On Saturday 20 January, the Brass Band de Charente was invited by the Batterie fanfare des Vents Marines to share the bill at their New Year's concert at the Palais des Congrès in Rochefort (17). Once again, we'd like to thank Les Vents Marines, and especially their president Stéphane Betin, for the superb welcome they gave us.
Although these two orchestras are "cousins" in that they are composed exclusively of mouthpieces and percussion, there are some notable differences between our two groups.
Les Vents Marines are a brass band whose speciality lies in the use of natural brass instruments, i.e. without systems (pistons, pallets or slides) to modify the length of the tube and thus produce all the semitones of the scale.
These instruments are divided into two keys: trumpet, bass trumpet, E-flat horn, bugle and B-flat bass bugle. These are the natural brass instruments characteristic of these fanfares.
The brass band and the batterie fanfare, on the other hand, share the use of the sib tuba, euphonium, percussion and keyboards, ... as well as the spirit of brass ensembles, based on sharing and mutual support.
Les Vents Marine
During the first part, performed by the Vents Marines, the audience enjoyed the typical sound of the batterie fanfare, as well as a special interlude of three pieces played exclusively by the percussion instruments.
Despite the constraints of natural brass instruments, which are inevitably limited in terms of the notes they can produce, batterie fanfares can nonetheless tackle a diversified repertoire with the addition of tuba, euphonium and keyboards. Conducted by Jean-Michel Rossignol and André Telman, who also composed a good half of the pieces, the Vents Marines presented a program blending tradition and modernity, with a few nods to film music, rock and jazz.
Le Brass Band de Charente
In the second half, we in turn offered an eclectic programme, oscillating between adaptations of symphonic music, new pieces and traditional Welsh and German music. In this Olympic year, we performed John Williams' 'Summon the Heroes', a work originally created for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, as well as 'Elsa's Procession' from Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, and 'We are the ocean', a piece by Dan Price mentioned in a previous article, composed especially for our brass band. Calon Lân, a traditional Welsh song written in 1890 by Daniel James, gave our two euphonium players, Andrew and Ifor (who is himself Welsh), the opportunity to showcase the warm, round sound of their instrument.
The response from the large audience was excellent. We would like to thank everyone in the room for their receptiveness and enthusiasm.
Finally, the two orchestras had to come together. This was achieved with the performance of PBFB's Dream, a piece by André Telman, originally written for batterie fanfare, in which the brass band had no difficulty in finding its place, thus sealing the family character of this musical encounter.
Thanks again to Vents Marine for their invitation, and see you soon for a new article, featuring tuba and trombone!