From Extraordinary Success to No Considerable Results: Victorian Music Entrepreneurialism and the Crystal Palace Brass Band Competition 1860–1863

The July 1860 Crystal Palace Brass Band contest brought brass bands out of their heartlands to London in unprecedented numbers, The Times (12 July 1860, 9), lauding its success as ‘quite extraordinary’. This landmark event was repeated in three successive years, but in 1863 it was abruptly terminated, and no cogent explanation has been established for its failure. The entrepreneur organizing the contests, Enderby Jackson, later wrote in his autobiography that other business dealings prevented him from further involvement in the series. Jackson had made full use of his talents and contacts to bring these remarkable working-class musical ensembles to the emergent national attraction that was the Crystal Palace. However, Jackson's manipulation of publicity and managerial style obstruct easy analysis of the contests. Moreover, Jackson later sought to protect his legacy by conjuring a smokescreen in his memoirs to obscure the real reasons for the failure of the Crystal Palace contests after 1863. The entrepreneurial environment is never a stable one, and it should not be presumed that the accolades accorded to the opening contest would translate into its continuance on an annual basis. However, the fact that the contests were attended by many thousands of visitors each year and Jackson's assertion that they were a financial success stand in stark contrast to what is implied by their sudden end. This article demonstrates how close examination of previously unconsidered letters, surviving documentation, and other sources cast doubt on whether the contest series was ever an extraordinary success.

Voices in the Reo: Music, Community and Membership in a Rātana Brass Band

<p>This study explores the brass bands of the Rātana community. Te Hāhi Rātana (the Rātana Church) is a Māori Christian church based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Between 1932 and 1984 Te Hāhi Rātana established seven brass bands, which today constitute an amateur brass movement with over eighty years of history and several hundred active band members around the country. Rātana brass bands are widely recognised as emblematic of the Rātana Church and associated political movement, yet the bands gain only passing mention in New Zealand music histories and reference works. This thesis presents the first in-depth research about Rātana brass bands. Based on fieldwork conducted over a one-year period, this thesis investigates Rātana brass banding in its community context. Taking a contemporary ethnographic approach, I explore aspects of symbolism, performance and membership, discussing some of the localised meanings and functions of the brass band in the Rātana context. The research presented in the thesis centred around interviews and interactions with members of one of seven Rātana brass bands, whose voices I incorporate into the text. Observations of the band members playing in church and marae contexts form the basis for narrative ethnographic descriptions and interpretive discussion. Drawing on ‘insider notions’ of community and banding, such as the idea of whānau (family), I explore the Rātana community and faith through the brass bands. This study considers some of the ways in which brass band music serves to bind and sustain the musical collectivities of the bands themselves, and the large, geographically spread, spiritual community of which they are a part.</p>

Voices in the Reo: Music, Community and Membership in a Rātana Brass Band

<p>This study explores the brass bands of the Rātana community. Te Hāhi Rātana (the Rātana Church) is a Māori Christian church based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Between 1932 and 1984 Te Hāhi Rātana established seven brass bands, which today constitute an amateur brass movement with over eighty years of history and several hundred active band members around the country. Rātana brass bands are widely recognised as emblematic of the Rātana Church and associated political movement, yet the bands gain only passing mention in New Zealand music histories and reference works. This thesis presents the first in-depth research about Rātana brass bands. Based on fieldwork conducted over a one-year period, this thesis investigates Rātana brass banding in its community context. Taking a contemporary ethnographic approach, I explore aspects of symbolism, performance and membership, discussing some of the localised meanings and functions of the brass band in the Rātana context. The research presented in the thesis centred around interviews and interactions with members of one of seven Rātana brass bands, whose voices I incorporate into the text. Observations of the band members playing in church and marae contexts form the basis for narrative ethnographic descriptions and interpretive discussion. Drawing on ‘insider notions’ of community and banding, such as the idea of whānau (family), I explore the Rātana community and faith through the brass bands. This study considers some of the ways in which brass band music serves to bind and sustain the musical collectivities of the bands themselves, and the large, geographically spread, spiritual community of which they are a part.</p>

Creative activity by G. Kkunkin in the context of the development of the military brass band’s culture of the Chernihiv region

