Australian Concert Bands

The SA Band Associaiton has just released information for the 2008 State Band Championships. Check out the SABA website under "News", and "Forms"

Interesting...

- NO Test piece
- NO "Stage" March
- OWN CHOICE Major Work
- The A Grade Brass and A Grade Concert will be performed as an evening concert - together!

This should give bands lots of scope!

Jubey

We're all waiting for SABA to make announcements, but the word is that the SA State Championships this year will be the biggest in a very long time.

Having a guess about the concert bands entering -

Onkaparinga
Redbacks
Rangers
Unley
Holdfast Bay

There will be a bit of speculation about Scotch, Pembroke, City of Adelaide, and Payneham. The last three have had conductor changes that have disrupted things a bit!

Should be interesting to see what happens.

Jubey

How can they make a fair judgement on bands when there is no Test Piece - the benchmark piece!

Good adjudicators should be able to pick a rank order based on three pieces...

Here's a better question: how do you get an audience to attend an event where every band plays the same piece...?

Jubey

Good point Jubey. But i think its also good for the audience to hear how each band goes with a single (test) piece.

Plus, for those bands that dont go to nats or state every year, its good to be able to get the current 'test' piece to see if the band is still up to the standard of that grade

The test piece selection is sometimes a bit varied, depending on the State Associations and the methodology they use to pick works. There have been some interesting choices in the National solos in the last few years in particular.

I guess there is some sport in listening out for those moments that you know are going to provide some difficulty and see how the other bands deal with them...or not!

I think that the test piece has some merit if you have a large number of participants in a section. Imagine having to adjudicate 30 participants in an Open Cornet section! The repetition would help in establishing a rank order, but you would have to a brave person indeed to sit in the audience for something like that.

I do take your point though, that the Grading is refreshed each time a Test Piece is announced. In South Australia there are only a few bands that go to Nationals, so for other bands a more open approach to the Stste Championship is probably helpful.

Jubey

A comment ive heard (but i dont know how accurate) is that a band graded as A in WA might only be the standard of a B grade band in NSW / VIC (or vise versa)

What i mean to say is that band ranks / grades are established at a State Level, and not a national level by the Aust Band Assoc. Leaves the potential for 'unfair / inaccurate' band grades

Actually that is more common than you may think. For example, it is widely known that the A Grade in SA is equal to B Grade at Nationals. This is also common practice for some bands involved in regionals vs. nationals contests in the UK brass band scene.

It is also worth clarifying here that band gradings are entirely the responsibility of state associations - not the NBCA.

Jubey

Its a pity that there wasnt a national body, made up of state reps that governed this to try and get some consistancy

Be a hell of a job though.........

There has been plenty of discussion about this on the brass band forum.

A National body dealing with everything (as opposed to our current State based associations) would certainly be a way of bringing some consistency in rules and grading across Australia.

There has also been talk of having separate National associations for brass bands and concert bands ...

Probably a bit of merit in that mate.

I dont want to sound like im having a go at any band association (who all work bloody hard!) but there is a (mis?)conception that it is the Australian Brass Band Association, with concert bands tacked on.

This would be because historically, brass bands were all there were, and it was (and still is) a big scene!

I must admit, here in NSW there are some really good Concert Bandie's on the NSWBA committee, and im really keen to see how things go over the next couple of years!

I agree, Ben, there is a big misconception about it being a brass band association and concert bands are just along for the ride. But I am pleased to notice that many of the band associations in Australia are trying really hard to fix this - VBL, BANSW and SABA are all showing increased commitment to promoting concert bands in the competitions (both at a state and national level) so hopefully we'll see this remedied further into the future.

We all have a lot to be proud of as players in Australian concert bands - there is a lot of talent out there that exists in woodwind and concert brass- so its about time we got a real chance to show it at a formal level and with this kind of commitment at the executive level, its a positive start

Nicole
Unley Concert Band

Ah yes...the power of perceptions!

People high up in banding circles have the view that BOTH Concert Bands and Brass Bands are actually...wait for it...BANDS. Thank heavens for this!

The public don't really know the diference between brass and concert bands. The sponsors don't know the difference. The funding bodies don't know the difference. Get the picture?

As a movement, we ALL need to work together to promote community banding and its positive points. It would be highly destructive if vested interests are ever allowed to split the associations into brass and concert band camps. This happened in SA about 15 years ago and set back the whole movement here for years. Only now is it starting to recover again.

Jubey

Here are results from the 2008 SA State Championships:

A Grade
Victor Harbor HS 131
Unley 165
TTG Redbacks 163
Onkaparinga 168

B Grade
TTG Concert Band 149
Holdfast Bay 156

Junior A Grade
Scotch College 140

Junior B Grade
St Andrews School 135

For Further details see the SABA website. Congratulations to all bands.

Jubey