So I was teaching an adult student, Bob, the other day, and we were talking about classical music and how in some modern music, there doesn’t seem to be much of a tune.
Bob was saying he found it very hard to listen to Schoenberg. How do you hum along to discordance?
It's a fair point. Sometimes, all we want is a good tune, something to hum along to. As I was cycling round Brisbane that day I began to notice something, that I realised was almost in opposition to what Bob was saying.
They are all around Australia. Usually in the middle of a park, so expected, so common a part of the landscape, they often go unnoticed. Circular or octagonal, cream or white, with a federation colour roof and railings. They are one of the delights of many Australian cities and towns.
The rotunda. Also known as the band stand, or the pavilion, these places have been at the heart of community music making for decades. Somehow their silence these days makes them even more beautiful. And for me, and possibly for you, the rotunda is the home of a good tune. And one particular music ensemble.
There can hardly be anything more uplifting than the sight and sound of a brass band playing in a rotunda. Musicians crowded into the round, the tuba and euphoniums at the back spurring the cornets and trombones onto greater, higher, faster, louder things, and then the tenor horns come in and your heart melts with their amber, liquid sound.
The energy and potential of a brass band seems to corral every emotion in music, but the one they do best has to be one that is sometimes undervalued — geniality. To simply be friendly and cheerful, sometimes that’s all we need to feel better about life. How can you not tap your toe to a Sousa March, or feel your emotions soar with some Percy Grainger?
But what is it about the brass band sound which is so inviting? Perhaps it’s the glorious union of timbre. The only sound other than air being blown through brass alloy, is the sound of the drum, or cymbal. All such resonant, free-flowing vibrations, and not a single moment of doubt, sadness or shyness; you can hum to your heart's content. A brass band will lift your spirits come rain or shine, literally.
Ed Ayres presents Weekend Breakfast on ABC Classic (Saturday and Sunday 6am–9am).