BNADSMEN'S COLUMN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7701, 9 May 1903, Page 7

BNADSMEN'S COLUMN.

♦ * (By "TROMBONE.") j PASSING NOTES. "I The New Zealand: Band has arrived in > England, and New Zealanders will have an account of its performances before long, for the " Canterbury Times " has made complete arrangements for the doings of the band to be fully chronicled in ita "Bandsmen's Column," also in the "Star." The-infor-mation will be interesting to all, and especially so to the lovers bf brass band ! music. By Home exchanges, "Trombone" I notes the band is being heralded in a j worthy manner, and success appears to be , assured. J Mtf Ernie Jamieson, the well-known Ohristchurch Garrison bandsman, has taken up bis residenoa in Wellington. Mr JamieEon Went to the Empire city (rom here with Messrs J. C. Williamson's- Company. Ofcristcliurcb bas suffered a distinct loss in 3>fe Jamieson's removal, and Lieutenant Meirton, in particular, will find his place hard to fill. He was a Christchurch boy, and was a> pupil of Mr H. Poor. With the piccolo, clarionette and glockenspiel he >lid splendid service here in the band and eeveral musio societies. It is to be hoped that he will beiback again amongst ns ere long. I Mr A. D. Simpson, bandmaster of the I Tai Tapu and Prebbleton brasa bands, met with a painful accident recently, which will incapacitate him for some weeks. He fell come twenty feet from a building scaffolding, and landed on the ground on his back. Hia was a miraculous escape, for had he fallen any other manner, the result must have proved fatal. As it is, Mr Simpson is considerably hurt, but, with a. prolonged rest, wili pull through all right. Lieutenant Merton, of the Ohristchurch Garrison Band, has received a parcel of eplendid music from Messrs Boosey and Co. Amongst the selections is a very fine one, " Ten minutes with Wagner;" which should prove to be a popular item for next season's municipal concerts. Boosey's Journal is now known as " Boosey's Brass and Beed Band Journal." It is under the editorship of Idr Ord-Hume. This journal is an old one,' for it was origmially " Disfcin's," till taken over by the present big English firm bf Boosey and' Co. The Christchurch Garrison Band members will have something to keep them interested all through the winter, in working up the many good • pieces that hp,ve come to hand from Boosey and Co, and the Christchurch citizens will be the real gainers next season. During iit Duggan's absence, Mr Cecil :Hoskin, of Kaiapoi, took charge of the l .Elite Band in its recent engagement at ' New Brighton. The members accorded Mr Hoskin tt hearty -/vote of thanks. % The Kaikoura ifexaes Band 'has resumed its practices under the leadership of Mr T. Cooke. The band! has not be-an too fortunate of late, but, under Mr Cooke, a new era oi brightness is promised. Earnest i practice and enthusiasm are tcequiredi with--Wjfc which noi 'band can succeed. Note this Well, Kaikourians. . .i ...... ion Tn connection with the. band contest to beheld in Timaru in October next, Messrs Charles Begg and Co. 'have generously offered the following valuable special prizea : — A gold-mounted pretentat ion 'baton in suitable case, valua £7 7s, to be presented to the conductor of the brass band eeccring the unost points in the selections .and points fan omusio in the quickstep march; one. "Guards" pattern side drum, best British make, value £5 Be, to be presented to the pipe bandl scoring the most . points in the test ipiece and! music in the : iwickstep competition. The obifcuairy column of the "Oamaru Mail" contains the . announcement of the .daatfh, on the Wesb Coast, of Mr W. J. . Byfodtitetn^aa old Oamanrvian and ex-mem-ber 01- the Wihite Stone City's fa/maus Garrison Band. Mr Maddern, faan.3iarly known as "Jack," wa<s only for*y-s'x years of age, and was of a most modest and' retiring disposition. Never a great soloist, he nevertheless, one of those invaluable bandsmen who form the foundation of a good band, and 'for many years foe was one of the mainstays of the old Oamaru Garrison in the baas Eeotion. Be was quite at home on the " G " trombone, amdi produced! a. solid musical tone upon that instrument. Godfrey's arrangement pf "Cinq Mars" contains some fine effects for the "G " elide, and in this selection Mr Madldem was heard at his bast. He was associated with the Oamaru Band in its ear-lier contests, snd for several years prior to his diea,th he was on tha West Coast. Many bandismeni throughout New Zealand held "genial Jack in the highest esteem, and! with them and his old comrades of the fair city by the »?a " Trombona " joins in extending dieep syanpathy to the deceased's relations. There is a .growing feeling at Home agaomst bands playing long selections at opeii-air conloerts. Air "Gladiney Bays that a band that cannot please a judge in five minutes cannot do so in fifty, and it appears tha;t in tlhe panks the general audience stands in the placo of the judge, and gets wearied <w-ith long mediocre selections. Our ©hristcbunch ibands camnot, so far, he .jhairged witih this faoilt, audi it is to' ba ''joped tihery never will. About eight miniates of one .piece is quite enough to satisfy the thousands of entbusiafitio listeners at out municipal concerts. The invention of tlho sli<se trombone is lost in aintiquity. . An amcient trombone iras lound in the ruins of Ponapeii, whew it bad lain Ibur&dl for nearly 2000 yeais. It : lacsk€id many o>f our modern improvements, but its tone waa beautiful and its ifrtojiation (perfect. * Rossini became a master of orchestral effects by scoring the works of Haydn and Mozart. He as generally spoken of as an idle man, but in his early years (eighteen td twenty-five) he "VVTOte four or five operas every year, and even then it took lum aU Ihis, time to support Himself and his aged patents. In fact he worked hard until he ■was a thdrough master of his craft. Talking about home practice, the Brass Band News" has the following sensible rematks in reply to a correspondent's query : —"Many bandsmen make home practice ai nuisance to all around them. Ifc is not so much the 'noist' that people object to as the unmeaning noise, and the senseless hard blowing that some young fellows induce in.' They ought to be muzzled. Practise the (Ma,lcs slowly and deliberately for ten minutes, and then turn to a raise or a» quadrille, . or an air vatic, or an exercise that is within your reach, and put in halt an iottr at them* Do not waste youn strength nor ruin your lips by silly ranting, | but t?y to imaginb that a first-class judlge iU.; listening to you every time, and try to please him. If you will do tliis you are; boUhd to succeed. Keep your eyes open to tee wbat you a» reading and your earq ©iten to hear what you are playing, and you .wfflrinake more pAgresfl in one year than *ODW of the silly ' blowers VwiUm ten, ion > ihey are sure to stick in one plaoe. Putl twnsinto it; that is th« /thing. •Hew Is *pme excellent advice from ' Wdeht and Round's famous band journal anx& home practice :--" Wo really^ cannot tee' How an amateur band can rise to arstrtass exc^llenoe unless the pracSTafc home. Even if the band met every nfrhfc for tiH. rehearsal it wftuld not alter Proper home practice means personal study. It means searching out ippz defects and not txyum tp hide them.

