As always, the release of the CD of Area test pieces provides more questions than answers.

For instance, will all ‘Championship Section’ bands really be able to cope with ‘St Magnus’, and will unscrupulous MDs try the well known forger’s trick of filleting some of the more difficult time signatures to make an easier version sound like the original?

Master

Or for that matter, how many tears will be shed in pursuit of the summit of ‘Cry of the Mountain’ in the First Section, or in trying to master the ambitious choices set by the Music Panel in the Second and Third? 

Then again, how many Fourth Section bands will capture the noble sense of Iberian majesty in Alan Fernie’s cracking ‘Three Spanish Impressions’, rather than falling into the trap of making it sound like Costa del Sol lift music?

Scottish referendum

And is it possible that Kapitol Promotions already knows the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum given the size of the gap that now appears on the map of Great Britain on the front cover the CD?

It seems Alex Salmond intends to relocate the Suez Canal.

No and yes

We will of course get all the musical answers come next March, but the cynics might well suggest that it will be ‘no and yes’ on Kenneth Downie’s superb work, whilst some bands may need a family pack of Kleenex on a stamina sapping First Section test piece. 

It’s a balance between ‘perhaps and perhaps not’ in the Second and Third, on a brace of real testers, whilst MDs should try and seek inspiration from Charlton Heston in ‘El Cid’ rather than Johnny Vegas in ‘Benidorm’ in the Fourth.

As for an independent Scotland?

They really need to worry about getting a few bands in the frame in London and Cheltenham first before seeking a seat on the United Nations and setting up a new cross channel ferry service.

Historic provenance

However, in these financially stringent times, and with all five tracks appearing to be taken from other releases, does this CD cost around £15.00 to buy (even through 4BR)?

How much does ‘historic’ provenance from Yorkshire Building Society, Black Dyke, Grimethorpe Colliery and Cory cost nowadays?

On first glance you can spot it’s an old ‘St Magnus’ (given the well known deed poll name conversion of YBS), but you may not have guessed it with the others when you first part with your cash.

Small print

Only after you open the cellophane wrapper and take out the booklet do you find in small print at the bottom of the back page that; ‘This recording utilizes tracks already released on the Doyen label’ - and only on closer inspection do you also find out that the tiny asterisk denotes that not one, but two tracks are from a separate producer’s recordings.

In fact, it doesn’t even tell you which recordings.  It's a bit like reading Comic Relief’s accounts.

Intriguing choices

‘So what?’ you may ask, given such intriguing test piece choices made by the Music Panel.

Perhaps not a great deal when the only musical answers that really matter will be provided by the 500 or so bands in performance from Torquay to Perth, Llandudno to Stevenage next year. 

But still. 

It may just give you the opportunity to ponder, before forking out the cash for a new CD of second hand music, that you could always donate the same amount through a discredited old Red Nose appeal to keeping the tobacco and arms dealers of this world in business. 

Iwan Fox 

Contents

1. St Magnus, Kenneth Downie, Yorkshire Building Society Band, 14.37
2. Cry of the Mountain, Howard Lorriman, Black Dyke Band, 10.32
3. Chaucer's Tunes, Michael Ball, Black Dyke Band, 10.29
Partita for Band (Postcards from Home), Philip Wilby, Grimethorpe Colliery Band
4. I. Towers and Chimneys, 1.32
5. II. Lord of the Dance, 2.51
6. III. Sunday Afternoon: Pastorale, 3.44
7. IV. Coronation Day Parade, 3.40
Three Spanish Impressions for Brass Band, Alan Fernie, Cory Band
8. I. 3.49
9. II. 2.50
10. III. 3.32