Impressive Display By National Band

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30687, 1 March 1965, Page 16

Impressive Display By National Band

A musically delightful, colourful and spectacular contribution to the Pan Pacifiic Arts Festival in Christchurch was made by the National Band of New Zealand during its performance at the Addington Show Grounds yesterday.

The warm reception the band received from the thousands of people who packed the stands and southern embankment of the oval reached a tumultuous peak with its marching display finale. Resplendent in their new uniforms .of scarlet and navy, the bandsmen played together for the second to last time before leaving on a tour of the United States and Canada on August 5. Conducted by Mr Norman Thorn, its musical director, the band chose a technically difficult number for its first item in “Slavonic Rhapsody No. 2,” by Carl Friedermann.

The band followed up its success with the “Thunder and Lightning Polka” and a xylophone solo by Walter Sinton in “On the Track.”

The deputy conductor, Mr Frank Smith, took over the baton for a paraphrase from Gounod’s “Faust” This was followed by the “Post Horn Gallop” with' Lloyd Lee as soloist, and a “Cavalcade of Marshal Songs” by Horatio Nichf

No less well-received by an appreciative audience was a selection of items by the massed bands of Woolston, Derry’s, Addington Workshop and Woolston Auxiliary. A similar recital was given later in the programme by the massed bands of Kaiapoi, Rangiora, New Brighton, Sumner and Lyttelton. Without doubt the highlight of the spectacular side of the programme was the intricate and complicated routine of the National Band

as it performed a 14-minute series of figures which took its members from the compact formation of the band almost to the limits of the oval.

Led by Drum Major E. W. Musgrove, of Blenheim, the band performed echelons, a split formation, a double diamond, cartwheels, hollow squares, a butterfly, a double centre piece, circles and arrow figures. The bandsmen then regrouped from an explosion effect to form a double V and finally the letters NZB for the National Band of New Zealand.

Pipe bands and marching teams provided a colourful variation and contrast between brass band items. The Christchurch Metropolitan Highland Pipe Band, New Zealand’s champion B grade band, led by Pipe Major A. McAlpine, gave a fascinating display of precision marching movements. The Canterbury Caledonian Society Highland Pipe Band later gave. Pipe Major G. Steel an opportunity to display his dexterity as he led them with a staff-flourish-ing exhibition.