Woodfalls Concert Brass are currently busy preparing for the forthcoming West of England Championships which is being held on Saturday 10th March 2007 at the Riviera Centre in Torquay. Competing in the 1st section the chosen set work is Eric Ball’s Sinfonietta for Brass Band - “The Wayfarer”.
One of the composers’ later works the piece is a classic, combining innovative harmonies and careful orchestration to create different timbres and sounds within the brass band. A sure test for all the bands it involves lyrical melodies that put demands on the players technical abilities and stamina.
The composition was first brought to fame in 1976 by the Black Mills Band who under the direction of Major Peter Parkes played a memorable performance to win the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall. Often still referred to today John Clough the established Euphonium of the band at the time recalls,
“The gentle opening in the horn and low brass transfixed the audience (one judge told John later in the day the band had won by the end of the 16 bar opening). The solos from John, principal cornet Philip McCann and other principal players were all perfect and the conclusion totally magnificent. It was one of those performances that make the spine tingle whenever you think about it.”
Lets hope the fantastic horn section of the Woodfalls Concert Brass can recreate this moment to get us off to a flying start!
About the composer Eric Ball, 1903-1989:
Without a doubt, Eric Ball is the father of the Brass Band. Born on October the 31st, 1903, he was given music and harmony lessons from a private teacher from the local church organist. After World War I he went on to study the organ at Staines and Dartford Churches, writing for mobile organs and voices. However, from a background with strong Salvation Army ties, Eric was drawn to the sound of the brass band from an early age.
For a year or two during the World War II he conducted its International Staff Band before, temporarily in the event, severing his connections with the Army. Perhaps he felt it to be too restrictive musically and certainly the breach drew him into the brass band mainstream and widened the knowledge and appreciation of his music generally. After a period with ENSA towards the end of the war, he took up conducting brass bands, first Brighouse and Rastrick, then other bands like CWS Manchester and City of Coventry. Adjudicating band contests, lecturing, writing, especially for ‘The British Bandsman’, which he edited for a time, touring world-wide and encouraging young musicians: all these formed part of an exceptionally full and active life. Most importantly he composed. Much of what he wrote cannot really be regarded as light music. The music he wrote for the Salvation Army primarily has, as usual, a devotional purpose and usually incorporated hymn (or “song”) tunes familiar in Army worship. Much of this part of Ball’s output is still played today; the most striking item is the Elgarian tone poem for brass Exodus, but many other titles - instrumental solos, marches, vocal settings - show Ball’s sure touch. Altogether Ball produced 110 brass compositions and arrangement and 120 vocal arrangements for the Army.
It is often said, and rightly so, that when Ball left the Salvation Army for the more general brass band world there was little change in his musical language and spiritual outlook and no composition bears this out more than Resurgam, a test piece for the Open Championships in 1950 and much played since then, which was indeed published by the Salvation Army also (it in fact quotes Exodus). We cannot regard Resurgam as light music; nor for that matter Ball’s later “test pieces”, most of then originally adopted for major championships: The Conquerors (Open, 1951), Festival Music (National, 1956), A Sunset Rhapsody (Open, 1958), The Undaunted (Open, 1959), Mau Street (Open, 1961), Journey Into Freedom (National, 1967), High Peak (National, 1969), A Kensington Concerto (National, 1972), Sinfonietta, The Wayfarer (National, 1976), etc., plus Akhnaton, inspired by ancient Egypt, Tournament for Brass and so on. It is worth making the point that whereas a non-specialist brass band audience listens to most test-pieces with respect rather than pleasure, Eric Ball’s major works are, generally speaking, loved and respected. This is largely due to their melodic distinction (and distinctiveness) and their expansiveness, again reminiscent of Elgar whom Ball once met and always admired. Ball arranged for brass band several of Elgar’s compositions, notably the Enigma Variations, Froissart and the Prelude to the Dream of Gerontius. Another noteworthy Ball arrangement was of dances from Bliss’ ballet Checkmate.
At least fifty of Ball’s brass scores were published abroad. His “English” ones for the general (i.e. non S.A.) brass band repertoire total more than 120, 47 of which are arrangements; of the rest seven are ensembles for brass, five are solos with band. In addition there are three works for choir and band, including A Christchurch Cantata, written for the opening of a new town hall in New Zealand. Only one Ball score was for orchestra - A Carol Fantasy - and even that was later re-scored for brass.
A large proportion of Ball’s compositions may however be categorised as light music: marches, seven of them, the most frequently played being Rosslyn, Royal Salute, Torch of Freedom and October Festival, “rhapsodies” (really potpourris), including one on American Gospel Songs and no fewer than three on Negro Spirituals; many overtures, several of them recalling the characteristic English light, bright overture - Galantia, Holiday Overture, The Undaunted, Prelude to a Comedy, Prelude to Pageantry, Homeward, Scottish Festival, Welsh Festival and Cornish Festival; The Princess and the Poet, a fairy tale, a brass band equivalent perhaps of Eric Coates’ orchestral Three Bears; and several suites which between them make Ball virtually a brass band equivalent of Coates or Haydn Wood - English Country Scenes, Fowey River, The Young in Heart, Petite Suite de Ballet, American Sketches and Oasis (was the latter inspired by Albert Ketèlbey?). The West Country clearly attracted him as, apart from the “Cornish” compositions noted above, his titles included Devon Fantasy and St Michael’s Mount. In this he was not by any means alone among British light music composers. With the gradual decline of the light orchestra after around 1960 brass bands, and to a lesser extent, military or symphonic bands became bastions of light music (which they still are) and much of Ball’s output reflects this, even though posterity may remember him more for the major test pieces. Much loved and admired, he remained active practically to the end of his long life (at least one score was published in the year of his death.). He died in Dorset on 1 October 1989.
© Philip L. Scowcroft.
Interesting Facts:
Eric Ball Test Pieces used at the Major Championships: 11 pieces used 13 times.
British Open: Salute to Freedom – 1946; Resurgam – 1950; The Conquerors – 1951; Tournament for Brass – 1954; Sunset Rhapsody – 1958; The Undaunted – 1959; Main Street – 1961; Festival Music – 1971.
National Finals: Festival Music – 1956; Journey Into Freedom – 1967; A Kensington Concerto – 1972; Sinfonietta – The Wayfarer - 1976
European Championships: Journey Into Freedom - 1982
All England Masters: None
Woodfalls Concert Brass are currently busy preparing for the Wessex Brass Band Association winter contest to be held on Saturday 1st December 2007 at the Weymouth Pavilion.
We are all very sorry to hear of the sudden passing of Jo Causer on 26th October 2007 at just 26 years of age.
Woodfalls Concert Brass competed at the 1st section national finals on 29th September 2007 and managed to achieve 6th place! This was a great result for the band competing against the finest bands from all over the country. 
The award winning Woodfalls Concert Brass, conducted by Musical Director, Steve Dunster, will be hosting a concert in aid of the National Charity ChildLine featuring popular brass items and guest vocalists.
Come and enjoy this entertaining concert featuring music from Salisbury’s acclaimed Farrant Singers and the award winning Woodfalls Concert Brass.
Local window and conservatory firm County Windows Ltd has agreed to support the Woodfalls Concert Brass at its forthcoming concert on Saturday 28th April at Salisbury Arts Centre.
On Saturday the 10th of March 2007 Woodfalls Concert Brass were placed 2nd at the West of England Regional Championships to qualify for the 1st Section National Finals in Harrogate at the end of September.