All tbe good players we have ever known have done much" home practice, because they loved it in the first place, and because they knew that there was no other way to succeed. Herbert Scott, tlie great «uphonium player, working in the mill, gob only half an 'hour for breakfast, bufc he managed to gefc ten minutes' practice out of it, and in I the dinner hour he would g-et a full half- ■ hour at it. And this he kept- up for yeaxs I without a break. We could tell tho same tale of fifty other famous soloists. Practice, properly managed persistent practice, is the royal road to success. You cannot have a good band unless all tho players are good,, and the players cannot be good unless they put in plenty of home practice." •By the deaitfe, of Dr Joseph Parry, on< Fefo\ 17, Wales lost her greatest (musioal ' genius. Dr Parry iwae born at- Mertbyn in | 1841, and' "was the son of an iron worker, at j wtotoh trade ha worked 1 himaelf until he was , seventeen. In his early youth, he removed wiuh his parents to Dannvilie, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and there 'he showed such fluency in composition tihat this friendis raised fund's to eroaible h-iiri to enter the Royal Academy, London, as a student, whence 'he giradiualtod! Otitis. Ba«. at Cambridge, talking Ihis Doctors dlegree two years later. He wafer a fine old gentleman. Hrn adjudications weve aJlfcays- 4'iven without bias of any land. All reo-l music was good music to 'hiim. To- hear hiim read' this notes on o. brass 'band -performa-nce was to ba lost in wonder as to how te could analyse , a (performance 'bar by bar as he did. Of course, he wrote in shorthand ; but, even allowing for that, his performance remained a mystery.