Sunday evening concert - La Lira brass band

There is a phrase that says that little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I kinda agree with it, as just partial or little knowledge can mislead us. This can even lead us to make wrong decisions or to completely miss out on some good things. A similar thing happens with the information. If I would have more info about yesterday's cultural offer of the zone, I would probably find many interesting concerts and musical activities around. I could have a spectrum of musical offers, to choose from.

It was the day of Santa Cecilia, the patron of music. I don't know if it is celebrated in other countries or not, but on this day in Spain, there are events and concerts organized in her honour. Well, I also ignored the fact that it was her day - until late afternoon 😂 Then I got this info that the brass band La Lira from the town LÁlfás del Pi will have a concert. One of my friends is playing the flute there, so in one hour I organized myself and went to listen to that concert.

This brass band is part of the local Music Society, where professionals, amateurs, and students play the instruments. The professionals (the teachers) give lessons to the students, which can be children or adult students. They also have rehearsals once or twice a week, and concerts for Santa Cecilia day, around Christmas, in summer and maybe for other events too.

They accept new members from time to time, and it was yesterday they officially presented and accepted 4 new musicians. Two of them were youngsters and two were already adult players. First, they had to learn for some years, and maybe even do a kind of exam to pass to the band and play with the others at the concerts.

It was a big day for them so family members and friends came to support them with their presence and applause. Still, the concert hall was not full, there were many empty seats. It is probably due to the lack of information, as I also found out about the concert in the afternoon.

The band played several compositions. The first one was a pasodoble (a very popular kind of composition for brass bands here in Spain) by the composer Ferren Ferran. The second was also a pasodoble by another composer, and as the third piece, they performed a piece titled Acclamations by Ed Huckeby. This is the piece ( the beginning of it) that you can hear in the video if you decide to press the play button.

There were still three compositions after this one and the concert finished. It lasted for one hour, a bit more, but seemed so short. The time passed very quickly. Well, it was interesting, not a boring concert at all. The level of performance was ok, I can't say it was perfect, as I already mentioned there are also amateur members in this band. Despite that, they play very well and the director is passionate too. In the recording, there is one place when the metallophone ( I think it was that instrument) didn't go well with the timing that the director marked, but it is just from one or two measures. It was a syncopated rhythm and difficult to keep it for that long time. However, it can happen to any of us, it just proved that we humans are not perfect and robots! Still, we can give a lot of passion and devotion while performing.

To all the fellow musicians who celebrate the day of Santa Cecilia, congratulations :) Maybe you also had a performance or concert? Do you even celebrate this day in your country?