2008 Australian Band Championships

Preview: A Grade

Brisbane City Hall
Adjudicator: Stephen Roberts
Test Music: Dances and Alleluias, Philip Sparke
Hymn and Test Selection Saturday 22 March 3.15pm
Own Choice Selection and Stage March Sunday 23 March 2.45pm

This is possibly the most keenly anticipated contest in the Southern Hemisphere for sometime.

The question is for most observers, can Brisbane Excelsior make it four wins in a row?

The main challengers appear to be Dalewool Auckland Brass under the direction of Nigel Weeks.  Several key signings have been announced recently, but will this be enough to allow the Auckland Band to take the title?

Kew Band Melbourne will also fancy their chances.  Double winners nearly 10 years ago, the band has consistently achieved podium places recently.  This contest is conductor Mark Ford's last.  Can they control the emotion of this occasion to produce the elusive winning performance?

Another band sure to be in the frame is Gunnedah Shire Band.  Under the highly energetic direction of Jason Katsikaris, this band all but won the New Zealand Championship at its last major outing.  

Katsikaris is forging a successful conducting career in the UK.  Will his skill and experience be enough for the band to take the title for the first time in its history?

Perhaps the ongoing saga of different sets of player registration rules from State to State and across the ditch, causing an unlevel playing field, will create renewed controversy, highlighting the need once again for one set of National rules.

Chief Adjudicator, Stephen Roberts, will have the task of sorting the bands out in the cavenous acoustic of the Brisbane City Hall.  How much detail will be lost, and will this problem have any influence on the final result?  After so many years of repeated, well-qualified complaints, the organising committee have opted to ignore these and use this same venue.  Should logistical issues over-ride the need to obtain the best acoustic for performance?

The Own Choice competition gives listeners a huge variety of works with not one choice repeated amongst thirteen.  Selection include: Extreme Makeover (de Meij), Vienna Nights (Wilby), Dove Descending (Wilby), Macbeth (Meechan), Apocalype (Bourgeois), Music of the Spheres (Sparke), Essence of Time (Graham), Paganini Variations (Wilby), Montage (Graham), St Magnus (Downie), Contest Music (Heaton), Harmony Music (Sparke), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Graham).

It is interesting to see Dove Descending as now being an acceptable choice given the 18 minute time limit.  The assumption is there will be a cut of some sort?

All in all, a very close contest in ensured, with guaranteed maximum interest in many directions.

The Test Piece: Dances and Alleluias by Philip Sparke

Philip Sparke's Dances and Alleluias will provide a stern but musically satisfying challenge to all bands.  The test piece was used for the 2006 English Nationals, and again in 2007 for the Spring Festival Senior Cup.

This is what 4BR thought of it at the time...

When you know you are about to hear a test piece by Philip Sparke you can be forgiven for thinking its going to be like popping on a nice old comfortable pair of slippers that have been warming by the fireside for the past half an hour. You would be badly mistaken.

Mr Sparke does in fact make musical slippers like Manolo Blahnik makes wonderful shoes for women: Colourful and great looking, sharp and brilliantly engineered, with just the right hint of danger and the unexpected.  You know exactly who made them and what they will be like to wear. If you can carry them off they make you feel like a million dollars, but if you suffer from chubby ankles and toes like mini hammer head sharks then beware. You will come a very expensive cropper.  

However well you think you know what Philip Sparke does, he still has the priceless gift to put a few drawing pins in the bottom of your socks just in case you think he's producing just a run of the mill piece of high class music. Try running before you can walk on any test piece he has written and you will soon suffer musical blisters the size of dinner plates.

'Dances and Alleluias' is a case in point.

On the face of it here is a piece that has all the familiar Sparke hallmarks splashed right across just about every page of the score. The technical side of the music is supremely well engineered, whilst the flow of lyrical, warm and subtle musical themes continues to capture the ear in its endless varieties of style and timbre.

You may think you have heard it all before, and with this work there are similarities in style to previous compositions such as Harmony Music, Partita and Tallis Variations in particular, but just when you thought you were entering that comfort zone, he gives you the equivalent of a Chinese Burn or a stamp on the toes and off you shoot in a different direction. Clever ain't the word for it -  brilliance is. 

The composer writes in his preface to the score that he felt he had gone as far as wanted when he composed ‘Music of the Spheres' and that he wanted to write what he describes as ‘absolute' rather than programmatic music. He wanted to keep the same degree of emotion, but perhaps not all the bells and whistles that he employed with Spheres to achieve the same goal. He seems to have succeeded.

The crux perhaps comes with how he interprets the ‘Alleluias' of the title. These are not interjections of praise in their religious sense (and not to be confused with the interjection ‘Halleluiah', which is more of a specific exclamation of praise). Here he uses it in a more liberal sense – that of the vocal expression of joy, possibly religious, but not entirely so.

