Talk Subjects
Chris Helme
This is a reproduction of the Christmas card designed by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole in 1843. and is recognised as the first Christmas card ever sent. If you were fortunate enough to find one in the dark corner of a cupboard at your house, well you are sitting on a fortune. The last one of these cards that was offered at an auction in New York was sold for $10,000. Whilst it is highly unlikely you will have one take a look at some of the cards you may have collected from your own childhood days they too may now be collectors items. Certainly not worth the $10,000 the first one was sold for but it could just be worth more than you think.
Hello and welcome to our third week of brass band Christmas music. As always we have many old favourites and some new ones as well. We also have a story telling listeners what Christmas was like in those Second World War post-war years and through the 1950s and very early 1960s. Some of you will recall those days of rationing and homemade toys...
Hello Brass Banders - This is week two into my Sunday Bandstand radio show. Once again it is Christmas music all the way with some fabulous soloists.
Why do we have candles at Christmas time? By lighting candles during Christmas eve, this represents the Star of Bethlehem that guided the Magi to the manger where baby Jesus was born.
Another set of Christians consider Jesus as the “light of the world,“ and they light candles during Christmas to celebrate the birth of the “light of the world;” Jesus.
What is considered to be the oldest Christmas Carol? It's generally accepted that one of the first Christmas carols ever to be recorded was the 129 AD 'Angels Hymn', according to The New Daily. Around this time, Christianity-themed hymns started taking over the previous pagan songs celebrating Winter Solstice...
Enjoy the show...
Hello and welcome to our first show of December. Regular listeners to our show will be aware we begin playing our Christmas music in the the first show in December. We then gradually build it up week by week until our Christmas Day show when it will be almost wall-to-wall Christmas music throughout. We will be featuring brass bands and soloists from around the banding world.
There will be some old favourites and some new music which we hope will in time become new favourites. If you have a special piece of Christmas music or carol you would like us to play please contact us through the email which is announced regularly on the show...Enjoy
Dorothy Gates was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Trombone Performance from Queens University Belfast, Master of Music degree in Trombone Performance from the University of Michigan and PhD in Composition from the University of Salford. Her principal composition teachers were Kevin Volans, George Wilson, Joseph Turrin and Peter Graham.
Dorothy has produced works in many genres. A Sea Suite in Delaware in February 2020; the New York Philharmonic Brass & Percussion premiered the Brass Ensemble version of The Holly & the Ivy with trombone soloist Wycliffe Gordon in December 2019; the US Army Band “Pershings Own,” premiered the Concert Band version of Servant of Peace – Concerto for Trombone, with Soloist Dr. Natalie Mannix (Professor University North Texas) at the American Trombone Workshop in Arlington, Virginia in March 2018.
We are featuring one of Dorothy's compositions on this week's show.
Manhattan Beach was created by real estate developer Austin Corbin (1827-1896) in 1877 as a self-contained summer resort on 500 acres of salt marsh, the eastern peninsula of what was once Coney Island. Visitors stayed at the Oriental Hotel and the Manhattan Beach Hotel and attended concerts by bandmaster John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) who composed the Manhattan Beach march in 1893, to commemorate the resort. Corbin was the president of the Long Island Railroad from 1880 until his death.
The opening of amusement parks coupled with the closing of racetracks in 1910, in nearby Coney Island, which led to the swift decline of the hotels. Residential development began in the area in 1907, redefining the character of the neighbourhood.
Today, Manhattan Beach, whose streets are arranged in alphabetical order from Amherst to Pembroke and named after places in England, is home to approximately 7,000 people. The land on this site was originally acquired by the Federal Government in 1942 for a Coast Guard and Maritime Training Station. After eight years of negotiations, this 16-acre waterfront property was transferred to New York State. It was turned over to the City for park purposes in 1951. An additional 24.4 acres were acquired in 1954. The park opened to the public on July 15, 1955 and was welcomed as an alternative to the crowded beaches of Coney Island.
We are featuring this well-known Sousa march arranged by C.W.Hewitt on this week’s show played by the Williams Fairey Band conducted by Major Peter Parkes in 1996.
Enjoy
PS- The Manhattan Beach march sheet music is courtesy of John Church publishers.
Roses of Picardy is a popular British song with lyrics by Frederick Weatherly and music by Haydn Wood. Published in London in 1916 by Chappell & Co, it was one of the most famous songs of the First World War and has been recorded frequently up to the present day.
The lyricist Fred Weatherly had become impressed with beauty of the voice of soprano Elsie Griffin, who later became a leading artiste with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Her singing of his compositions resulted in his writing two of the most popular hits of the 20th-century "Danny Boy" (1910) and "Roses of Picardy". The composer Haydn Wood wrote the music for over 200 ballads, of which "Roses of Picardy" became his most popular. Wood related that, as he was going home one night on the top of a London bus, the melody came to him. He jumped off the bus and wrote down the refrain on an old envelope while standing under a street lamp.
The exact story that lies behind the words of the song is unclear, but in his 1926 memoirs, Weatherly suggested that it concerned a love affair of one of his close friends. Weatherly travelled in France visiting the Rhone valley and Chamonix. Picardy was a historical province of France which stretched from north of Noyon to Calais via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department. This area contained the Somme battlefields – the scene of some of the fiercest fighting during the First World War.
The song quickly became popular throughout Britain, with British soldiers singing it when they enlisted for the Front in France and Flanders. During the First World War, the song sold at a rate of 50,000 copies of the sheet music per month, earning Haydn Wood approximately £10,000 in total (£518,252 in 2022 adjusted for inflation). Following the war, the singing of the song helped soldiers who were suffering from shell shock to regain their powers of speech.
We are featuring this famous song on this week's show played as a cornet solo by Phillip McCann accompanied by the organist Simon Lindley.
Trombone Soloist: Isobel Daws
Pianist: Timothy End
Boneafide Trombone Ensemble
Doyen Recording DOY CD416
Sorry, no new concert today...Normal service will resume on Sunday, November 13, 2022...
A busy week already and it is only Wednesday - Tuesday morning a visit to the members at Calder and Savile Probus Club in Halifax. It was nice to be back after a few years absence. I can still remember speaking to this group for the first time 40 years ago.
Talks Available
All the presentations are timed to last up to an hour except where shown - questions are gladly taken after the presentation. All have been presented to male, female and mixed audiences of varying age groups.
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A Postcard from the Past
The Sunny Vale Pleasure Gardens, Halifax - Yorkshire’s Alton Towers of the…
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All in a Days Work
Reminiscences from 30 years in the Police Service – (humorous lecture presentation)…
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Legends from the world of Brass Bands
(Info-tainment – digital slides & music) – 1 hour presentation.
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A Week in May
A story based on the Murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish (of the…
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Memories of Christmas Past
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The Road to Publication
In 1979 I was asked to assist in presenting a series of…
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Holiday Memories from the Past
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How we used to live
We have all seen and experienced changes in our lives. Bring back…
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Other Folks Rubbish (Not suited to a Zoom presentation)
With a local history theme… – (thought provoking humorous lecture presentation) –…
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So you want to be a Pirate ? - The life of a Pirate was not all that it seemed
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Superstitions, New Year Resolutions and the Origins of St Valentine's Day
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Brighouse at Work
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Sorry but I am not able to accept any more face to face talk bookings at the present time ONLY ZOOM TALKS
