2008 New Zealand Championships - Retrospective: B Grade

Kiwi contest convert from Oz comments on the highly contested B Grade section...

Before the curtain was actually raised, the talk was that Pelorus Trust from Wellington should have been performing in the evening even along with the other A grade bands. They were victors at last years nationals and this years nationals in Australia.

Having never been to the Christchurch town hall before, I had no idea what to expect acoustically. Would the immense size suck the bands sound out through the vents? Would it boom like St. Johns Catherderal? Or would it be dry and rough like 60 grit sand paper?

Quite pleasantly it was none of the above. After hearing the first band, it seemed it would be a hall that sucked the lower frequencies from the tubas and provide top heavy ensembles. Now the front runners Pelorus Wellington Brass started setting up on stage. Wow! From the very first note of the sacred item it was clear to see why they were considered the band to beat.

No balance issues at all. There was nothing wrong with the hall's accoutic! From the engine room to the cherry topping sporano, there were quality sounds throughout. Balance issues? Only that it was just right, allowing all the flowing techinical passages to be heard in every register at every dynamic. While the tubas sounded huge at times they were always balanced.

Balance was they key after listening to the first 2 bands. How to achieve it? Beautiful sonorous sounds from the tubas to lay the foundation and then continue layering beautiful sounds and build the overall ensemble sound.

Upon reflection after the sacred and test items, we noticed a common theme with most bands - the need for more sonorous sounds from the tuba sections to help balance the ensemble sound.

The top 5 bands at times had a great ensemble sound but were rather inconsistent, Pelorus the exception. Softer passages had the sound and balance suffering. Louder sections, by virtue of pushing more air though the instruments, the balance and sound improved.

It may seem that by section design and my comments so far, that the "B" grade section may be weak. Not at all! There are many fine bands which gave excellent techinical and musical performances. Our main criticism was the inconsistency of sound quality throughout the ensemble. This seemed to be the theme for the first day.

Another consistency that raised its brow with many bands was an unnecessary dominance of percussion.  I'm sure the world class percussionist/adjudicator was impressed with all this velocity and exuberance.

The Tam Tam sound is a great addition to a band sound. Too many bands, especially at the finale literally wolfed the band and obliterated all the previous great work. Pity!

In some cases dynamics were over the top but in general most were underdone. Even a slight increase would have added even more colour and excitement to all performances.

The top 4 bands (pre results) gave many great moments from both pieces on the first day. Only consisteny in sound quality separated them for me. By the end of the first day, Pelorus were clearly in front with Port of Napier Brass ahead of Trust Porirua City Brass only by virtue of a more sonorous sound. Porirua were second to none with intonation, accuracy and musicianship. Hot on their heels were their close neighbours and hot rivals, Titan Hutt City Brass.

The next day would provide an interesting conclusion of this section. Would Pelorus drop an absolute plonker and be flushed to 2nd place? Which bands would rise to the occasion based on their first days experience?

Second day follies at city hall revealed that the same top 4 bands proved consistency is they key. While toward the bottom of the section the results (mine) varied from the first day.

Pelorus gave an exceptional performance of Diversions on a Bass Theme, G. Lloyd. They wouldn't have seemed out of place ranking in the middle of the following evenings A grade section.

In general all bands learnt from their first day percussion obliterations. Thank you! For some strange reason, the quality of sound and balance of most bands raised to higher levels. Thank you again.

Our predictions before the results were announced were: Pelorus 1st place. Easy pick. Next 3 places weren't as easy to choose. Musicianship, technical accuracy, intonation and SOUND... how to balance it all?

For us 2nd to 4th place was extremely close between Napier, Porirua then Titan.

While Simone Rebello didn't say specifically what she was or wasn't looking for during her speech, the final results from our point of view, were based on musicianship and accuracy.

A slight surprise with Porirua taking out the hymn (we had them 2nd), Napier 2nd with Pelorus in 3rd with "consistency" winning the day for the top 3 placings.

Pelorus 1st over all, Porirua 2nd with Napier 3rd followed by Titan.

Next year, without Pelorus, will see an even closer and more intensly contested B grade section with Porirua back on track to re capture the B grade title they won in Christchurch in 2004. Napier, Titan will be hot on their heels.

"Aussie John" Szkutko