There are a number of these throughout the work, separated as they are by various faster and slower episodes of thematic material.  Again it is important to point out that there is no religious context to these sections of the work either and it perhaps more appropriate to suggest, as the composer notes, the music is much more about the relationship between the thematic material, how it links and develops and how it changes in structure, form and musical feeling towards its magnificent climax.

The work opens with a real test of ensemble quality. In fact quite a few performances will either be earmarked for success or failure here by the three judges for certain. There is no escaping the need for quality of balance, warmth, dynamic control, and above all, tuning. The first of the ‘Alleluias' comes quickly thereafter.

The first of the ‘dances' is reached at figure 51 marked Allegro Vivo that is marked for its need for ensemble clarity and balance. The first echoes of ‘Tallis' appear here before the energy of the music disperses before figure 116 and euphonium solo. The music develops with all of Sparke's superb use of lyricism with the trombone leading the way and in turn answered by both the soprano and euph again at figure 139. 

The climax at 156 is huge with a joyous afterburn. For those with a keen ear the section marked Vivace at 169 brings back memories of Harmony Music and this moves on with a real sense of fun and enjoyment, but with some pretty difficult technical hurdles to overcome for the euph at 299, followed by baritones and horns. This is all about lightness of touch, especially right at the end where the xylophone leads with a touch of real delicacy allied to precision from the brass ensemble.

A point to note with regards to percussion is that its use in the piece is quite sparse compared to most test pieces for this level. The cleverness though is that what they have to do is always intergral to the music and not just for slap dash effect. Mr Sparke is perhaps the best percussion writer for the medium we have ever had – so perhaps others should make a note of what he does and doesn't need to use here.

Back to the music, and the baritone then proclaims the final section with a quasi cadenza that requires great flexibility of thought and execution. This then leads to the start of the fabulous build to the end with huge demands made on the solo cornet at 440 in particular. The final choral like Alleluia then appears before the composer really goes to town and allows the best bands to display their ability to play at full voice, but with balance and warmth.

'Dances and Alleluias' is typical, yet untypical Sparke. You feel at home and at ease with the sounds you hear, tense and anxious at the technical tests for the band and soloists, and fulfilled when they are overcome and a fine band is playing to the top its form as it reaches the huge ending. It asks all the right questions and gives us plenty of right answers too.

Philip Sparke is a wonderful composer for brass. Now well into his fourth decade of test piece composition for the medium (Land of the Long White Cloud appeared in 1979) he continues to surprise and delight with the intuitiveness of his work. You can enjoy his compositions time and time again without ever getting bored, even though you somehow in your minds eye know what you are going to get even before the first note is played. That is no cheap trick – it is a sign of a true master craftsman. Even Manolo Blahnik might agree. 

Iwan Fox

The A Grade sections of the Australian National Band Championships will be streamed live over the internet in 2008.   If Brisbane is too far away, but you are still keen to watch and listen to the action as it happens log on to www.themusicpage.com and watch for free!

Brisbane Brass, QLD    
Conductor: Greg Aitken

Have achieved consistent results in previous Nationals and should, once again, be capable of putting on a solid show.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - did not compete
2006 - A Grade 4th
2007 - did not compete

Brisbane Excelsior, QLD     
Conductor: Howard Taylor

A huge contest for XLCR.  Going for a feat which has never been done before - four National titles in a row.  The band struggled to find players towards the end of last year but regrouped early in 08.  

Consistency in key chair players, boosted by a couple of guests, will be the bands strength.  Can they do it?

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 1st
2006 - A Grade 1st
2007 - A Grade 1st

Capricornia Silver Band, QLD    
Conductor: Dennis Ilott

Have been in consistent performers in A Grade at the State level but will struggle against the front runners here.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - did not compete
2006 - A Grade 17th
2007 - did not compete

Dalewool Auckland Brass, NZ    
Conductor: Nigel Weeks

Will be champing at the bit to take the Firemans Helmet off-shore.  Nigel Weeks will have the band in tip-top form and should give performances not to be missed.

Revenge could well be sweet for Dalewool.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - did not compete
2006 - A Grade 3rd
2007 - did not compete

Darebin City Brass - Preston Band, VIC    
Conductor: Jason Mears

This band has been steadily improving in the last couple of years.  A spirited bunch who ooze enthusiasm on the stage - will be great to see them in action.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 9th
2006 - A Grade 8th
2007 - A Grade 11th

Footscray Yarraville City Band, VIC    
Conductor: Phillipa Edwards

Will be musically tight, well prepared and worth listening to.  Could well produce an upset at this contest - though some of us would not be surprised.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 7th
2006 - A Grade 15th
2007 - A Grade 3rd

Gunnedah Shire Band, NSW    
Conductor: Jason Katsikaris

All eyes and ears will be on this outfit.  The band got themselves together on weekends and have been working very efficiently under master-trainer, Bryan Hurdley.  Jason Katsikaris arrived back in the country only in the last few days, but don't think this will be a problem.  

