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FOREWORD, |
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of the strings" are examples of their slang. They would prohibit the military band altogether, to them it is sacrilege, the conductor anathema, they rend their garments and go in sackcloth because of his iniquities. In short, they would relegate the military musician to his original and proper place, playing marches at the head of his regiment; or at best to attendance at country fairs, where his artistic depredations should be restricted to the Coote and Tinney polka and quadrille nicely out of tune.
With the very best desire to be agreeable and accommodating, we venture to believe that the military band is capable of much higher things. It seems nothing short of disgraceful that such views as those referred to should in this progressive age gain admission to the columns of the public press.
A really good assortment of wind instruments, perfectly intoned, the proportions being just and nicely balanced, and giving an artistic and intelligible rendering of a good work, is, to the discerning auditor, such as is to be found by the thousand at a summer evening performance in Hyde Park, much to be preferred to a poor rendering of the same or a similar work by a second-rate organist or inferior orchestra, whose piteous plea is that theirs is "the instrument for which the composer designed his work," wretched and commonplace though the rendition be.
In spite of all ill-natured abuse and invective; in despite even of ridicule, responsible and educated military musicians are not likely to be deterred or in any |
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