ISB Recording
Carl Woodman, Bandmaster of Chatham Citadel Band, has been a member of The Salvation Army’s International Staff Band for a considerable number of years.
The International Staff Band
Chatham has a long standing association with the ISB going back many years having provided a number of players to the Band.
Carl Woodman
Carl tells us that the ISB’s next recording will be released on Saturday 6th June 2009 on the occasion of The Salvation Army Gospel Arts concert at The Royal Albert Hall, London.
The CD is called Heritage Series Vol. 1 – Music from the 1930s. The series is designed to preserve works which deserve survival well beyond their heritage interest.
The ISB’s latest CD
CD Description
As with many of The Salvation Army’s early day innovations, brass bands were an unplanned grass roots development. Indeed, the Army’s founder William Booth confessed, ‘Captains… and bands of music were not in my mind’. It began in 1878 with a local brass quartet supporting Booth’s evangelistic visit to Salisbury. The experiment proved both an attraction and an aid to the singing. The idea speedily caught on, often assisted by local teachers. Hymns and religious songs were the staple diet. The taste for further material was catered for by established band publishers but soon the emphasis on Salvation Army purposes led to the setting up of a music department and in-house publication. In its infancy Salvation Army music was largely a stringing together of three or four tunes and initially bands did not play other than to assist congregations. The concept of ‘performance’ was frowned on but there was a growing understanding of the functional value of instrumental music. As amateur composition was encouraged, by World War One there was a respectable library of fairly developed music. The 1920s saw the appearance of names which subsequently became notable and flowered fully as evidenced by the representative items on this CD. The traditional Salvation Army method of journal publication often leads to the neglect of older music and this series is designed to preserve works which deserve survival well beyond their heritage interest.
The track list is as follows; 1. Southern Australia 2. Sound Out The Proclamation 3. The Cleansing Stream 4. The Old Wells 5. Praise and Exultation 6. The Song of the Brother 7. Bravest of the Brave 8. Great and Glorious 9. A Never-Failing Friend 10. A Sunbeam 11. The Triumph of Peace
Track 12 has another local link being a conversation with Bandmaster Dr. Stephen Cobb and our own Lt. Col. Ray Steadman-Allen, OF*. Should be interesting!
Lt. Col. Ray Steadman-Allen at work
If you’re not able to be at The Royal Albert Hall on 6th June to obtain your copy, it will appear on the World of Brass website on 4th June.
*Order of the Founder