A BIG BLOW.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1714, 22 March 1888, Page 3

A BIG BLOW.

Our American cousins are nothing if they are not grandiose in their ideas. They carry .them into every walk of life. Here is an account of one of the « biggest things ” ever perpetrated in brass band playing in. October the first concert by a massed orchestra of 1000 military band initrument players was announced to take place at Chicago. Elaborate plans were drawn up as to the position of the instruments, which were jnassed in four divisions, somewhat after the style of the different sections of the chorus in the Handel orchestra at the Crystal Palace. Chief conductor Currier occupied the usual place of ehef d' orchestre. in placing the men he made the bases the vertebral column, running through the entire formation, on either side of which were placed the ribs or intermediate parts. The melody parts were so distributed as to allow the division to hear it as well as all the other parts. A sub-director was placed in each division immediately in front of the drums and cymbals contiguous to the harmony parts. The sub was to keep his eyes upon the general director under all circumstances and only to use his baton when he found the portion of the division wavering from the general movement. Besides the thousand players there were a battery of six pieces of artillery and two Gatling guns, besides 50 anvils struck by 100 hammers, for the anvil chorus from “II Trovatore.” The programme included the “ l anhauser” prelude, but the cannon and Gatlings were only used in the national airs, “ Hail Columbia,” 1 ‘ Starspangled Banner,” and “ Yankee Doodle.”