BANDSMEN'S COLUMN

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 85, 16 May 1914, Page 5

BANDSMEN'S COLUMN

Last Sunday afternoon Derry's Band did what other bands of our city should do—they went to the hospital and played a programme of music to enliven the drooping spirits of the sick. There is nothing more pleasing and nothing that gives more cheer to those who are afflicted than music, and those who give their services for such a cause are deserving of praise. I would like to suggest here that less use be made of the bass drum on such occasions—percussion instruments jar on the nerves of those who are weak and sick. After the music was finished, the band had their photograph taken. It ought to be a first-class one, for it engaged the operator for an unusually long time. STRAY NOTES. Mr Duggan, conductor of the Linwood Band, has resigned. Mr Duggan has worked hard for the past few years to bring the band to an efficient state, but has found, as many other conductors have done, that it is not a path of roses. Mr Lever, their long and well-tried secretary, who has spent some 20 years in the ranks and feels that a rest is well earned, and that some of the younger blood should be given an opportunity of trying their skill, has also resigned his office. On Monday night the band held their annual meeting, when the year's business and other matters were dealt with, and it is probable that many changes will take place. I cannot deal fully with this at present, but shall do so in another issue, when things are more settled. The Lyttelton Borough Council, at a recent meeting, decided to support their baud by a subsidy of £2O, with a desire that more music should be given by way of public concerts. The Masterton Municipal Band will in future be recognised as the 17th Ruahine Regimental Band. The new band recently formed in connection with the Workingmen's Club is having good rehearsals.

The Otahua Municipal Band held its first annual meeting on April 30. The year's results were: Subscriptions £l2 6/6, collections £ll 2/1, benefit entertainment £l2 9/-, and sundry other sums, making a total of £74 19/11. The expenditure left a balance of 5/-. The band's assets were £7B 5/-. The Territorial Band has a few weak places in its playing—too strong in the cornets as compared with the bass, ditto regarding horns, trombones, etc. In other words, the band is not well balanced. The cornet section is by far the strongest, which, of course, does not produce good results. Perhaps Conductor Siddal] will be able to soon remedy this. POINTS WORTH PRACTISING. No sensible cornet player resents the desire of his "helper" when said '' helper'' wishes to try a solo. Never let .an instrument be idle. Get a learner ou it. Encourage learners to take private lessons. Encourage old members to give private lessons. Very few (if any) brass band players ever become great unless they have private lessons. Good tone production is the keynote of good playing. Every member of a band should be looked upon as a possible soloist, and treated accordingly. There is no good music where there is bad tone. A band that starves itself for music will always be a starveling. A band which is broken up into cliques cannot prosper. Bands cannot be run successfully without funds. Bands cannot be run successfully without discipline. Music cannot be made sense of without careful phrasing. A wrong note is not so bad as a wrong interpretation. Bvery brass band player should feel the effect of his own part as it affects the rest.

(By "MAESTRO."

It is just as easy to talk without using the tongue as to play a brass instrument without using it. PHBASING. (Continued.) Lastly, observe the contrast produced by a succession of accented emphatic notes followed by a series of soft ones. Follow the gradations from pianissimo to fortissimo, and the nuances through which the artiste passes from the height of passion to the softest accents of tenderness, and 3 r ou will well understand the chief elements of good execution. These are the phenomena which an attentive hearing of a fine and expressive piece of music unfolds before us. Let us enumerate them once more. The accented notes which excite the movement of the head and foot and make us feel the time pulsations, are the metrical accents, which appeal especially to the musical instinct. The accented notes which coincide with the beginning and end of the line mark the different cadences and closes of the phrases, and fragments of phrases, and are called the rythmical accents; they appeal especially to the musical intelligence, and are to music what punctuation is to speech. Lastly come the accented notes which occur, apart from the metrical and rythmical accents, in an exceptional and unexpected manner, and are capable of displacing the time or key note, changing the mode and- breaking the regularity of the metre or rythm. These are called the expressive accents. They appeal chiefly to the. musical feeling/ Here, then, we have: — The metrical accent belonging to the instinct.

The rythmical accent belonging to the intelligence, and The expressive accent belonging to the sentiment.

In spite of the importance of the bar, metrical accent must give place to rythmical accent, and both must in turn give way to expressive accent, which will always take the lead and rule the others.

The emotional element embraces the irregularities of time, such as accelerando produced by the excitement of the artiste in the effort of his passion, the impulse given by a uniformly descending structure, or the rallautando resulting from fatigue or exhaustion and the excitement of the passion, or from the presence of a sudden and unexpected obstacle in a complicated structure. The contrasts arising from the succession of loud and soft phrases, erescendos, and diminuendos constitute the nuances.

The general tempo, however, is the all-important matter in the execution of a piece; everything depends on it, not only the strength of the metrical, rythmical, and expressive accents, but also the character governing the entire rendering. Good time is the soul of all good execution, and well deserves to be regarded with the same importance which Archimedes attached to the fulcrum. Indeed, knowing the exact tempo of a piece, it would be quite possible to add all the other details of accentuation and expression, were these marks left out.

You will observe thus far I have tried to tell you how to listen to an artist singing or playing. T.'ien consider the why and wherefore of the effects he produces, and copy them. After an impatient amateur has been blowing for weeks at a piece of music without studying its structure, its rythmical lines, its phrases in short, what a revelation it is for that said amateur to have an artist like Mr Paley, Mr .lackson, or Mr Owen pick up his cornet and play it, almost upside down, as some bandsmen would say; in a twinkling of an eye these men would learu more than I or anyone else could teach them in a month of writing. Still I hope these few remarks will greatly assist those who wish to imurove.