LEGENDS OF
LIGHT MUSIC
Edrich Siebert
EDRICH SIEBERT :
Man of Brass
by PHILIP
SCOWCROFT
Edrich Siebert is
still, twenty years after his
death, a much performed figure in
the brass band world. Many of his
prolific arrangements and
compositions are suitable for,
and are eagerly lapped up by,
junior bands and their members,
though others have been played
and recorded by major bands.
He was born
Stanley Smith Master in London on
9 May 1903 and began his musical
career in 1917 as a boy musician
in the Cheshire Regiment in which
he served until 1929. There he at
first played piccolo and flute,
then saxophone; but he soon
became attracted to the
sonorities of brass instruments
and that was to be a lifelong
love affair. Whilst in the army
he had ample opportunity to
assess the capabilities of the
various instruments; generally
speaking, he was self taught.
Recalled to the
army during the Second World War
he travelled more than ten
thousand miles with the
regimental band, entertaining
troops in Sicily, Italy and later
Austria. Each concert ended with
aGood Night Song, written,
composed and conducted by
himself. (He composed other songs
during his career, among them The
Biggest Blooming Marrow in the
World). In Austria during 1945-6
the band broadcast every week on
the Forces network from Graz and
for those engagements he was both
announcer and player.
Discharged again
from the army in 1946, he decided
to become a full-time arranger
and composer and from then on the
story of his life becomes
effectively a long list of
publications. It was a great day
for him when Harry Mortimer
formed the All-Star Brass band
and included in its first
recording Siebert’s Polished
Brass and cornet trio Three Jolly
Sailormen. In addition Mortimer
asked him to make arrangements
for the Band; other All-Star
Siebert recordings included
Warriors Three and, possibly his
best known piece, The Lazy
Trumpeter. Recordings of Siebert
compositions also came from other
bands, among them Fodens,
Creswell Colliery, Morris Motors,
Fairey and Cory. He arranged for
Chappell. His galop Over the
Sticks was adopted as the
signature tune of the radio
programme "Mid-day Music
Hall". He died in 1984.
Siebert’s
publications, arrangements and
originals, are legion. The great
majority are for brass, for
either quartet or (mostly) full
band. A number were for military
or wind band – he had after
all been a military musician
– and these include Bees
a-Buzzin’, once popular as a
brass band piece but also done
for four saxophones and military
band, Military Cha-Cha and the
clarinet feature Wind in the
Wood. Occasionally he wrote for
orchestra and Tick Tock Serenade
is an example.
His arrangements
for brass were often of popular
hits or traditional tunes but
they also included César
Franck’s The Accursed
Huntsman and works by, among
others, Bach, Mozart, Verdi,
Delibes, Brahms, Mussorgsky,
Massenet and Tchaikovsky.
Compositions included many
marches (The Big Parade, The
Legionnaires, Follow the Band,
Marching Sergeants, Vermont,
Ballycastle Bay, On the Ball, The
Rover’s Return, The
Queen’s Guard, Portsmouth
Chimes and The Queen’s
Trumpeters) and solos for various
instruments including some, in
his day at any rate, not often
accorded solo status, like The
Bombastic Bombardon and Dear to
my Heart for bass and The Eternal
Triangle for triangle as well as,
more usually, for trombone
(Fiorella) and cornet (Tango
Militaire).
A remarkable
number of Siebert publications
seem to constitute an extended
"Cook’s Tour" of
the United States: Boston Bounce,
Carolina Cakewalk, Connecticut
Capers, Delaware Waltz, Hawaiian
Hoedown, Louisiana Polka, Rhode
Island Rag, Salt Lake City Samba,
Santa Fe Trail, Texas Tango
andMarching to Michigan. These
and other miniatures, like Boogie
in the Bandstand, the Latin
American numbers Cucarumba and
Tango Taquin, Edelweiss Waltz,
the pasodoble La Mancha, Brass
Band Bounce, the "rondo
giocoso" Irish Rondo, Gipsy
Wedding, Brass Tacks, Palm Beach
(a barcarolle),Little Dutch Doll,
John Gilpin’s Ride, Three
Jolly Airmen and the Irish,
Scottish and Welsh Cameos are all
short. Rather longer are the
suites Brass Band Sketches and
The Rising Generation, Summer
Serenade and the spring fantasy
The Cuckoo and the Bumblebee.
If my experience
is any guide, Siebert must have
claimed royalties on a huge
number of performances, but
unlike some writers for band
– Eric Ball, Gilbert Vinter,
Gordon Langford and Denis Wright
among them – the virtual
lack in his output of a major
work has probably meant that his
reputation stands lower than
theirs. But for all that, he is
worthy of our remembrance.
© COPYRIGHT
Philip Scowcroft, 2005
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