Gravesend October 2024
Visit to Gravesend – 26 October 2024
The Band has been invited to share Corps Anniversary celebrations at Gravesend for a number of years, and we were pleased to be invited again this year to help celebrate the 141st Anniversary of the Corps. The work of the Corps is well respected in the town, and it was good to be joined by both the Mayor of Gravesham and the Member of Parliament for Gravesham, and other civic dignitaries. Gravesend is the main town for the Gravesham district.
The festival began with a piece by our conductor, Derick Kane, called “Onward”, based on “Onward, Christian Soldiers”, which reminds us that we should always be pressing onward towards the next goal. We then played an old march from 1939 entitled “Pakefield” which, unusually for a march, features an old devotional verse “O for a heart whiter than snow”.
Principal Cornet Andy Pretious then played Dorothy Gates’s arrangement of the Songster song “Rest” most lyrically and sensitively.
We are always pleased to be able to play some of Derick’s own arrangements, and we next featured his descriptive work called “The ring of Brodgar”. This music is based on an ancient ring of stones in the Orkney Islands, which is reputed to be older than Stonehenge. Various original melodies are used by Derick to create the different moods, together with a traditional Scottish folk song, and the music was well received by the audience.
Derick’s lighter side was then presented in his own composition “That’s the Spirit”, using the John Larsson song of that name. We always anticipate that Adrian Horwood will successfully embrace the very technical limits of Euphonium playing, and his performance of the Euphonium solo this evening was no exception.
We followed this item with arrangements based on melodies from Ireland and Wales. The version of “The Londonderry Air”, or “Danny Boy” which we presented is a reflective and different setting by Dutch Salvationist Olaf Ritman – just to prove that music has no national barriers! And by contrast, the stirring Welsh song “Men of Harlech” provided some full-blooded brass playing in keeping with the song’s underlying sentiments. The Band then quietened the mood by presenting the song “What a wonderful world”, with its beautiful words. Even sixty years after its writing, the song is still indelibly linked to Louis Armstrong.
All great music can bring out the best in its performers and inspire and uplift its listeners. “Symphony of Thanksgiving” is no exception. It still ranks with the finest music ever created by the Salvation Army, and despite its technical complexity, it offers the listener some unsurpassed melodic moments. The Band were grateful for a breather to give us a break after this major work.
Our first item after the break to get everybody comfortable again, was a march called “The Golden Crown”, which underlines the vast amount of published music which perhaps doesn’t get the exposure it deserves within our ranks.
It was then the turn of Eb Bass player Paul Newman to present the solo “Celestial Pathway”. Derek had composed the piece as an amalgam of a Bass Solo and a Bass duet, both of which were originally written by one of the SA’s finest composers, Leslie Condon, himself a noted Bass player. Paul played with panache and enthusiasm, and was much appreciated by the audience.
There were then a couple of quieter numbers. Maurice Horwood played the Trombone solo “Jesus is real to me”, which proved that the “fireworks” don’t always outshine the effectiveness of the simple melody. The Band then sang the much-loved Gospel song “Rock of Ages”, under Adrian’s direction.
Derick then invited us to all engage in some audience participation in the following item, “Let it shine”, which is a bright rhythmic number. Imagine our surprise when the Mayor rose to his feet halfway through and began gently swaying to the rhythm. Needless to say, the Mayor received a hearty round of applause for his participation.
Another time of quietness then followed with the arrangement of “Burdens are lifted”, which features two prayer choruses from a previous SA generation of worship. It is good that our musical heritage is still being remembered by such songs being revived. Adrian then reminded us of a few pertinent thoughts in terms of our past as an organisation and our looking to the future. Our final piece of music was a salute to some of the songs of the SA’s heritage called “Songs of the Pioneers”. It is a pot-pourri of old SA songs, of which members of the audience would have had fond remembrance, and due attention was paid by the Band to the varying dynamic demands.
And so begins another 12 months in the life of Gravesend Corps, and we trust that the Band’s visit will have provided some measure of inspiration and encouragement for the future. There was just time for the Band to round off the evening with the old favourite march “On the King’s Highway” as a benediction.
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