December 14th, 2004: Concert in St. Nicholas Buccleuch Church
St. David's Brass Band's recent Christmas concert was held, for the first time, in St. Nicholas Buccleuch Church, Dalkeith.
The evening's entertainment started with two items from St. David's Junior Band. Opening with ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', the youngsters – mostly aged 10 to 15 - then gave a spirited rendition of Wham's ‘Last Christmas'.
The Senior band then followed a relatively recent chart hit with a somewhat older one – and a far older Christmas song. Steeleye Span had a hit in 1973 with their acapella version of the Latin carol ‘Gaudete', but Rodney Newton's brass band arrangement mixes traditional harmonies with a jazz big-band last verse. A more relaxed style of playing was then evident in Irving Berlin's perennial Christmas favourite ‘White Christmas', originally from the film ‘Holiday Inn', before the first novelty item of the concert. ‘A Christmas Adventure', by Darrol Barry, was nicknamed ‘Santa Claus and the Temple of Doom' by the band, since it takes a few traditional carols and provides them with an Indiana Jones-style accompaniment to surprisingly good effect.
A piece of music that has become associated with Christmas, but also originally written for a film, ‘Troika' by Serge Prokofieff featured guest Soprano Cornet player Gordon Jenkins.
The second novelty item was Sandy Smith's ‘Santa Claus-trophobia', a compilation which must include every song ever written that has ‘Santa' in the title. Every section of the band is highlighted at some point, but special mention must go to the basses for playing ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney' while the Horn section accompaniment played a Mozart Horn Concerto!
‘Yule Dance' by Philip Harper was perhaps the most difficult piece of the evening. Once again, the idea is to play a medley of traditional carols with a novel backing, in this case based on ‘Riverdance'. It is a tribute to the band's growing maturity that what was basically a school band just a few years ago (and still has a high proportion of players aged under 21) handled the complex cross-rhythms and intricate counter-melodies so capably.
There may not have been any chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but ‘The Christmas Song' by Tormé and Wells was nevertheless a welcome respite after the previous musical fireworks. However, the fireworks started again with ‘Angels From The Realms Of Glory', and continued with ‘A Christmas Fresco', both arranged by Darrol Barry, the latter piece being a collection of carols arranged in an orchestral style. ‘The Spirit of Christmas' and ‘A Christmas Confection' are similarly short suites of carols, while the last item on the program, ‘Festive March – The Wonder of Christmas', is based on the hymn ‘See Amid the Winter's Snow'. The encore, ‘Do They Know It's Christmas', was aptly chosen in the year of Band Aid 20.
A sizeable audience not only enjoyed the music, but contributed themselves during the various community carols, and donated a total of £385 in the retiral collection, which will go to a local charity, ‘Friends of Midlothian's Children', to help children with physical handicaps or special needs.
During the concert, cornet player David Moir presented the Allan Moir Memorial Quaich to bass player Stuart McNiven, chosen by the conductor and committee as bandsman of the year.
The band have a pretty full diary for the next couple of months, and are currently hard at work rehearsing for the Scottish Championships, and also three concerts, including an evening of brass music at Dalkeith Arts Centre on March 21st .