The only question is whether or not they have had enough time together, including time with their UK based Principal Cornet.

Could very well rain on XLCR's parade.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - B Grade 1st
2006 - did not compete
2007 - did not compete

K&N Spring Gully Brass, SA    
Conductor: Dr Kevin Cameron

Always a strong band and this time will be no different.  Long standing MD, Bruce Raymond, will be watching from the wings on this occasion as health reasons have forced him to stand aside.  

Once again, David Thornton will be sitting top Euph chair and will be well worth listening to.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 3rd
2006 - A Grade 7th
2007 - A Grade 4th

Kew Band Melbourne, VIC    
Conductor: Mark Ford

Will be in the front pack and looking to make Mark Ford's swan-song something special.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 11th
2006 - A Grade 10th
2007 - A Grade 2nd

South Brisbane Federal Brass Band, QLD    
Conductor: Lindon Weise

Have struggled recently to find stability after the retirement of MD, Trevor Bremner, but Lindon Weise, who is making his Nationals debut as a conductor has thrown himself into the role with plenty of grit and determination.  

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - did not compete
2006 - A Grade 6th
2007 - A Grade 7th

Waratah Brass - Newcastle, NSW     
Conductor: Matthew van Emmerik

New MD, Matthew van Emmerik, will be really pushing this band to its limits.  The helmet has been frequently well within its reach - will be interesting to see if it still is.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 2nd
2006 - A Grade 5th
2007 - did not compete

Warringah Concert Brass, NSW    
Conductor: John Saunders

Haven't been in A Grade long but certainly deserve to be there.  Will perform well, and have some excellent key players.

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - B Grade 2nd
2006 - B Grade 2nd
2007 - A Grade 13th

Willoughby Band, NSW
Conductor: Andrew Snell

UK ex-pat Andy Snell has experienced success at the 2003 OZ Nationals when at the front of NZ band Waitakere, and would dearly like a repeat performance of this with Willoughby.  Will play well but will it be well enough?

Past 3 Year National Track Record:

2005 - A Grade 6th
2006 - A Grade 11th
2007 - A Grade 8th

4BRDU Predictions:

1. Dalewool Auckland Brass
2. Gunnedah Shire Band
3. Kew Band Melbourne
Dark Horse:  Footscray Yarraville

Past Australian National A Grade winners:

1950 - St John Ambulance, NSW
1951 - St John Ambulance, NSW
1952 - Maryborough Federal
1953 - St John Ambulance, NSW   
1954 - not contested
1955 - St John Ambulance, NSW 
1956 - St John Ambulance, NSW 
1957 - Tanunda
1958 - South Brisbane Federal 
1959 - Malvern, VIC 
1960 - Maryborough Federal, QLD 
1961 - Barrier Industrial Unions, NSW
1962 - Malvern Municipal, ViC 
1963 - Barrier Industrial Unions, NSW
1964 - Malvern Municipal, ViC 
1965 - South Brisbane Federal, QLD
1966 - Wollongong City, NSW 
1967 - Kensington and Norwood, SA 
1968 - Melbourne Fire Brigade, VIC 
1969 - Malvern Municipal, VIC
1970 - Melbourne Fire Brigade, VIC 
1971 - Malvern Municipal, VIC 
1972 - Footscray-Yarraville City, VIC 
1973 - Footscray-Yarraville, VIC
1974 - Footscray-Yarraville, VIC 
1975 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1976 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1977 - Hawthorn City, VIC
1978 - Willoughby Municipal, NSW 
1979 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1980 - Skellerup-Woolston, New Zealand 
1981 - Hawthorn City, VIC
1982 - Willoughby Municipal, NSW 
1983 - Continental Airlines Auckland Brass, New Zealand 
1984 - Willoughby Municipal, NSW 
1985 - Hawthorn City, VIC
1986 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1987 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1988 - Tenderkist Wanganui, New Zealand 
1989 - Willoughby Municipal, NSW
1990 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1991 - Hawthorn City, VIC 
1992 - Kensington and Norwood, SA 
1993 - Hawthorn City, VIC
1994 -
1995 -
1996 - Fosters Auckland 
1997 - Fosters Auckland
1998 - Kew Band, Vic
1999 - Hawthorn City, Vic
2000 - Kew Band, Vic 
2001 - Dalewool-Auckland Brass
2002 - K & N City, SA
2003 - Waitakere City "Trusts" New Zealand 
2004 - Hawthorn Band, Vic 
2005 - Brisbane Excelsior, Qld
2006 - Brisbane Excelsior, Qld
2007 - Brisbane Excelsior, QLD