A Brief History of the Development of Brass Bands in Great Britain.
by Lindsay R. Paterson.
Copyright 1997 & 2002, Melbourne, Australia.
Brass Bands did not first appear in a form that we would readily recognise today.
The Harvard Dictionary of Music (1970) may not be incorrect in defining Brass Bands as simply “a group of brass instruments”. However, the actual instrumentation that would now identify what we refer to as the “traditional” British-style Brass Band, has seen many decades of development and evolution throughout much of the 19th. Century. However, this is not to state that that brass instruments have not been associated together prior to this period of history.
Early instrumentation :
The ancestor of the Trombone (or Sackbut in old English) first arrived in England in Tudor times and was played mostly by foreigners, many of whom hailed from Venice. From the early 1500’s, Trombones held important functions of playing chamber, dance and processional music. Later in the century they came to support sacred music and, at times, were actively involved in church liturgy. Apart from royalty, provincial employers of trombonists were the “waits” who were initially formed during the Middle Ages to act as watchmen. Part of their function developed as instrumentalists who would play to “raise alarm or.... herald a distinguished visitor”. The somewhat tenuous role of waits in the later development of seminal brass bands will be discussed later. By the early 18th. Century, the Trombone had fallen into disuse, only to be reintroduced into Britain in 1784, once again in the hands of imported musicians.
Unlike the Trombone, natural Trumpets and Horns were not fully chromatic, given the absence of valves at that time. They played only the natural harmonic series. Trumpets lent themselves admirably to militaristic uses and slowly gained in popularity with the decline of the Trombone. They found a lasting voice in the music of Purcell, Clarke and Blow.
Early instrument groupings :
The earliest military-style bands which featured brass and woodwinds appeared in the 1600’s, but they gained greater popularity mid way into the next century. They usually consisted of 6 to 12 players who would play from a selection of percussion, trumpet, clarinet, fife, flute, horn, bassoon, serpent and (sometimes) trombone.
Church bands came about in rural areas, doubling and supporting song parts. This was due to the 1644 Puritan ban upon church organs. While not every organ disappeared, instrumental ensembles were the logical step to redress the widespread lack of accompaniment for the liturgy. Neither did every church form it’s own band. Instrumentation mainly consisted of strings and woodwind, brass was rarely utilised. However when organs began their general reappearance from the late 18th. Century, displaced musicians moved in a more secular direction, possibly laying the foundation for latter day community ensembles.
“Bands” were often cited as being an important part of community life and celebrations in the first decades of the 19th. Century, but little if any detail survives concerning their actual instrumentation. Herbert (1988) offers an interesting possible background to the three main present-day band movements in Britain :
- the present day BRASS band is roughly the modern equivalent of the City Waits;
- the Salvation Army is the modern day church band;
- the modern Military/concert band is descended from the original British Army bands.
While the first point may carry some validity, the other two are maybe a little tenuous. True, one can draw what seems to be obvious similarities in the ethos of old church and Salvationist bands, however the first Salvation Army ensembles came about with the voluntary introduction of instrumental playing by members themselves and NOT from any known link to established groups from the established mainstream church.
The British Army influence cannot be ignored in the formation of community bands. The two most striking, and lasting, similarities are the presence of marches in the present day repertoire and the general wearing of uniforms by bands at every level of ability. When soldiers, with their attendant bands, were sent to areas of unrest during the turbulent social period of the Industrial Revolution, the workers who went on to form the early bands were obviously impressed with what they saw in the military music scene, (if not the brutal methods employed to put down the disgruntled populace!). There is more than a hint of irony that Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, venue for more recent British Open band championships, is sited upon the former St. Peters Field, place of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. It must also be noted that army musicians returning from the Napoleonic conflict would have moved back into civilian life with an ongoing interest in music making in a band context.
By the early 1800’s, few “waits” survived and those that did by 1835 were obliterated by the Municipal Corporation Act of that year. However, there seems little evidence to propose that former city waits had any pivotal influence upon early brass/pre brass groupings.
Early military, church and village bands provided “an important legacy for the eventual development of the brass band movement” in that “a tradition of literate, instrumental ensemble music making outside the professional, middle-and-upper class enclaves in which such activity had previously been centred”.
Pre ‘brass-only’ ensembles :
Over many years of banding activities, there has been debate as to who is the “oldest” band. An immediate problem was, and still is, the lack of reliable evidence to substantiate a claim of longevity. The other problem is the actual instrumentation at time of formation.
Several top brass bands have their roots far back before all-brass ensembles. Besses o’ th’ Barn Band started life as Clegg’s Reed Band in 1818 (although Howarth suggests the 1790’s), and later changed it’s title to Besses o’ th’ Barn Military Band. Black Dyke Mills Band, arguably the most famous brass band in the world, began in 1816 as a brass and reed group in the Yorkshire village of Queen’s Head (now Queensbury) with one John Foster as a member. Foster ultimately founded a textile mill in 1854 and took on the struggling village band as part of his weaving enterprise. By the late 19th. Century, other bands were also claiming a distinguished lineage. The Stalybridge Old Band commenced in 1814, competing in the first know contest in Sheffield in 1818. The New Mills Old Prize Band started in 1812 as a brass and reed ensemble, as did the Coxlodge Band in 1809.
