Brass Bands
Recommended Books
Brass Bands of the World: Militarism, Colonial Legacies, and Local Music Making by
Bands structured around western wind instruments are among the most widespread instrumental ensembles in the world. Although these ensembles draw upon European military traditions that spread globally through colonialism, militarism, and missionary work, local musicians have adapted the brass band prototype to their home settings, and today these ensembles are found in religious processions and funerals, military maneuvers and parades, and popular music genres throughout the world. Based on their expertise in ethnographic and archival research, the contributors to this volume present a series of essays that examine wind band cultures from a range of disciplinary perspectives, allowing for a comparison of band cultures across geographic and historical fields. The themes addressed encompass the military heritage of band cultures; local appropriations of the military prototype; links between bands and their local communities; the spheres of local band activities and the modes of sociability within them; and the role of bands in trajectories toward professional musicianship. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in ethnomusicology, colonial and post-colonial studies, community music practices, as well as anyone who has played with or listened to their local band.
Call Number: ML1300 .B73 2013Publication Date: 2013
Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans by
Roll With It is a firsthand account of the precarious lives of musicians in the Rebirth, Soul Rebels, and Hot 8 brass bands of New Orleans. These young men are celebrated as cultural icons for upholding the proud traditions of the jazz funeral and the second line parade, yet they remain subject to the perils of poverty, racial marginalization, and urban violence that characterize life for many Black Americans. Some achieve a degree of social mobility while many more encounter aggressive policing, exploitative economies, and a political infrastructure that creates insecurities in healthcare, housing, education, and criminal justice. The gripping narrative moves with the band members from back street to backstage, before and after Hurricane Katrina, always in step with the tap of the snare drum, the thud of the bass drum, and the boom of the tuba.
Call Number: ML1311.7.L8 S34 2013Publication Date: 2013
The British Brass Band: A Musical and Social History by
The British Brass Band is based on an earlier volume, Bands, published by Open University Press (1991) as part of its Popular Music in Britain Series. It was hailed as the most detailed and scholarly treatment of its subject. For the present volume, the original chapters have been heavily revised and an additional three chapters added, together with new and extensive appendices, numerous illustrations, a bibliography, and a new introduction. The new material includes studies on brass band repertoire, performance practices, and the bands of the Salvation Army. The contributors are the pre-eminent authorities on the subject. The work as a whole can be taken as a study of both a unique (and often misunderstood) aspect of British music, and its interaction with broader spheres of social and cultural history. It is the most detailed and definitive study of the subject.
Call Number: ML1331 .B75 2000Publication Date: 2000
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