B GRADE BANDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 75, 25 February 1938, Page 11

B GRADE BANDS

SECOND TEST TO HAWERA, ASHBURTON WIN AGGREGATE. The fourth major event in connection with the Dominion brass baud contest, at present being held in Palmerston North, ivas finalised last evening, when, with the second, test selection, the B grade championship was decided. The winners were the Ashburton Silver Band with an aggregate of 239 points, while Wellington Boys’ Institute one point behind, were second and Dannevirke Municipal Band, with 235 points third. Ashburton were fourth in the first test and second in the second test; Institute were first in the first test and third in the second; while Dannevirke were second in the first test and fourth last night. The second test selection was won by the Hawera Municipal Band, which is making its first appearance in_ the contest arena. It scored 130 points, being no fewer than eight points ahead of the second band, Ashburton. Commenting on last evening’s playing, th 9 judge (Mr E. P. Kerry) said that there had been some wonderful B grade performances and there had been some very poor ones. The winning band had given a really splendid interpretation of the piece, and maintained good tone throughout. Details are as follow : B GRADE SECOND TEST SELECTION. (“Stabat Mater,” by Rossini.) HAWERA MUNICIPAL (conductor, Mr H. C. A. Fox), 130pts. 1 ASHBURTON SILVER (Lieut. WH. Osborne) 122pts 2 WELLINGTON BOYS’ INSTITUTE (Mr A. Ironmonger) 118 pts.. 3 Dannevirke Municipal (Mr W. H. Tougher), 116pts 4 Te- Awamutu Municipal (Mr R. H. Close), 114pts 5 Christchurch Municipal (Mr R. Simpson), 107pts 6 Hastings Citizens (Mr Chas. Bryant;, 94pts. 7 Wellington Artillery (Mr W. H. Bowman), 89ipts 8 Feilding Municipal (Mr J. Fleetwood), 84pts 9 Palmerston North City (Mr W. O’Hara), 83pts. 10 THE CHAMPIONSHIP. B GRADE TITLE. Ist 2nd AggreTest Test gate Ashburton Silver . . 117 122 239 Wellington Bovs’ In. 120 118 238 Dannevirke Munici’l 119 116 235 Christchurch Munici’l 118 107 225 Hawera Municipal ... 94 130 224 Te Awamutu Municipal 88 114 202 Wellington Artillery 100 89 189 Hastings Citizens ... 85 94 179 Feilding Municipal 89 84 173 Palmerston N. City 86 83 169 After the results had been announced the president of the New Zealand Brass Bands’ Association (Mr E. Palliser) .• congratulated the Ashburton Band on their success. He said he had watched the band’s career, and it had a fine record. Mr Palliser also complimented the Hawera Band on winning the second test at their first contest. ' Cheers were given for the winners. FINAL SOLO EVENT. TENOR TROMBONE. (“Jeannette and Jeannot.”) H- Croucher (Hawera Municipal) 92pts 1 J. Glennie (Wellington • Boys’ Institute) 84pts ... ... 2 G. Langridge (Timaru Municipal) 81pts 3 Also competed.—W.' L. Payne (Dannevirke Municipal), 79pts.; A. M. Wills (Invercargill Citizens), 70pts.; A. B. Marston (Christchurch Municipal), 67pts.; L. Abraham (Wellington Tramways), 66pts.; W. Campbell (Timaru Municipal), 65pts. ; R. Woods (Palmerston North Garrison), 64pts.; W. Smith (Wellington Tramways), (32 pts.; T. Denne (Waipukurau Town), 60pts.; G. P. Smith (Feilding Municipal), L. Redmond (St. Josph’s Orphanage), M. W. G. Buckley (Napier Technical), W. Moore (Ashburton Silver;, retired. Mr Kerry, the adjudicator, said the winner gave an outstanding performance in tone quality, interpretation and expression. He had heard some very queer renditions of this solo. He could not tolerate glisando, which was not true trombone playing. If competitors wanted to so play they had better join a jazz band. In ihe B flat cornet solo championship, the result of which was published yesterday, Mr T. Goodall described the class of playing as very poor. Most of the pLayers imagined more trouble than there really was, consequently they did not get the results they should have. The winner gave the best performance of the caprice idea.

Regarding the euphonium solo contest, the result of which also was. published yesterday, Mr Kerry said he was terribly disappointed with the playing. There was only one competitor with euplioniuim tone and unfortunately he was not up to standard. He had heard 6o many toned instruments during the event that lie had begun to wonder. He had never heard such euphonium tones in his whole career. Many players had not studied the solo. He had had 54 years under the composer (Owen) and must have played the composition 2000 times, so knew what the composer required. There were several good technicians, but, taking the section as a whole, he was sadly disappointed. WANGANUI GARRISON BAND. DEPARTURE TO-DAY. Owing to the bereavement sustained by three members of the Wanganui Garrison Band —the death of Mrs Francis, wife of one member and mother of the conductor and another member—the band lias witlidi awn from its further contest engagements and left for Wanganui this forenoon after 'accompanying the funeral cortege through the streets of Palmerston North.