Brass Roots A Hundred Years of Brass Bands and Their Music, 1836-1936 Routledge Revivals Series

This book was originally published in 1998. For most of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth century, the brass band was a major feature of musical life in Britain. This book surveys the hundred years from 1836 in which bands flourished, examining their origins in the village bands of the nineteenth century, the culture of banding competitions that developed and the manner in which this fostered the growth and success of bands.

Roy Newsome charts the impact of social and economic change on amateur bands during this period. The influence of classical music, in particular opera, on early band music is also examined. The latter part of the book looks in detail at the original music written for brass bands by composers such as Holst, Elgar and Bliss, as well as pieces written by prominent band leaders.

Introduction. 1. Music in Nineteenth-Century Brtain. 2. Wind Instruments and the Growth of the Amateur Band. 3. Contests from 1860; the 'Great Triumvirate', J. H. Iles. 4. Unpublished Nineteenth-Century Brass Band Music and the Development of Instrumentation. 5. Published Brass Band Music in the Nineteenth Century. 6. Into the Twentieth Century: The National Brass Band Championships. 7. Principal Arranger/Composers and their Music. 8. Popular Band Music in the Twentieth Century. 9. A New Type of Test Piece: The Original Work. 10. Retrospect.