The purpose of the article is to study the activities of the military musician, conductor of the brass band of the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation College of Pilots, one of the founders of the modern orchestral culture of the Chernihiv region, Major Gryhory Borysovych Kunkin (1927–2009) in the context of the development of military music of Chernihiv region, his contribution to the formation of regional cultural space of the second half of 20th century. The author examines the life of G. Kunkin against the background of the development of the military-musical performance of the Chernihiv region. The methodology is based on historical-chronological, source-study, logical-generalizing, and comparative methods for elucidating the chronology of the development of military musical art of Chernihiv region of the 20th century, the study of G. Kunkin's creative biography, and generalization of information about military conductors of Chernihiv region – his contemporaries, memoirs of G. Kunkin's colleagues, identification of factors influencing his work on the development of the cultural space of Chernihiv region. The scientific novelty of the publication lies in the first domestic musicology study of the life of G. Kunkin as one of the prominent figures of the military-musical culture of the Chernihiv region. Conclusions. The results of the study indicate that G. Kunkin during his career as a military conductor had a significant impact on the development of the military and musical culture of the Chernihiv region. With his activity he revived the regional military-musical life, outlined the main directions of its further development, which were realized in the works of military conductors of Chernihiv region at the beginning of the 21 century; G. Kunkin's concert activity of the military brass band popularized the brass art among the population of the region and, as a result, conditioned the social demand for learning to play wind instruments, intensifying the activity in this direction in art schools of Chernihiv region and music college named after L. Revytsky. The successful combination of musical experience, personal qualities, and organizational abilities allowed G. Kunkin to make a significant contribution to the potential of the spiritual culture of the Chernihiv region, which is worthily presented in Ukraine and abroad by military brass bands of the region.

The importance of the discipline “Computer Arrangement” in the modern educational training of students-ovens

The purpose of this article is to substantiate the relevance and pedagogical necessity of the discipline “Computer Arrangement” for students-ovens, outlining the tasks and functions of this course. The methodology was general scientific research methods: analysis, comparison, generalization. The source method was also used - the theoretical basis was the research of domestic and foreign scientists on the problems of implementation of computer technology in the educational process of musicians. The scientific novelty lies in the expansion of knowledge in the field of computer music programs, the characteristics of music editors, which are most often used in teaching the discipline. In addition to recommendations for independent work of students, the choice of repertoire in teaching this discipline, and the main types of professional tasks of graduates, the author focuses on specific proposals for a more thorough introduction of music and computer technology in the educational process of students - ovens. Conclusions. First, it should be emphasized that the complex subject “Computer Arrangement” is designed to meet the needs of students in creative self-expression and provide basic knowledge and skills that will allow in the future, in addition to working with a brass band, to conduct creative activities of composer and arranger technologies. The study of music and music editors provides a fundamentally wide range of opportunities for systematization, organization, and presentation of educational material, which ultimately determines the effectiveness of the professional activities of the future leader of the brass band.

Nation Branding in Two Major Serbian Music Festivals, Exit and Guča

This article looks into the nation branding phenomenon surrounding two major Serbian music festivals, Exit and Guča, in the post-Milošević era. The departure point of analysis is the once-dominant national identity narrative of Two Serbias, by which Exit (as a purveyor of Western-style popular music) and Guča (as the self-proclaimed guardian of the Serbian brass-band tradition) were pitted against one another as representatives of Two Serbias, one looking towards the West, and the other towards the East. Moving away from this obsolete model of interpretation, this article examines the effects that the inception of nation branding in Serbian public discourse has produced on the local perception of each festival as well as on Serbian national identity within the broader contexts of post-socialist transition, the EU integration, and globalization. It also analyzes the ways in which the principles of market economy and branding practice are being “bastardized” in both festivals, resulting in what Mladen Lazić (2003) calls normative-value dissonance. Nation branding has forged a more unified view of Exit and Guča as national brands that ostensibly improve the international image of the country but which in reality deplete both festivals of their initial cultural and political potency. Ultimately, however, the proof of normative-value dissonance in Exit and Guča supports the argument that nation branding in these two festivals feeds back into earlier Balkanist discourse on Serbia’s indeterminate position between West and East; and it does so in a way that provides little hope for alternative visions of the nation’s future.