Village Band

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 516, 13 May 1949, Page 11

Village Band

great interest, in view of the stillsmouldering fires of the Brass Band Controversy, was the BBC play from 4YA, Village Band, a finely-told plain tale of a small band, and the efforts of | its conductor to train, conduct, and man-

age his performers. = is a fact known musicians that -@ elusive quality known as temperament does not. confine itself to celebrities, and thatit is as apt to -spoil the lowest note of the euphonium as it is to

ruin the prima donnas top B flat. Only one fault could I find with this presentation of the varying temperaments of the bandsmen of the Welsh village: the programme could have done with about twice as much band music ‘in it. When we did, hear it-how effective it washearing the band celebrate their first contest win with an exuberant midnight rendering of "Old Comrades," realising at the end that the muffled drum was leading us into Chopin’s Funeral March, and that the band was following its conductor to his last resting-place, But why were those other opportunities let slip? Why didn’t we hear the "scratch" band of old players and boys welcoming home the returning prisoners-of-war; why didn’t we hear the superannuated performer returning to deputise in his last performance of "The Trumpet Shall Sound"; and the rehearsal before the visit to the Crystal Palace, when before an unseen judge the band confessedly

"played like angels." Altogether, a great programme for all musical tastes; no listener, whatever the height of his brow, could resist the appeal of this saat of genuine artistry.