Derry's Military Band

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 42, 28 April 1933, Page 7

Derry's Military Band

A Favourite Combination with 3YA Listeners

NE of the finest bands heard over the air in New Zealand is Derry’s Military Baud, of Christchurch, which broadcasts regularly from 3YA. The bafid, which bears the name of its founder, Mr. E. Derry, who for ver many years was its conductor and musical director, gave its first public performance at the demonstration for the relief of Mafeking in 1901. For the past six months, while under the musical direction of Lieutenant H. Gladstone Hill, the band has made excellent progress, both musically and numerically, until at the present time it has its full complement of sixty-three playing members, making it the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. When in Christchurch recéntly with the Young Australia League Band, the director (Professor B. W. Paten, formerly of the Scots Guards) said that the playing of Derry’s Band was the finest of all military bands he had heard in Australia or New Zealand. The instrumentation is as follows:-1 flute-piccolo, 1 oboe, 1 Eb ‘clarinet, 7 first clarinets, 3 second clarinets, 2 third clarinets, 1 Eb alto . clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 2 soprano saxophones, 2 Eb alto saxophones, }2 Bb tenor saxophones, 2 Eb baritone saxophones, 4 horns, 5 first

trumpets/cornets, 1 repaino, 2 second cornets/flugal, 2 third cornets/flugal, 2 baritones, 6 trombones (4 tenor, 2 bass), 3 eupheniums, 2 Eb basses, 1 Bb bass, 2 BBb basses, 2 string basses, 3 drummers, tympani, xylophone,

cre. Lieutenant Hill, musical director and conductor of Derry’s Miltary) Band, is well known throughout the Dominion, not only as a musiciat but as an organiser. He has had a very wide musical experience during the past forty-five years. — oe After many years’ band experience Lieutenant Hill turned is attention to orchestral and vocal avenues, believing that a thorough knowledge of both, particularly vocal, was essential to good band play-' ing. He is a great believer in contests and competitions, claiming: that they provide the opportunity ‘necessary for the discovery of young: talent. In 1923 at the Hamilton Competitions he secured first prize) in the Grand Choir contest; while in Wellington the same year, with' Roiland Foster, of the Sydney Conservatorium, (Continued on page 2a);

Derry’s Military Band

{Continued from page 7.)

as adjudicator, Lieutenant Hill won second prize for the 20-voice choir, second prize in the 40-voice choir sections, and first prizes in th. follow-ing:-Male voice choir, male quartet, and mixed quartet.. He was equally suecessful in following competitions. Lieutenant Hill toured the world in a managerial capacity with the Australian Commonwealth Band in 1925, and was a guest of the Coldstream Guards Band from London to Liverpool when the band left for Canada in June of that year. Lieutenant Hill also conducts the Premier Orchestra, which will broadeast a special programme from 3YA on Sunday, May 21. ‘This orchestra has a different instrumentation to any orchestra in New Zealand. Tieutenant Hill’s experience has shown that many broadcasting orchestras in New Zealand lack body, due to the preponderance of strings. In his orchestra he has overcome this difficulty by the employment of saxophones, clarinets and trombones.