A SCHOOL BAND

Southland Times, Issue 20012, 28 October 1926, Page 6

A SCHOOL BAND

The visit of the Balclutha District High School Band this week-end, and the band’s concert on Saturday night, should provoke a feeling of envy in Invercargill which cannot show any musical organisation of the kind among its larger school population. This brass band, composed of schoolboys, has been in existence for three years, and it includes amongst its performances excellent markings from the adjudicator at the Exhibition Band Contest, where the boys competed in the “B” grade test and acquitted themselves with credit. Their performance at the Exhibition was impressive and it may be taken as an evidence of the fact that the band’s. playing is of a high standard. The boys are drawn from the High School and the primary schools,

which ensures a steady replacement of the lads who complete their school life and pass out of the band, and we understand that the organisation behind this successful effort is based on an enthusiasm developed in co-operation with the schools and not exclusively from within the school management. It is obvious that the establishment of a band cannot be undertaken without support from outside of the schools. The band’s visit to Invercargill suggests that the lead given by Balclutha could be followed with advantage here, where from the united schools a brass band could be organised without difficulty. A more ambitious scheme is opened up by the prospect of a schools’ brass band, since as part of the use of music in education it should be possible to organise an extension of the band; a schools’ orchestra and a schools’ choir. The co-operation needed for the band or for the larger scheme would unquestionably foster an excellent, spirit of comradeship in the schools. In these days there are many distractions for the young people and music is one of the things neglected overmuch, but out of a schools’ brass band much can come to assist in turning the interest of the children back again in the direction of music, and it is to be hoped that the visit of the boys from Balclutha will be the starting point of a movement locally which will finally give Invercargill a similar organisation based on its own schools.