Hello all.
I come from the wild west of brass band MusicBrainz entries.
Currently, there are no guidelines for brass bands, and the entries for brass releases vary between using classical and popular styles. I’d like to tidy up the bits that I can, and when adding releases, do them consistently with other editors.
Brass bands are a strange thing. They developed in the last 200 years or so, with a lot of the European traditions coming from mining bands. These bands were set up as a hobby for miners, and provided entertainment for local communities. They were often partially funded by the collieries. These bands played music that was popular at the time - arrangements of what is now folk music.
These days, brass bands play a huge range of music. A single release (or performance) can cover popular music, classical, folk, religious and “brass band only” compositions.
The music played is usually, though not exclusively, commercially available arrangements/compositions, rather than something specially written for that performance. Using WORKS to identify these, rather than linking arrangers/composers to individual recordings, is the way to go.
However, for general listeners, knowing which individual band is playing is far more relevant than who wrote an arrangement and composition. The music available is far more limited than that available for Orchestras, and with far fewer people writing for brass bands. “The Floral Dance” will, in 99% of cases, be the arrangement by Derrick Broadbent.
Similarly, when playing pop music, it’s not really helpful to have composer’s names listed as track artists, for all the same reasons it’s not done in that world.
The band playing has far more bearing on whether a release is enjoyable, or only interesting to close family. Bands have followings, but composers, not so much.
However, due to the structure of brass bands as a collection of people, which changes over time, playing music composed/arranged by other people, I can understand MusicBrainz as a database preferring to stick to classical format.
Unfortunately, Classical style isn’t helpful with releases of recordings taken at competitions. (Yes, competitive brass band playing is a thing. It’s mad, and a significant thing for many bands - if not audiences) These will generally have 5-10 different recordings of the same piece, played by different bands. As an end user, knowing the composer/arranger of each track is useless. The band playing is important to the listener, and the recording as stored in MusicBrainz.
As much as brass band music is a special snowflake, and obviously the highest form of art, I don’t think it’s worth building a special MB style around it. It should use an existing one.
So…
Classical or Popular?
https://musicbrainz.org/edit/114951977 for early conversations on the subject
Thanks for reading my ramble. I look forward to reading your thoughts. 