I have always enjoyed band music, whether it be military or brass band, since playing the E flat tuba at school and in the CCF band and later in the Territorial Army. I was delighted when I received an invitation from the Newbury Salvation Army to attend a concert by the Portsmouth Citadel Band at St. Nicolas Church on Saturday 29 March. For those who know nothing about the Salvation Army, it was founded in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth in the East End of London to carry out evangelistic and social/charitable work and is organised on a military type basis. Its leader is given the title/rank of General and local leaders are given appropriate ranks, such as Captain or Major. They are also ministers.
The purpose of their bands is to serve as an instrument to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as William Booth realised, they can be a powerful evangelistic tool. As well as playing evangelistic music, he realised that secular music should also be included, and as he remarked, why should the devil have all the good tunes!
With all that in mind Edwina Cooper and I arrived and met the local Salvation Army leader, Captain Jim Cussen, and we saw that there was a fairly good audience. The programme indicated a long concert with a half time interval between to allow both the band and audience to stretch their legs and have some refreshment.
When the band filed in, I was surprised at the size of the band, with a full range of brass instruments, and percussion, with an equal number of men and women musicians and an age range from young to mature.
The concert began with a rousing rendering of Finlandia followed by Songs of Victory, which seemed to me to be a splendid way to start this band concert. We then bowed our heads in a prayer given by band leader Andrew Short. The band then played Keep Singing and this preceded a euphonium solo entitled Euphony played by Marc Harry. I have always believed a euphonium to be a difficult instrument to play but Marc who was suited physically for such an instrument, played the piece so beautifully and with such feeling, you could have heard a pin drop. The applause was long and appreciative. His playing was of a standard which would have been welcomed in a leading symphony orchestra. The next piece was an adaptation of Mozart’s Ave Verum and that was a great success with the audience. This was followed by another solo, this time by Alex Manning playing He is lord by Robert Redhead on his flugelhorn. You don’t see too many flugelhorns around although the Hungerford Town Band has a few. It has the same note range as a cornet, has a pitch of B flat and has a largish bell and to me it has a more mellow tone than a cornet. Played the piece beautifully and as the conductor, or rather the Bandmaster, indicated, he is the doyen of the band. The first half of the concert concluded with another moving piece, Resurgam written by Eric Ball.
The first item after the interval was by a Norwegian composer Frode Alnaes entitled Vitae Lux which I believe means the Light of Life and this was followed by a hymn To God be the Glory. This where we were all invited to stand and sing. Oh, to have a band to accompany us every Sunday. That would be a treat. The band then played a melody of hymn tunes and we were invited to count the number of different hymns. I counted 7 but there were in fact 9 in total. We were then treated to a cornet solo by Paul French who made the instrument sing which demonstrated to us that the level of musicianship throughout the band was very high. Two more pieces followed before the penultimate piece The Last Amen which was very appropriate.
There was a pause for the Newbury Leader to thank the Bandmaster and band for their excellent concert and hoped to see them return at some stage. The band then played Paul Drury’s Jubilee and we had four bandswomen leaving their instruments and giving a synchronised tambourine display (with jingles) which I have seen only a few times before. It was very impressive and a great way of ending this concert.
We thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to them coming back for another concert. In the meantime, I will be playing the CD I bought.
The purpose of their bands is to serve as an instrument to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as William Booth realised, they can be a powerful evangelistic tool. As well as playing evangelistic music, he realised that secular music should also be included, and as he remarked, why should the devil have all the good tunes!
With all that in mind Edwina Cooper and I arrived and met the local Salvation Army leader, Captain Jim Cussen, and we saw that there was a fairly good audience. The programme indicated a long concert with a half time interval between to allow both the band and audience to stretch their legs and have some refreshment.
When the band filed in, I was surprised at the size of the band, with a full range of brass instruments, and percussion, with an equal number of men and women musicians and an age range from young to mature.
The concert began with a rousing rendering of Finlandia followed by Songs of Victory, which seemed to me to be a splendid way to start this band concert. We then bowed our heads in a prayer given by band leader Andrew Short. The band then played Keep Singing and this preceded a euphonium solo entitled Euphony played by Marc Harry. I have always believed a euphonium to be a difficult instrument to play but Marc who was suited physically for such an instrument, played the piece so beautifully and with such feeling, you could have heard a pin drop. The applause was long and appreciative. His playing was of a standard which would have been welcomed in a leading symphony orchestra. The next piece was an adaptation of Mozart’s Ave Verum and that was a great success with the audience. This was followed by another solo, this time by Alex Manning playing He is lord by Robert Redhead on his flugelhorn. You don’t see too many flugelhorns around although the Hungerford Town Band has a few. It has the same note range as a cornet, has a pitch of B flat and has a largish bell and to me it has a more mellow tone than a cornet. Played the piece beautifully and as the conductor, or rather the Bandmaster, indicated, he is the doyen of the band. The first half of the concert concluded with another moving piece, Resurgam written by Eric Ball.
The first item after the interval was by a Norwegian composer Frode Alnaes entitled Vitae Lux which I believe means the Light of Life and this was followed by a hymn To God be the Glory. This where we were all invited to stand and sing. Oh, to have a band to accompany us every Sunday. That would be a treat. The band then played a melody of hymn tunes and we were invited to count the number of different hymns. I counted 7 but there were in fact 9 in total. We were then treated to a cornet solo by Paul French who made the instrument sing which demonstrated to us that the level of musicianship throughout the band was very high. Two more pieces followed before the penultimate piece The Last Amen which was very appropriate.
There was a pause for the Newbury Leader to thank the Bandmaster and band for their excellent concert and hoped to see them return at some stage. The band then played Paul Drury’s Jubilee and we had four bandswomen leaving their instruments and giving a synchronised tambourine display (with jingles) which I have seen only a few times before. It was very impressive and a great way of ending this concert.
We thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to them coming back for another concert. In the meantime, I will be playing the CD I bought.
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