AIR FORCE BAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 March 1941, Page 4

AIR FORCE BAND

FINE IMPRESSION MADE IN MASTERTON SEVERAL PUBLIC APPEARANCES. CIVIC RECEPTION AT PARK YESTERDAY. Not since the momentous visit in 1935 of the Band of H.M. Grenadier Guards, has Masterton had the opportunity of hearing and seeing such a noted military band as that of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, which played in Masterton at the weekend. From the moment of its arrival on Saturday morning the band was impressive, and it was inevitable that al each of its performances the public’s reception should be completely enthusiastic. The band appeared in support of the Air Force Queen candidate. The fifty-eight members of the band had a busy, but, they say, a very enjoyable weekend. It began at 6 o’clock on Saturday morning and on that'.day. after a delayed train journey, there was a march from the railway station, a performance at the Solway Show.; grounds, a brief concert for children, the Opera House concert, and the Air Force dance, at which members of the band were the orchestra from 10.30 to 12.30. On Sunday afternoon the band played and marched again in the open air and at night presented an afterchurch concert in the Regent Theatre. Each member of the band was a guest in a private home during his stay and yesterday morning was shown places of interest in the district. GYMKHANA AT SOLWAY. Nearly four thousand people were present when the band appeared at the Gymkhana. As five Air Force bombers flew in formation, looped and dived overhead the band gave an impressive display of quickstep and slow marching, followed later by a selection of popular music. The band was given a glowing reception by an enthusiastic crowd which practically filled the stand,, and lined the ring several deep. The Wairarapa College Pipe Band maintained its popularity in playing a part in the ceremony. Warrant Officer J. H. Hardwick: led the Air Force Band as Drum Major and the Conductor in the selections played on the lawn- was the Director of Music to the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Flight Lieutenant H. Gladstone Hill.

The band’s quickstep and slow marching was particularly impressive in its precision and rhythm but the crowd was equally unanimous in its appreciation of bright renderings of several well known martial and orchestral numbers.

CONCERT IN OPERA HOUSE. The concert in the Opera House on Saturday night deserved a much stronger response than a moderate attendance. Artistic to the last note of their splendid rendering of the National Anthem, the band gave a perfectly balanced yet widely varied performance. As item followed item it became apparent that varied and diligent orchestration was the band’s characteristic. It had the delicacy and elasticity of an orchestra, yet the extraordinary range of nuance and colour and the lovely tone of the leads produced harmonic blends which could not be achieved by any but a military band. In the lighter passages of some numbers one could almost detect the tonal texture of the strings when the score for sweeping runs by clarionets, flutes and oboe. But when dignity and weight were needed there was the triumphant vigour, splendidly pompous, of the bass and bassoons. i CIVIC RECEPTION. In his civic welcome to the band at the Park yesterday afternoon, the Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, recalled the visit, six years ago, of the Band of H.M. Grenadier Guards under the baton of Major George Miller. The Air Force Band’s visit was of parallel importance for in addition to its music and marching, it had its part in the launching of a nation-wide Air Force Recruiting Campaign for which Masterton had the honour to be the starting point. Mr J. Robertson. M.P., and Squadron Leader Beau Shiel, president of the band, spoke briefly of the growth of the Air Force in New Zealand and appealed to young men to enlist as pilots, observers and air gunners. Flight Lieutenant H. Gladstone Hill thanked Masterton for its hospitality which, he said, at times had been almost embarrassing in its warmth. In the perfect setting of the Park and in bright sunshine the band gave another marching display. The grandstand and Oval were crowded with spectators, who later formed an appreciative audience when the band played from the Rotunda.

AT THE REGENT THEATRE. A further concert, the band’s final public appearance in Masterton, was given in the Regent Theatre to a crowded house. Again the programme was interestingly varied, and included items by the Orchestra. Llewellyn Jones’s recent composition, Maori Rhapsody, was played in all its fiery light and quiet shade, a successful interpretation of the primitive spirit of the piece. There was a performance by the band at Wairarapa College this morning. and a visit was later paid to the Masterton Public Hospital. The strains of the Air Force march. Sussex by the Sea. rang through the streets as the band marched to the railway station to entrain for Auckland.