The Brassroots

INSIDER

Vol. 12, Issue 3 • February 2017

“South Western Ontario’s Favourite Brass Ensemble”www.brassroots.ca

Newsletter design and layout by Nikki Attwell Communications • www.nikkiattwell.ca

From our music directorBram GregsonHAPPY NEW YEAR!Brassroots has two quite different concerts in February. The first—Reel Time—is a 90-minute review of movie music, while the second—Camina a Espana—takes the lis-tener on a musical journey from France to Spain. Details can be found elsewhere in this newsletter as well as a synopsis of the entertaining charts we will play.

WHAT DOES MUSIC MEAN TO YOU?For most, probably all, life would be empty without music. What a dull place the world would be!. Before radio, record-ings and the internet, wiser men thought:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”

Victor Hugo (1802-1885, French poet & nov-elist) “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900, German philosopher) “Without music, life would be a mistake.”In more recent decades music’s idols have offered these opinions:

Jim Hendrix (1942-1970, American rock guitarist, singer and songwriter) “Music is a kind of high.”

Billy Joel (b.1949, American singer/songwriter) “I think music is in itself healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we are from, everyone loves music.”

ABBA “Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing; Thanks for the joy they’re bringing, Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty what would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we? So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me.”

Performing music, thankfully, is not just for profession-als. Maybe Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American poet, philosopher, naturalist and historian) had this in mind when he said, “The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those that sang best.”

I owe my love for music to the Salvation Army Band. I played cornet in a band in England when at rehearsal the conductor thought he would try a transcription of the first movement of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony.Poor old Schubert, he must have turned in his grave! But I was hooked! I had just started work as a pupil at a Civil Engineering consultant’s office. My wage was one pound a week. Mother took seven-eighths of it (yes, that’s what happened in those days!) but I saved my pennies until I could buy a ten-inch LP. I listened to it over and over

again. When I was twenty years old as a

member of H.M. Coldstream Guards Band, an ’old soldier’—a bass trombone

player with medals across his chest—said to me, “Hey, son, if you want to hear real

brass players, go to the Festival Hall to hear Count Basie.” I heeded his advice and again I was hooked! I was amazed at their virtuosity; trumpets who squeezed out high notes I thought impossible, a drum-mer who was a gymnast and a band that played mostly loud but could melt one’s

heart with the subtlety of their pianissimoin Neal Hefti’s “Li’l Darlin’”.

I listen to all sorts of music but I do have a preference for classical and big band jazz.

What about the rest of my family? Ann likes Sinatra, Cleo Laine, Tony Bennett, loves musicals and melodies from classics such as Barber’s “Adagio” and Elgar’s Nimrod Variations.

When the kids were at home we had healthy doses of The Carpenters, The Beatles, The Shuffel Demons, Van Halen, then later Elton John, Bon Jovi, U2, AC/DC, Metallica and Johhny Reid. Now our 18-year-old grand-son’s favorite is Mumford and Sons and the 8 year old listens to Twenty-One Pilots.

I had never heard of Twenty One Pilots nor Mumford and Sons nor Johhny Reid so I visited YouTube and quite enjoyed them. I am the only family member hooked on classical music but that does not prevent my admiring wonderful Beatles songs nor Karen Carpenter’s voice, surely one of the great voices of all time. But I admit that I am concerned about the future of classical music. Perhaps the very name ‘classical’ is a barrier, also the formality of classical concerts. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

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THE BRASSROOTS INSIDER • FEBRUARY 2017

Two Great Concerts!Reel TimeREEL TIME is a show about music that has been such an important component in movies for the past one hundred years. Sound tracks have helped to create drama, tension, terror and humour. It has been penned by some of the world’s greatest composers from all musical genres.

Here are the titles of movies whose music you will hear in this 90-minute show:

The Pirate, The Wizard of Oz, three cartoons (The Pink Panther, The Flintstones, The Simpsons), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Mission, Chariots of Fire, Bond 007 films (You Only Live Twice, From Russia with Love, Skyfall), several from the pen of John Williams (Star Wars, Schindler’s List and Superman). Also Apocolypse, Fame, Rocky, The Incredibles, Peter Gunn, Asylum and Jabberwocky.

M.C. David Ennis will guide us through the show and will enlighten with interesting facts (maybe some gossip!) about the movies and the composers. Classical music has long been important in the movies. Six of these mov-ies are graced by music from great classical composers, Mozart, Bizet, Wagner and Mussorgsky. It was Woody Allen who is credited with “I can’t listen to Wagner’s music that much. I start getting the urge to invade Poland.” Well despite Woody’s reservations about Wagner’s music, you will hear one of his most popular and stirring, almost terrifying pieces from the beginning of Act 3 of his opera, Die Walkure. There would be no argument if one thought

it best performed by a full symphony orchestra. In fact ten brass playing this thrilling music may be a bit like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, but I promise we will give it our best shot, or if you prefer, blast!

Composers such as Cole Porter, Bill Conti, Harold Arlen, Henry Mancini and John Williams have gifted us with some of the most beautiful melodies ever, There will be jazz and pop and our soloists will be up front to display their skills in lyrical and high flying jazz improvisations.

Camina a EspanaA MUSICAL JOURNEY FROM FRANCE TO SPAIN.

The concert starts with the “Fanfare—Rondeau” by Jean-Joseph Mouret (born in Avignon, 1682–1783). Mouret was a leading exponent of Baroque music in France and is best known for the signature tune of the PBS TV series Masterpiece Theatre. His precocious talents were obvious from an early age but apparently he lacked self-confidence, had financial and social problems and was jealous of other rising composers. These contributed to his madness and he died in poverty in a mental institution.

“Music of the Sun King” was composed by Jean Baptiste Lully. He was born in Florence, Italy in 1632 but became the favorite composer of the French, actually dominating the musical scene during the reign of Louis X1V (Louis the Great, or Sun King). For a period of ten years he had total control over the royal family’s court music. Most of this piece was written for an equestrian ballet using twelve military trumpets, oboes and a kettle drum. Julia Vaughan will play Debussy’s serene “Girl with the Flaxen Hair“ fol-

“..one of the fi nest brass ensembles in Canada… stunning performance..” WHOLENOTE MAGAZINE

“London’s pre-eminent brass ensemble…top notch musicianship… cultural embassadors…”

SCENE MAGAZINE

“…high standard of playing and choice of quality literature…” BRASS HERALD, UK

presentspresentspresents

BRASSROOTSA fast-paced journey through the

history of MUSIC IN FILM.Friday, Feb. 3, 2017 | 8:00 pm

www.aeolianhall.ca

SaturdayFEB. 2520177:30 ��

St. James WestminsterAnglican Church115 Askin Street,London

Revel in the rhythmic joys of these great countries!

www.brassroots.ca

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THE BRASSROOTS INSIDER • FEBRUARY 2017

lowed by “Minstrels” from his preludes for solo piano, a rhythmic piece full of variations in tempo and dynamics. The first half ends with a bridge into Spain with the over-ture from The Barber of Seville. The composer, of course, was the Italian Rossini, but the opera is based on an 18th-century French play of the same title. Apparently the first performance of the opera was a complete disaster with people hissing and shouting abuse but now, two centuries later, it is one of the best loved comic operas. Certainly the overture is tremendously popular. There are few who have not heard this delightful music starting slowly and ending at a gallop!

Spanish music has its own attraction, so rhythmic and oft so seductive. Actually there is only one Spanish composer represented in the second half of the concert. He is Enrique Granados with ”Andaluza” from his set of Spanish Dances. Other pieces are really a salute to Spain. American composer Anthony di Lorenzo’s Blade of Spain is highly entertaining suite in three movements; “La Perla Negra” is a musical depiction of a sad, lonely man sit-ting in a bar whilst an accordionist plays a slow tango. A beautiful woman walks in wearing a single black pearl and proceeds to dance with the old man. The music gradually gets faster as the old man becomes youthful again—the rest of the story will be heard at the concert! Chick Corea’s Spain is great favorite and it will end the concert with the flair for which Brassroots is renowned.

We are particularly looking forward to this concert because most of the charts will be first performances. We are grateful to those who donate so generously in response to our appeals to buy new charts. Keep up the good work folks! Likewise we will appreciate new donors helping us to expand our library.

Did you know that...

GYWN BEYNON (trumpet) is conduc-

tor of Encore... The Concert Band,

plays trumpet in Prime Time and the

London Jazz Orchestra, plays hockey

three times a week (and has eight

grandchildren).

JULIA VAUGHAN (trumpet / flugel

horn) also plays with the Stratford

Symphony Orchestra, Jeans ‘n

Classics Rock Symphony Orchestra

and Encore... The Concert Band. She

plays hockey, ball hockey and base-

ball, swims, bikes and runs regularly in preparation

for sprint triathlon competitions. Her newest pas-

sion is mountain biking (year round) and she will

compete in her first Xterra Triathlon in June 2017

TONY SNYDER (Horn) is principal horn

of Guelph Symphony Orchestra and

Wellington Wind Symphony. He also

plays with the Stratford Symphony

and as a sub from time to time with

the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony

Orchestra. He makes guitars and horn mutes; last

year he made a canoe and he is about to have

trumpet mutes evaluated by Brassroots’ trumpet

section.

SUSAN FOLLOWS ( bass trombone)

conducts Ebytown Brass (since

1990), plays principal trombone with

Stratford Symphony Orchestra, bass

trombone with Wellington Winds

Symphony, Full House Quintet, Slide

by Slide trombone quartet and Waterloo Chamber

Players, She has four step children and six grand-

children.

ERIC DEVOOGHT (percussion) has

played with London Concert Band,

teaches at Medway High School and

Saunders High School where he con-

ducts the Jazz Band. He married

Emma in August 2016. Emma plays

bassoon in Encore... The Concert Band — another

musical family. Congratulations Emma and Eric!

Wow, they are busy people. All our musicians except

John Monkhouse and Bram Gregson are music edu-

cators, active or retired. We should add that Julia

is librarian and personnel Manager for Brassroots

and Susan is treasurer. And by the way, they always

answer the music director’s emails — quam celerrime!

JULIA VAUGHAN

and Encore... The Concert Band. She

ball, swims, bikes and runs regularly in preparation

Orchestra. He makes guitars and horn mutes; last

conducts Ebytown Brass (since

1990), plays principal trombone with

trombone with Wellington Winds

by Slide trombone quartet and Waterloo Chamber

bassoon in Encore... The Concert Band — another

Back to Reel Time—classical music has played an important part in movie sound tracks. In our February 3 concert one will hear six classical extracts. The remain-ing charts will be from original sound tracks by stellar composers such as John Williams, Ennio Morricone, John Barry and several others.

Aeolian Hall is a top class venue for listening to good music. Hope you can come along. Our concerts are far from formal!

Bram

TrumpetsPaul StevensonKevin SwindenGwyn BeynonJulia VaughanHornTony Snyder TubaMichael Medeiros

TrombonesJohn MonkhouseDave Davidson,Seth McNallSusan FollowsPercussionRob InchEric Devooght

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

BRASSROOTS PERSONNEL

THE BRASSROOTS INSIDER • FEBRUARY 2017

ÓMemoriesÔBEFORE OUR CONCERT in Xuzhou, part of our 2013 tour of China, our host asked (actu-ally ordered!) that the concert be finished at 9 pm prompt! To our surprise we were whisked off in this bus to a village about one hour away to perform a few pieces at a beer festival. We arrived at an event that was alive with laser lights, full rock festival stage and deafening music. What a riotous couple of hours we had! We felt like rock stars! Since there were no music stands the mem-bers of one of their Chinese folk dance groups held our music. Not sure they appreciated our charts but it was great fun. We were surrounded by flashing cameras. John Monkhouse took the microphone and walked down the runway to show the audience how to do the Chicken Dance. As Brassroots played the crowd got up and danced along. The beer flowed, the Oktoberfest beer cheers erupted and the locals challenged us to a beer guzzling contest. They won! Only 2% alcohol in their beer, so no problem! This was simply a wonderfully friendly, crazy time with our hosts! The bus back to the hotel late that night was filled with the most laughter yet!

AcknowledgementsThe Board of Directors, our music director and musicians thank: Our dedicated volunteers. St. James Westminster Anglican Church; in particular

Stephen Holowitz, Sarah Mills and Rebekah Reid. Fanshawe Chorus London for

the loan of large percussion equipment.

London Arts Council for operating funds without which our London concert series would not be possible.

Advice for you know who!

Mankind is made great or little by his own will. Friedrich Schiller

No Legacy is so rich as honesty.Shakespeare

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Shakespeare

Brevity is the soul of wit.Shakespeare

And Shakespeare

had never heard of Twitter!

Our two most recent CDs, Passion

for Brass and Cocktails, will be

on sale $15 each or $20 for both. Read

the critics’ comments about Brassroots’

playing on the advertisement on page 2

of this newsletter!

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Advice for you know who!

Book our final regular series concert in your calendar!At St. James Westminster Anglican Church, starting at 7.30 pm

Concert No. 4SATURDAY APRIL 22, 2017

From Time to TimeA brief history of music from fi ve centuries

From a Renaissance song by Henry VIII; Baroque to Pop and Jazz; Gabrielli to Shostakovich and Gershwin, and great new arrange-ments by Je� Christmas.

had! We felt like rock stars! Since there were no music stands the mem-

See brassroots.ca facebook for lots more news about the group and its members.