The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-12
CRITICAL REVIEW OF CONCERT
ElIery's Big Band Meets All the Re-
QuirementS

| is only giving the Charming Eilery or
ganization, which played there for the
first time last night, it's due to say that
it is the peer Of any and the superior
of most of its rivals in the field of brass
band music. Perhaps It would be more
| accurate to say that 1t is as good as
4 any of the other bands in all respects
| and better than any of them in some.
For one thing it is the best balanced
band that has ever played in the Audi
toriun1-in fact it is perfectly balanced
| and there will probably be nobody to
| take exception to the statement that
| the Ellery organization is unsurpassed
| in its class. Undoubtedly there are or
| chestras with many exQuisitely toned
violins played by thoroughly trained
and varied effect of tone as the band
which played at the Auditorium last
night but certainly there is no brass
band which has played in this section
which can compare with it in this par
| ticular.
| The preponderance of reed and wood
| in the Ellery band gives it an immense
| advantage over bands which depend
upon the blare of the brass for their
most spectacular effects. The Banda
| Rosa is a great favorite in Topeka and
| has always been but every one who
heard the Ellery band last night was
willing to admit, what some have al
ways commended, that there is too much
Ellery organization has proven that it
| is unnecessary for even the biggest eff
fects.
The Ellery band is unrivaled in vol
ume, but there is no confusion, no dis
order, no anarchy and riot of sounds
such as sometimes mars the otherwise
splendid clinaxes of bands whose lead
ers have persuaded themselves that the
greatest thing in music is noise and
that to literally stun an audience is a
contamination devoutly to be wished.
The Ellery band is different in this: it
is of enormous volume but this fact is
not obtrusive. One is not astounded by
the immensely of the sound but by its
quality. One thinks not, how big it is,
but bow exactly right it is in every way
how it realizes ones expectations from
start to finish not only technically but
temperamentally, in conception as wen
as in performance. The climaxes are
magnificent. One is carried along on the
swell and sweep of the music led on and
on to greater emotional and spiritual
heights and as one listens ones conf
dence grows. There is no longer any
uncertainty, any sense of uneasiness.
One would as soon doubt that that band
would fulfill all ones expectation, re-
alize all ones ideals as to dread break
down in the angel choir.
And surely the reasons why the Ell
lery band is better than most bands are
patent to every oDe.s First and fore
most, of course the band is a big one
with over sixty rnen,land every one Is
a thoroughly trained musician. And
how they play! You have seen big pro-
fessionaI bands which played listlessly,
indifferently. The men seemed tired,
careless. They threw off on the per-
fornance "Soldiered'' on the conductor,
peeked around at the audience With
that, they played pretty well but of
course there was something lacking. In
the Ellery band no musician has any
time for anything except the score and
1 n seems
playing with his whole soul every min
ute. They watch the leader constantly
and respond as if by mechanism to his
bidding.
rows of musicians who play like
wooden men. They must be good
musicians or they wouldn't be there
and they couldn't achieve such an ex-
cellent ensemble, but to watch them
play one might think them automa-
tons. In the Ellery band there are
not more than three or four players
who do not seem to enter into the
spirit of the music with their whole
souls Almost every man plays with
a kind of dramatic fervor as though
the whole Interpretation of the pro-
gram depended upon him alone. one
would have to be blind as we'll as deaf
not to appreciate the fact that TINS
band is an unusual one.
You have heard it said that Signor
Ferullo the conductor of the Ellery
band, leads the men by singing. and
| this seems to be literally true. He is
| the hardest working, most earnest and
| impa ssioned musician that ever WELD
| ed a baton. His eccentricities, as they
| are called, are bound to attract Curl
| Gus attention, and this is to be re-
GREETED if they detract from the ap-
probation that is due his thorough
and splendid musicianship. There
will be people, of course, to say that
Signor Ferullo's actions are extrava-
gances. if not affectations, but that is
only because the habit of conventional
restraint is so strongly fixed with most
of us that to see man let himself go
and give vent to his feelings IN his
actions seems a strange, unnatural,
almost an unhallowed thing. In other
words, we live in such a world of
shams and masks and artifcialities
that nothing could possibly seem so
unnatural as naturalness.
But for all that. if we hadn't read
the advance notices and were not pre-
pared to see a somewhat sensational
athletic performance on the part of
the conductor, it is doubtful if Signor
Ferullo's behaviour would have i'm
pressed us as especially unexpected or
bizarre. It is the memory of the eff
fects which he achieves which one
carries away, not his personal peculi-
| arities. If he went through all those
contortions without avail we would
doubtless laugh at them as at some
vaudeville caricaturer but the man is
| too serious too perfectly trained a
musician for that and at least nobody
| can say that he makes a lot of fuss
over nothing. For there has never
been a band that responded more per-
fectly to a leader than the Ellerv band
/ does to Ferullo, and the best evidence
IF this is the impression one gets now