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Personalities :
Three important conductors emerged from the 19th. Century, these being Alexander Owen, Edwin Swift and John Gladney. It is indicative that only one of these three came from a "musical" family as such, this being Gladney. The others came from a more working class background; Owen was an orphan and Swift worked in the textile industry up until age 32 when he finally become a professional conductor. He had continued to work in a knitting mill from several years despite being a successful arranger and musical director.
Contest promoters were also important to the fledgling brass band movement. As mentioned previously, Messers Melling and Jennison were responsible for the first British Open at Belle Vue. In 1859, Enderby Jackson's contest for hand bell ringers proved his organisational skill and the following year, his "great National Contest" and Sydenham Amateur Contest, run over two consecutive days at the London Crystal Palace, proved enormously successful with The Times newspaper reporting an estimated audience for the first day's massed performance of 1,200. Although this event did not survive past the following year, the seed was sown for important Crystal Palace contests some 40 years hence.
The Salvation Army :
Charles Fry and his sons played at a Salvationist "musical service" on the 7th. of July, 1878. Their music apparently proved useful in calming and focusing the gathered "mob" and this concept was picked up the next year in Consett. By 1880, the corps of Nottingham, Hull and Whitechapel utilised music as part of their worship and evangelistic activities. The Army's founder, General Booth, possibly noting some of the problems encountered by volunteer and "strayed" Temperance bands, moved to keep his bands separated from the mainstream. This consolidated in 1883 when the Salvationist's own Music Department was founded to produce it's own repertoire. Later in 1889, this was expanded into the manufacture, repair and sales of musical instruments. Most of these restrictions were to survive well into the next century.
The "Golden Age"(?) :
The popularity of the brass band movement arguably peaked around the last decade of the 19th. Century. Banding had found a voice in many specialist publications, the most famous and long lasting being the weekly British Bandsman which was founded by Sam Cope in 1887. Outdoor engagements in parks and in seaside resorts were at the height of popularity and contests offered not only cash prizes, but also instruments to the most successful competitors. Probably the towering figure of this era was John Henry Iles. In 1889, while on a business trip in Manchester, a hotel porter recommended he attend a local contest for entertainment. With no prior interest in the movement, he was highly inspired by what he saw and heard. Upon his return to London, he set about acquiring both the British Bandsman paper and publishers R. Smith and Co. With the Boer War at it's height, he proposed and organised a Grand Patriotic Concert with massed bands and gained the Royal Albert Hall as the venue with the assistance of Sir Arthur Sullivan. The major work was the Sullivan arrangement of Rudyard Kipling's patriotic poem The Absent Minded Beggar. The event was a great success and Sullivan, who had shown some initial reluctance, was greatly moved by the experience. With tears in his eyes, he apparently asked Iles, "What can be done for these fellows?" As Sullivan was one the Crystal Palace directors, he ensured that the 1900 National Brass band Championship would return there.
Dissatisfaction was growing with the use of classical art music as testpieces arranged by similar composers year after year (like Charles Godfrey from 1872 to 1908). In a visionary move, Iles commissioned Percy Fletcher to compose the first original testpiece..... Labour and Love in 1913. While meeting with resistance from conservative elements within the movement, this piece became firmly established within the repertoire and is still heard to this day.
It was Iles who organised the world tour of the Besses o' th' Barn Band in 1906-07 which took in America, Australasia, Fiji, Hawaii and Canada. They went abroad again in 1909, this time visiting South Africa. Besses' tours had a tremendous effect in the brass band world, not the least here in Australia, where their visit to Melbourne brought the central city to a standstill when thousands of well-wishers flocked to see them. At least two leading composers/arrangers led the movement from the 19th. to the 20th. Centuries. James Ord Hume (1864-1932) was a highly regarded composer, arranger and adjudicator. Born in Scotland, he became solo cornet for the Royal Scots Greys in 1880. He was responsible for many developments within the movement, such as arranging the Test at the reestablished Crystal Palace contest in 1900. He was responsible for some original band works, such as his Bohemian Suite. His adjudication activities brought him here to Australia, including the Ballarat Royal South Street contests of 1902 and 1924.
William Rimmer (1862-1936) is still regarded by some to be the "King" of brass bands. He was a top cornetist with the Besses and Kingston Mills bands, then started to train the relatively unknown Wingates Temperance and Irwell Springs bands. Early in the century he was appointed editor of the Cornet Brass and Military Band Journal and quickly gained a big reputation as an arranger and composer, especially for his marches. His contest record was most successful over the very short time 1905 to 1909.
The Mortimer family started with father Fred (born 1879) who was a highly regarded conductor, particularly of Foden's Motors Band. With his sons Alex (euphonium) and Harry (cornet), arguably "the most famous bandsman of all", the Mortimers influenced more than one generation of bandsmen with their skilful conducting and virtuosic playing. Harry's reputation started when he began cornet at age 5, his Nationals debut at 11. He was conducting the Luton Juniors at 14 and worked in theatre pit orchestras for 10 years while still in his teens. At 22 he became Solo Cornet with his farther's Fodens band and then crossed over to the Halle Orchestra in 1927. By World War Two he had been Principal Trumpet with the Liverpool Philharmonic and B.B.C. Northern Orchestras before being appointed Supervisor of Brass and Military Bands with the B.B.C. He maintained this position for many years and fulfilled an important role during the War years with band music much in demand on radio.
