd.Pierford BuildingsParliament Street

Gloucester GL1 1HYEngland

Hallamshire Music53 MeadowheadSheffield S8 ?UB

England

Additonal suppliers of brass band music are as follows:

Banks and Son (Music) Ltd.Stonegate

York YO1 2AUEngland

Chandos Music Ltd.41 Charing Cross Road

London WCz OAREngland

R. Smith & Co. Ltd.P.O. Box 210

Watford. Herts. WD2 4YGEngland

Studio Music Co.77-79 Dudden Hil l Lane

London NW10 IBDEngland

Boosey & Hawkes {USA)200 Smith Street

Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735

Theodore Presser CompanyAttn: MR. Eugene Moon

. Bryn Mawr, Penn. 19010

This list of music publishers and suppliers does not attempt tobe a fully comprehensive list, but rather it does offer ad-dresses for those readers needing suchlinformation.

TWGTEN RECORDINGS ARE BACK,. . .issuing new recor-dings for brass band enthusiasts. Two new issues are availablewhich feature the Fairey and the G.U.S. Bands. These recor-

dings are available on cassette only in response to thepreference from many customers throughout the UnitedKingdom for tape rather than disc.

The Fairey Band recording, their first under their newmusical director, Geoffrey Brand, features the "Carnival Over-ture," the Eric Ball masterpiece "The Undaunted," a brandnew Phillip Sparke composition entitled "Barn Dance andCowboy Hymn," "Rag-Time Parade" by Satie, a brand newpiece by Harold Noble entitled "Nocturne," a flugelhorn solofeatured in "Over the Rainbow," and "Prelude No. 22" byBach, arranged by Michael Brand.

These first recordings on cassette only from TwoTen areavailable form R. Smith & Co., Ltd., P.O. Box 210, Watford,Herts. WD2 4YG, England, and cost approximately $7.25 eachplus postage and mailing.

T H E W E S T O N S I L V E R B A N D O F W E S T O N ,ONTARIO, . , .through a letter from their conductor, DouglasField, indicates that things continue to go well for the WestonBand, There have been several personnel changes during thelast year with Ron Will iams assuming the position ofeuphoniumist, a two time national solo champion of Wales.They have added two very fine trombonist, another solo cor-net and a new soprano player. Doug says they are sti l l lookingfor a couple of good percussionist, and with that exception,their membership must be considered closed. He does indicatethat they would consider anyone who would significantly im-prove the band's abil it ies.

Last year they played over forty engagements and heldrehearsals for all but four weeks. Their recording continues tosell well and he says it is now available from the Weston SilverBand at $8.00 by mail.

The improved standard of playing has meant that they areable to program the following selections: "Kenilworth" byBliss, "March Bravura" by Himes, "Ritual Fire Dance" anang-ed by Street, "Music for Greenwich" by Gregson, and "SimonCalled Peter" by Vinter. Solo repertoire includes "Fantasy forEuphonium and Band" by Sparke, "Nocturne for Flugelhorn"by Wood, "Grandfather's Clock" by Doughty and for trombone"The Acrobat" by Greenwood.

Perhaps the most interesting news that Doug writes con-cerns a recent eoncert of brass band music by the University ofToronto Brass Choir, who played instruments and music own-ed by Boosey & Hawkes (Canada) sponsor of the event. Dougindicates that it was well attended and warmly received. Douggoes on to write, "Most of the students had never heard abrass band, but what a fine group they could be if they becamea fixture! Their program was quite conservative by theUniversity of Toronto standards but it was exceptionally wellplayed - such intonationl They gave us the "Overture HenryV" by Ralph Vaughan Will iams, "Resurgion" and "FourPreludes" by Ball, "Doon Valley Suite" by Street, and "SuiteNo. 2 in F" by Holst. It was a most satisfying event and GeorgeUllmann of Boosey & Hawkes (Canada) is to be congratulatedfor his initiative."

Many thanks to Doug and the Weston Silver Band for thisinteresting and informative report. We are pleased to sharethis information with our readers. The Weston Band may bereached at P.O. Box 513, Station "A", Weston, Ontario M9N3M3.

This issue is brought to you by the YAMAHA MUSICALPRODUCTS of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

UNTIL NEXT TIME, . . .that's fine for now. Let's hear fromyou !

J. Perry WatsonP.O. Box 5937University StationRaleigh, NC 27650