I came across this little march back in about 2019 on a trip to the British Library where a copy of it is held in the reference library along with another three pieces published in what appears to be a fairly rare band journal called the “Standard Band Journal”. This is a journal of which…
It feels like quite a while since I explored a piece of Tom Bulch’s music – the most recent being his band composition “Alice Bertha” which I rendered and wrote about earlier this year. But I have to say that I enjoyed that particular piece largely as it had that personal family element of being…
One of the things we always hear about George Allan is his excellence in the brass band contest march format. He’s the gifted amateur “march king.” you say. It’s certainly what he’s best known for nowadays – and when I say ‘best-known’ I mean ‘just about only known for.’ We know that the brass band…
If I were to exclaim “Eureka!” you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d discovered something – after all it’s an expression probably best associated with Archimedes discovery that if he plopped himself in a bath tub filled to the brim with water then, lo and behold, all of the water that spilled over the side would…
We’ve been looking a little more closely at a recent find that we couldn’t help but want to explore as a priority. The reason? Well, on this occasion it has a family relevance for one of out two subjects – which makes it just that little bit extra special. When you care for your family…
While researching the music of George Allan and Tom Bulch mainly as a writer I have found that there are dimensions to what we would love to understand that are difficult, if not impossible, to explore without the help of others. Usually this involves commissioning someone’s help. But occasionally something helpful happens that is incidental.…
One of the pure joys of the festive season is that it occasionally yields a little time to explore and research – and there has been little opportunity for us to do that of late. So on having a little time to indulge I thought it would be good to dip into our collection of…
In this post we’re exploring a song rather than a piece of band music. It’s entitled “Remember Majuba” and comprises of lyrics by Howard C Coghlan with music composed by Henri Laski (a.k.a. Thomas Edward Bulch of course) This song was published in 1899, by Tom Bulch’s own music publishing company, which at this particular…
This piece has been inspired by the fact that I have just rendered an arrangement of one of Tom Bulch’s military descriptive fantasias – The Young Recruit – in Sibelius software, a recording from which will be featured in this post. It had me reflecting upon how important the military tradition was within the Bulch…
One of the things I wrote about during 2020 was our Project Homecoming which we created in partnership with our Project Manager, Alison Lister, and Greenfield Community College with Greenfield Arts which was funded in part by Northern Heartlands, one of the Great Places schemes, the County Durham Community Foundation, National Lottery Heritage Fund with…