Difficult times :
Undoubtedly, the Great War had a disastrous effect on a movement that had already started a decline after the turn of the new century. The sheer waste of human life decimated the younger generation of players. War even effected the Belle Vue Nationals which were cancelled twice this century for "the duration" of conflict. The Twenties and Thirties saw much social upheaval and industrial unrest. Howarth speculates that the Second World War did not have the wide ranging detrimental effect that the First did, given that the Second War helped by encouraging a general boom after the Depression. Obviously, works bands connected with essential industries for the war effort benefited greatly during this time. Also, the War gave female players a chance with many bands due the inevitable absence of regular male members. The Cable and Wireless Band in London was formed in 1940 by Sir Edward Wilshaw to provide a musical outlet initially for telegram boys, but later in the War, their female colleagues were also able to join.
Later in the 1940's, changes were still afoot. The nationalisation of the coal mines caused the disappearance of some bands associated with privately owned pits. The post-war boom saw more works bands come into being while others ceased to exist when the economic bubble burst. This era also brought increased changes in leisure activities, many of which were more home centred, like television, radio and phonograph records. The late Fifties and early Sixties brought direct competition from Rock & Roll music, especially for the hearts and minds of potential young players. |
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The Modern Era :
During the years around 1970, bands witnessed a subtle shift in their entertainment activities. Outdoor work virtually disappeared for many and was replaced by indoor concerts. Since early in the century, brass bands had played in High Pitch well after the musical mainstream had moved to A=440. Instrument makers Boosey and Hawkes announced in 1965 that they could no longer afford to maintain two separate assembly lines for high and standard instruments. Over the next few years, top bands reequipped themselves with new instruments, while poorer bands had to make do with conversion of old instruments. Other, more isolated, non-contesting groups probably stayed with high pitch for an indefinite time.
Television finally came to recognise bands in a small way with the Granada Band of the Year contest, which explored the concept of "contest as entertainment". Bram Gay once said that entertainment contests ".........introduced new fans to the excitement of a band competition (with) the diversity of a band concert". Quite unexpectedly, the Brighouse and Rastrick Band recorded a hit record with The Floral Dance in 1976. However, like most novelties and fads, it was soon forgotten and did little to change "normal" people's stereotyped attitude of bands. More recently, the popular movie "Brassed Off", which also featured Floral Dance, seems to have also given the brass band movement greater exposure.
The late 1960's have been compared to the early 1800's in that, just as the Sixties saw an increase in youth bands, similar conditions existed for the seminal band movement. During both periods, brass was (and still is) regarded as hard wearing as suitable for a "decent noise" being attained quickly by learners. Thatcherism, with it's associated shrinking of education funds (hence, lack of instruments), saw a similar situation to the earliest days of banding with a lack of equipment.
Even the traditional venue of the British Open changed after 128 years. In 1982, the year that Australia's Hawthorn City Band competed, the old Belle Vue site was demolished and Free Trade Hall in Manchester was used from 1997. In 1998, the Open was in Birmingham's Symphony Hall; for the first time ever NOT in Manchester.....a point not lost on many disappointed people in the banding fraternity.
The last two decades have seen increased financial difficulties across all levels of banding in Great Britain. Inevitably, changing financial conditions and sponsorships for works bands have meant many name adjustments or wholesale changes. Anecdotal evidence abounds; No players have actually worked in Black Dyke Mills for many years and their reputation does not make them immune from financial problems. In 1996, Dyke chose not to defend their European Championship title due to the estimated 20,000 pound expense of doing so. With the closure of the Desford Colliery, it's band became Desford Colliery Dowty Band. Wingates dropped it's "Temperance" tag and, in a rather ironic development, signed a sponsorship deal with Bass Breweries! Fodens ceased to support it's band but the name was initially retained when the Britannia Building Society took over the sponsorship. Britannia eventually imposed it's name on the band, only to relinquish control more recently, thus allowing a welcome return of the Fodens name, thanks to it's new sponsor Antoine Courtois Musical Instruments.
Possibly the most telling indication of the difficulties faced by bands is the case of the ensemble formed in 1968 as the Stanshawe Band. It became the Sun Life Band in 1978 when supported by the Sun Life Assurance Society, an association which looked doubtful by early 1996 due to “business mergers and subsequent changes at senior management levelâ€. By November of that year, the band were reported as being “on the skids†with the prospect of folding without a new sponsor. Thankfully, within a month it’s members voted to “soldier on†under the Stanshawe name. The final word comes from an ex Musical Director, Prof. Walter Hargreaves, when he wrote in the British Bandsman that he was “very sad and very angry†that “players had to be paid before they would continueâ€.
Conclusion......A Positive Future? :
Despite many years of overt sexism in brass bands, most of the movement has caught up with the rest of the world regarding equal opportunity for female players. However, some top level British bands still seem to employ a "glass ceiling" mentality by simply not allowing females into their ranks . However by the late 1990's, at least one of these recalcitrant groups showed signs of softening with the fact that a high profile Championship Grade band used a female percussionist at the British Open, albeit on an emergency basis!
A quick look through any recent British Bandsman weekly will invariably picture or mention one of the many youth bands which are multiplying at a pleasing rate throughout Great Britain. Despite the doomsayer predictions for the brass band movement, I am confident that it will continue to grow and evolve into the next century, not only thanks to this new generation of keen youngsters, but also due to a more open minded approach from it's participants. |
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