MCB Manifesto
Brass bands, while still a relatively strong force in Australian culture, are perceived by those who look from outside the brass band community as increasingly irrelevant. Kids find them uncool, music teachers are reluctant to send their students to play in one, and councilors don’t see them as a budgetary priority.
In the past (and still in some locations in Australia) the brass band was an integral element of its local community. It would play at all ceremonies and official functions as well as providing entertainment services to local businesses and other community services. Band members came from and lived in the area and were intimately connected with the local community. Everybody in the area knew their band and would happily send their children to learn an instrument if they were so inclined.
Today the situation is very different. In the case of the Moreland City Band, the perception by some council members and local ratepayers is that the band is an anachronism, maybe even regarded as a hold out of the past anglo-saxon dominated culture. This is quite understandable in Moreland an area increasing multi cultural in its makeup. At the same time it an issue that is difficult to rectify without a good understanding those new cultural inputs by its members.
The Moreland City Band, while relatively new in name, comes from a grand heritage, formed from the merging of Brunswick and Coburg councils. The band has photographic evidence of the Coburg band dating back to 1882 and the Brunswick band to 1882.
Despite this heritage (quite considerable by Australian standards), the band as it stands today is under increasing pressure to remain viable, attract new members and generally thrive like it has in the past. Senior member numbers have decreased, despite notionally having one of the largest council areas to draw players from.
Some may look to blame management of the band to the current situation. And there is some evidence to back up this claim. Eight years ago the band was lead by a great conductor. Under this conductorship the band grew in size and went from being classed as a B grade band to A grade. However on this conductor finishing up with the band a large proportion of the members left to follow him to his next band.
To understand why the players left to follow their musical director rather than keep their allegiance with Moreland, some context must be given to the relevance of competitions to the brass band. A useful analogy is the football team. In many respects a brass band is the musical equivalent of a football team. Consider the tubas as backs, trombones, horns and euphoniums midfielders and cornets forwards. The conductor/musical director is the coach and the matches are competitions held every few months after a considerable number of practice sessions (rehearsals).
Just as in sport, Australians are very keen competitors. As such bands do everything they can to win. This includes lots of extra rehearsals, two a week normally and four or more closer to the competition itself. Just to stay competitive bands must widen their reach, inducing players to travel to these rehearsals from outside their local community.
It is suggested that the results of this keen competitive spirit has the effect of further reducing the relevance of brass bands within the Australian communities in which they reside. Highly competitive bands tend to be made up of a low percentage of local members; and a focus on competition tends to reduce the band's exposure to the local community.
To some extent the focus on competition would be forgivable if the competitions led to wider exposure to the Australian community. However nothing could be further from the case. In reality brass band competitions are very insular. The vast majority of people at a brass band competition are brass band players and associated family members. This was witnessed firsthand by Moreland City Band members at their recent attendance at the 2008 competitions in Christchurch New Zealand.
It is suggested that the myopic focus on competition by the Australian brass band culture is leaving the movement less integrated with their local communities, and increasingly irrelevant to the wider Australian culture. Bands are made up of a low percentage of local personnel. The "live to compete" mantra leaves little time to the local community. The competitions themselves have become insular, with not enough effort put into the band's external promotion.
So what can we do to turn this situation around? By making our band, and brass bands in general, relevant to the local and wider Australian community. How can we make our band cool so junior will want to join our youth band programme, teachers will want to send us their students, and councilors will want to put us on the top of their budgetary priorities?
It seems clear that innovation is key, thinking boldly outside the box. To Moreland City Band this will mean initially falling outside the standard classic brass band structure. But one hopes that in the end the changes proposed will result in a new meaning for what a brass band is and what it does.
Proposed changes and why:
- Moreland City Band will throw off the competitive millstone that is around our collective necks. By not competing it will no longer focus our energies naval gazing and must look at new ways and places to perform.
- With no longer the need to comply with draconian competition rules Moreland City Band will throw out many of constraints brass bands are under. Moreland City Band will look to incorporate new media (video) and instrumentation (voice, computer etc) into its performance repertoire.
- Moreland City Band will actively pursue new avenues for performance to bring our music into the mainstream of Australian culture and make the MCB cool.
posted by Patrick @ 8:22 AM
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