Strike up the band

Britain's illustrious brass band tradition delivers first-rate opportunities within local communities

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In the British Isles, one of the strongest examples of community music making can be found in brass bands. Their proud tradition goes back almost 200 years, and their survival has never been more necessary. The demise of music funding in state schools has meant an inevitable reduction in ensemble participation, with often patchy county music provision. Under these conditions, adult amateur ensembles have attempted to fill the gap, with varying results. But brass bands are ahead of the curve, with a long history of fulfilling this role.

Many of today's professional musicians grew up in the brass band tradition, and some declare that this was their most profound influence setting them up for a lifelong love of music. Like any long-held convention, however, these bands have had to adjust to societal changes, and some have struggled to adapt. Yet the community role they fulfil has become ever more important.

The practice of operating small, disparate ensembles in local communities has probably taken place since before records began, but in the early part of the 19th century the invention of the valve revolutionised brass instruments, offering a greater and more chromatic range of notes, and with this, a broader mix of repertoire. Bands continued, though, to use other instruments – most notably reed instruments – and there is some contention about which ensemble became the first exclusively brass band. The famous Black Dyke Band has often been seen as one of the first, but there is now some agreement that, in 1832, the Blaina Band from South Wales was the first to become entirely brass.