British Brass Band Periodicals and the Construction of a Movement

This essay examines the role of brass band periodicals in shaping the direction of the brass band movement during the late nineteenth-century in Britain. The middle-class editors of periodicals such as Wright and Round’s Brass Band News and the British Bandsman wanted working-class bands to be accepted by the British musical establishment, which adhered to middle-class art values. Consequently brass band periodicals emphasized the positive social aspects of bands, encouraged respectable behavior from bandsmen at band contests, and promoted more sophisticated musical tastes. However, as the twentieth century dawned, bandsmen rejected such efforts and maintained their own distinct practices and aesthetics.