John Wallace and his colleagues and students at the Royal Academy of Music in London have done a sterling job of it and we extend them our most sincere appreciation and thanks. The importance of brass in Britain is historical and largely due to the espousal of brass bands as a hobby, or leisure pursuit by close to a million of the British working class in the nineteenth century. Although British brass players are seen by their colleagues from other parts of the world as one species, with the stylistic hallmarks of good taste, objectivity, pure, noble, and straight in tone, the British brass player defies generalisation into any sort of bulldog pedigree.
British brass is mongrel.
The Royal Academy of Music and its tradition During the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, London's theatrical and concert life developed to a point where it could support a core of full-time, freelance professional instrumentalists. In an age of ever greater homogenisation, the question as to what constitutes a national playing style is central to the many historical debates which have begun to affect our understanding of musical traditions. The early 19th Century was not an easy time for musicians. Even at the height of their careers many struggled to survive, and illness or retirement often brought impoverishment. In these pictures, he documents the sexual life of England - hardly he reversed the picture most people have of the English.