Brass band repertoire - it's development from 1821 to the 1990's.
What changes have been evident to the repertoire of brass bands since they made their appearance early in the 19th Century?
To examine the choice and style of this repertoire , one must have a basic understanding of the historical background of, what we now can term, the brass band.
In Britain, brass instruments had been played together, or with other combinations of instruments, since Tudor times. The natural trumpet, trombone (sackbut) and horn moved in and out of favour in the intervening time up until around 1815 when the piston valve, as a means of changing pitch, was invented by Blumel and developed by Stozel. This gave upper register brass players the potential to carry chromatic lines more effectively, without having to rely upon clarinets and flutes.
Village wind bands were an important part of community life and provided ".....a tradition of literate.....music.....outside the professional and middle-and- upper class enclaves in which such activity had previously been centred".
[The issue of brass band history is dealt with in greater detail in the author's work at www.bandhistory.i8.com ].
The first all-brass ensembles appeared some time around the 1820's and mid 1830's. Brass instruments quickly became popular, not unlike the guitar of today. With no commercially available repertoire, early bands had to rely upon manuscript books provided and arranged by the resident conductor. These arrangements are indicative of the musical tastes and abilities of these early ensembles.
I have deliberately chosen the year of 1821 as the starting point for my investigation. In that year, the Besses o' th' Barn Band (then still a brass-and-reed ensemble) took part in an apparently ad hoc band contest and won by simply playing the anthem God Save the King. After one listen to the top grade 1996 test-piece Isaiah 40 by Robert Redhead, it does not take a musical genius to conclude that the playing standards required to perform both it and the English National Anthem are far apart indeed! In this assignment, I shall endeavour to note certain key points in the evolution of brass band music and, where possible, give a brief background of relevant composers.
So, what music was actually played by early Victorian era bands? Few original sources still exist and, even then, a few have been unfortunately barred from the eyes of the musicologist. According to Butterworth (1970), due to a lack of "a really professional (or even good amateur) orchestral tradition, (brass bands) satisfied a thirst for good music" and that transcriptions of popular classical music and operatic themes "became the basic element" of band repertoire. He also contends that the classic English Quick March is their sole indigenous art-form given it's use in religious processions, gala days, military functions, contests and the like.
A rare example of early, purpose-composed band music still exists courtesy of the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Wales. Quite possibly the first piece written especially for brass band, it is entitled Tydfil Overture from the pen of Joseph Parry, "who became the most celebrated Welsh composer of the 19th. century". It was written for the Cyfarthfa Band which was active and quite successful throughout the second half of the 19th. Century. The Cyfarthfa repertoire can be roughly divided into three categories: the first consists of art music in the form of complete symphonies, operatic transcriptions and arrangements; the second would best be described as light music, being popular dances of the era while the third and final category would be of a miscellaneous nature, including Parry's work mentioned above. This repertoire appears to have consisted of mainly of special hand written arrangements in a nearly complete set of 105 manuscript books, although published band journals were also in use.
As mentioned previously, customised arrangements of this kind are an invaluable insight into the musical taste and ability of a given ensemble; the Cyfarthfa repertoire is also indicative of the gradual standardisation of brass band instrumentation over a period of about 70 years, from keyed bugles and opheclieides to the equipment of the 1880's that would be recognised today. The first published band music appeared in the 1830's, to be followed during the next decade by the innovation of band "journals". A band would subscribe an annual fee to a publisher and would receive in return an agreed number of musical arrangements. Many brass band journals were published from mid century, some of which were from Jullien, Boosey, Wessel, Distin, Chappell, Wright & Round and R. Smith & Co., the last two still to this day deal mainly with brass band repertoire.
Due to a lack of standard instrumentation, early contesting relied upon each participating band choosing their own competition music. This however caused difficulties with adjudication, hence the first purpose-written test-piece, Orynthia by James Melling, made it's appearance at the 1855 British Open contest at Belle Vue, Manchester. The predictable use of operatic selections or collections of a particular composer's themes as test-pieces continued throughout the latter half of the 19th. century, with Verdi's Il Travatore (1857) and I Vespri Siciliani (1880), Reminiscences of Auber (1864), Meyerbeer's Le Prophete (1869) and Gems from Sullivan's Operas (1900) being typical stock-in-trade.
[Part 2 link above]
Copyright : 1997 & 2002 by Lindsay R. Paterson, Melbourne, Australia.
