A quite interesting amateur band
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 9:09 pm
Here in my utterly provincial Danish town we can receive a number of international channels via the cable. Among these 5 or so German ones. I am very interested in German culture and politics, so I zap around there from time to time.
Today a big feature was about the Swiss Guard of the Vatican celebrating its 5th Centennial. A topic which has a lot of historical, religious, and political annotations not to be discussed here. Only I have family reasons for being interested in the Catholic Church, even if I never was a member.
Almost 3 decades ago there were a lot of ceremonies around the fast successions of JP I+II. I was disgusted by the terribly out of tune musical parts of the liturgy.
Last year brought two big ceremonies, which were carried out in the musically seen most dignified way.
Due to the new pope being German there has been quite some focus on the Vatican by the German media. Which taught me, that the Swiss Guard has a band, which at the daily shifts of guard hardly exceeds 15 players. Maybe even fewer, as they march only 2 men abreast. 1 euph and 1 tuba in front.
Saturday’s celebration presented a somewhat larger band of maybe 30 or 35 players (very distant cameras). Which leads me to suspect, that the day-by-day services are done in shifts as known from the ceremonial functions of the DC Navy band.
What really caught my interest was the telling of a retired highly ranking officer: No guard member is recruited on basis of his musical abilities. All band members carry out fully their guarding duties like any other guard member. All musical activities are done voluntarily in the personal time (off-duty hours or whatever the proper term might be) of the involved guard members.
The composition of the full band supported my suspicion, that it is designed to work in 3 shifts:
3 tubas: 2 medium rotary BBb’s and a top piston instrument, which I would suspect to be an older British pre-Sovereign version due to its remarkable lack of a flare.
3 euphs playing tenor lines as one hears them in choirs (ending on the third).
Only 1 trombone.
No horns, but a lot of piston trumpets. Some of these so long, that I suspect them to be Eb alto trumpets. Also a lone cornet, maybe in Eb.
1 flute and very few clarinets.
Whereas the director clearly was a professional (and surprisingly young), the band obviously was composed of good amateurs. Very well in time and in tune, but the not very complicated repertory lacked some refinement in its execution/phrasing. Yet the fine tuning and rhythm gave the band a high score in my little black book. The drummers for odd reasons played a trio soli with obvious Scottish inspiration. Well done.
To me the only fixed factors appeared to be the 3 tubas and the 3 euphs. The rest of the line-up more looked like "bring the instrument you have".
I liked the integrity of the ceremony, as it didn’t allow neither sound nor camera crew to interfere. So all recording was done on the distance without the direct (and stationary) miking bestowed on the clerical parts of the ceremony. Ad on the highly informed officers/priests/monks of the church, which acted as commentators on German TV.
Sad to admit for a low conical brass player: the acoustic circumstances of the recording made me find the sound too heavy in basses and euphs.
I am very interested in military bands in general. So I was surprised to get surprised by this band. No political or religious implications intended. I would write on military bands of any nation insofar I might have any experience with them. But Saturday’s listening was new to me.
Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre
Today a big feature was about the Swiss Guard of the Vatican celebrating its 5th Centennial. A topic which has a lot of historical, religious, and political annotations not to be discussed here. Only I have family reasons for being interested in the Catholic Church, even if I never was a member.
Almost 3 decades ago there were a lot of ceremonies around the fast successions of JP I+II. I was disgusted by the terribly out of tune musical parts of the liturgy.
Last year brought two big ceremonies, which were carried out in the musically seen most dignified way.
Due to the new pope being German there has been quite some focus on the Vatican by the German media. Which taught me, that the Swiss Guard has a band, which at the daily shifts of guard hardly exceeds 15 players. Maybe even fewer, as they march only 2 men abreast. 1 euph and 1 tuba in front.
Saturday’s celebration presented a somewhat larger band of maybe 30 or 35 players (very distant cameras). Which leads me to suspect, that the day-by-day services are done in shifts as known from the ceremonial functions of the DC Navy band.
What really caught my interest was the telling of a retired highly ranking officer: No guard member is recruited on basis of his musical abilities. All band members carry out fully their guarding duties like any other guard member. All musical activities are done voluntarily in the personal time (off-duty hours or whatever the proper term might be) of the involved guard members.
The composition of the full band supported my suspicion, that it is designed to work in 3 shifts:
3 tubas: 2 medium rotary BBb’s and a top piston instrument, which I would suspect to be an older British pre-Sovereign version due to its remarkable lack of a flare.
3 euphs playing tenor lines as one hears them in choirs (ending on the third).
Only 1 trombone.
No horns, but a lot of piston trumpets. Some of these so long, that I suspect them to be Eb alto trumpets. Also a lone cornet, maybe in Eb.
1 flute and very few clarinets.
Whereas the director clearly was a professional (and surprisingly young), the band obviously was composed of good amateurs. Very well in time and in tune, but the not very complicated repertory lacked some refinement in its execution/phrasing. Yet the fine tuning and rhythm gave the band a high score in my little black book. The drummers for odd reasons played a trio soli with obvious Scottish inspiration. Well done.
To me the only fixed factors appeared to be the 3 tubas and the 3 euphs. The rest of the line-up more looked like "bring the instrument you have".
I liked the integrity of the ceremony, as it didn’t allow neither sound nor camera crew to interfere. So all recording was done on the distance without the direct (and stationary) miking bestowed on the clerical parts of the ceremony. Ad on the highly informed officers/priests/monks of the church, which acted as commentators on German TV.
Sad to admit for a low conical brass player: the acoustic circumstances of the recording made me find the sound too heavy in basses and euphs.
I am very interested in military bands in general. So I was surprised to get surprised by this band. No political or religious implications intended. I would write on military bands of any nation insofar I might have any experience with them. But Saturday’s listening was new to me.
Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre