Kickin´ brass

Capital City Brass Band prepares for its upcoming competition

Posted
When you hear the term “brass band,” your mind may take you to the streets of New Orleans and the clamor of Bourbon Street. Many people are unaware, however, there is an entirely different style of brass band, rooted in centuries of British history. This unique style will be on display Saturday when the 40 members of Lansing’s own Capital City Brass Band take the stage.

“The sound is really like nothing else,” says band member Daniel Alt. “It’s a homog enous sound, it really blends from top to bottom.”

Alt, 40, has been a member of Capital City Brass Band since 2007, and has been playing in Britishstyle brass bands for 16 years. The British style is a tradition that dates back to the early 1800s.

“This style of brass band comes out of the British labor movement,” Alt explains. “These would be bands made up of workers from textile mills or coal mines.”

The British style means there is a specific set of instruments and number of players. The instrumentation is almost entirely made up of conical-bore brass instruments.

“We’re really getting into the weeds here,” says Alt, as we begin to discuss what the term “conical bore” means.

In a cylindrical-bore instrument, French Horn or trumpet, for example, the piping maintains a constant diameter until the bell, where it flares out. Conical bore instruments, such as cornet or euphonium, feature an increasing diameter throughout the piping. This subtle difference in design significantly changes the tone color of the instruments. Consider the warm, mellow sound of Chuck Mangione’s conical-bore flugelhorn versus the direct, biting tone of Miles Davis’ cylindrical-bore trumpet.

A classically trained French Horn player, Alt picked up the less-common E-flat tenor horn to play in brass band.

“It looks like a euphonium that has been left in the dryer a little too long,” he jokes.

There are some other instrumental oddities in the band, including a tiny soprano cornet and two sizes of tuba. The standard instrumentation also includes trombones — the only cylindrical-bore instruments allowed in the band — and two to four percussionists.

Another quirk of the British style is that all instruments read music in treble clef.

Much of the band would normally be reading bass clef.

“It drives that tuba players crazy,” says Alt.

Capital City Brass Band’s Saturday performance is a preview of their upcoming appearance at the North American Brass Band Association Championships March 13 and 14. This annual competition pits bands from all over the nation against each other in three divisions.

“Each division has a test piece that every group must play,” explains Alt. “Each band looks at the test pieces and picks a division based on what they think they can handle.”

This year’s competition will be in Fort Wayne, Ind., and, according to the association´s website, more than 30 bands have signed up for this year’s contest. Capital City Brass Band has performed well in recent years. In 2011 the band was named 3rd division champions and in 2014 it was awarded 2nd place in the 2nd division.

The ensemble is performing under the direction of Ken Kroesche, interim music director. Kroesche served as the group’s musical director from 2007 to 2011, but resigned when he was offered a job at Oakland University. The 52-year-old Rochester Hills resident agreed to return this year to help the group prepare for the competition.

For Kroesche, the competition drives brass bands to a higher level of playing.

“These are community groups that are trying to play at their very best,” he says. “The competition definitely gives them an extra push.”

Kroesche finds that new audience members are often surprised by the versatility of the band.

“They’re impressed by the sound, but they are also surprised at the difficulty of the music we perform,” he says. “There are a lot of intricate parts. People are also impressed, not just by the loudness, but also at how softly the group can play.”

While the group is based in Lansing, it has looked to other communities in the area to fill out their performance calendar.

“It’s difficult finding affordable performance spaces in the city,” says Alt. “We’re always looking to play more in Lansing.”

Capital City Brass Band

Competition Preview Concert 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21 FREE Grand Ledge High School Auditorium 820 Spring St, Grand Ledge capitalcitybrassband.com

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here




Connect with us