DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS PERFORMANCE PORTFOLIO ...

Coldstreamers
of their foundevý, Philip Biggs
Queen Anne's State Apartments
in St. James's Palace were the
venue for a 12 piece band from
the Coldstream Guards Band
conducted by their Director of
Music, Major Graham Jones to
record music which the original
band performed back in the late
1700s. The band was actually
formed in 1785 by HRH The
Duke of York and was called The
Duke of York's new Band of the
Coldstream Regiment of Foot
Guards. The first Director of
Music was Christopher Eley
(whose official title was Music
Master) and he held the
position until 1800.
1 couldn't resist the opportunity of -oing
down to London and sampling one of the
recording sessions. The instrumentation I
found was as follows: 1 Natural Trumpet,
2 Natural Horns, 1 Serpent, 2 Bassoons, 4
Clarinets and 2 Oboes and, interestingly,
no percussion. The project was
masterminded by the DoM Major Jones
and David Diggs, who is Director of Winds
at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
Major Jones told me that the parts to the
music could not be traced in the library at
the Coldstreamers home at Wellington
Barracks. Over eighteen months David
Diggs had undertaken a massive amount
of research into the formation of the
Coldstream Band and fortunately came
across manuscripts of the music in the
British Library. David's work certainly
didn't stop at this point; he then set about
transcribing the music for the present day
Coldstreamers to perform and record,
with himself performing in the recording
(thoroughly deserved, as well) on
Principal Oboe.
David told me the music that has been
compiled, both by Eley and 'as played by
the Duke of York's band', represents a
si. -nificant collection of wind band
music from the late
eighteenth century. When examined as a
whole, the collection is a valuable example
of the types of music the regimental band
would have needed to play at various
required functions: marches quick and
slow, minuets and cotillion for dancing,
and concert pieces based on the vocal
repertoire of the day. These published
works made it possible for a volunteer
band to have a repertoire to play at similar
Functions.
In each of the 1794 publications (A Set of
Mflitary Pieces) can be found several
arrangements based on the songs of the
London theatres - Covent Garden, Drury
Lane and the King's Theatre in Haymarket.
The important composers of the period,
Reeve, Arnold, Shield and Storace are all
represented and some of the
arrangements are nearly exact
reproductions of the vocal scores. As such,
these arrangements give a fair
representation of that music which is
generally no longer performed. Also to be
found are arrangements of works by
foreign composers who found great
popularity and exposure in late eighteenth
century London. Paisiello and Pleyel each
enjoyed enormous success with the
concert audiences of that time.
Director of Music for The Regimental Band
of the Coldstream Guards Band Major
Graham Jones said: "Working on the FJey
project has highlighted the historical
development of the band over its two
hundred and nineteen years of service.
You can see that little has changed from
Eley's band to the present in that the band
was playing music of the day taken from
both Theatre and Opera as well as
specially composed music for use as
marches and for providing musical
support to State ceremonial in London.
The same can be said of today's Band. "
"Of course what has changed is the size
and instrumentation of the band. It is clear
that its development has been driven by
the invention and development of musical
instruments, historical events, society and
financial constraints. in 1785 Eley had a
band of twelve and by 1815 the band had
nearly doubled in size which would have
included the addition offrombones.
Remember Mozart wrote for Trombone in
his last work before his death in 1791, the
Requiem Mass. From a historical point of
view 16th June 1815 saw the Duke of
Wellington commanding 77,000 men at
Waterloo. The 2nd Brigade of the first
division commanded by General Sir John
Bying included the Coldstream Guards.
Throughout history it can be seen that as
the Army grew so did the size, and
numbers, of bands. Sadly the same can
also be said when numbers in the Army
Lire reduced. "
(75)
"Performance has chan&d kide, however.
Imagine marching from Horse Guards
Parade to St James' Palace playing a
Serpent, Natural Horn or Natural
.. UMpeL? These musicians must have had
incredible ears to pitch notes accurately
and march at the same time. During the
recording I was amazed at how the sound
of the Serpent travelled. Its restricted -
almost muffled - sound complemented the
bright sound of the Homs and Trumpet
whilst at the same time enhancing the
tonal qualities of the Bassoons. The sound
created by this blend of instruments was a
pleasure to mould into performance and to
conduct. "
Back to David Diggs, who commented:
"Some two centuries have passed since the
composition of this music. In the interval
much has happened that makes it
impossible to know with absolute certainty
how the music would have sounded.
Instruments have become louder, the
tuning pitch level has risen and
performance spaces have changed
dramatically. Certainly performance styles
and practices are much different today"
"Consider, for instance, the question of
intonation. Existing examples of
instruments from the eighteenth century
seem to have inherent intonation 'defects'.
Does this mean that the players of that day
allowed themselves to play out of tune? Or
did they find ways to compensate for the
insufficiencies of their instruments, some
secret knowledge lost to subsequent
generations? These are questions to which
we will never fully know the answer. "
"Stylistically there is much to consider For
contemporary wind bands two styles of the
eighteenth century are no longer used and
require some 'retraining' on the part of the
members. These two styles are known as
'double dotting'and the swinging Italianate
style. It is important to understand as well
the use of the appoggiatura and other
graces played on the beat. "
In conclusion Major Graham Jones said:
"This project would not have been possible
without a great deal of support from many
people. I would like to take this
opportunity publicly to thank David Diggs
for his dedication and tenacity in
researching the music and transcribing all
the scores. I would also like to thank Sir
Malcolm Ross at Buckingham Palace for
allowing the recording to take place inside
St James'Palace and his staff who made us
all very welcome. I would also like to thank
B&H Sound for agreeing to work on the
project and finally the musicians themselves
for their dedication and professionalism in
bringing this project to life. "
in the next issue of The Brass Herold we
will be taking a closer look at the music and
how the recording is progressing.
The Brass Herald August 2004 47