Sacrilege

I am now going to upset a lot of people in the brass band world.

Yesterday Croydon Brass played out, and it was an excellent performance, I have been thinking about why it was so good, and have decided that it was not just the quality of the players, although that was impressive, it was in part the instrumentation. We had French Horns!

For the uninitiated brass bands usually use Eb tenor horns, these are "Saxhorns" a bit like tubas that have been put on too hot a wash. French horns are on the other hand much longer narrow bore pipes, indeed they are different to every other brass instrument in so many ways, but they make the most marvelous sound. Indeed I think the Orchestral Horn makes the most exciting sound in music. I think this is one of the reasons I enjoyed Saturday so much.

It was wonderful a the conductor to have so many good quality players, they followed everything I meant to do, and ignored all mistakes, it could all go to my head, but it's still a good thing that you can't hear the conductors wrong notes.