Brass band concerts on the parkway at the bottom of Mount Tampa
|
|
The sound of promenade music will be heard again starting from Sunday, May 9th 2010 and until the end of September, during the weekends, on the parkway at the bottom of Mount Tampa, near the old walls of Brasov Fortress. In the pavilion near the Kertsch aqueduct, brass bands from the county of Brasov will perform concerts each Sunday, from 12 P.M., except for Sunday, May 9th on Europe Day. The brass band of middle school students from Andrei Saguna High School and the brass band of Vulcan performed a concert on Europe Day.
More than one hundred years of tradition
Brasov records more than one hundred years of tradition in promenade shows. They were resumed in 2007, at the initiative of the president of the County Council, Mr. Aristotel Cancescu. The brass band music reminds the locals and tourist of their youth or makes them appreciate the sound of a rapid and spectacular music. The first Saxon brass bands from Tara Barsei villages were established after the Bohemian model in the second half of the 19th century. The intended purpose of brass bands was to contribute to all the cultural profane and religious events and activities within the Saxon communities: weddings, funeral ceremonies, balls, commemorations.
Brass bands from Tara Barsei
The musicians were not professional, they were not even fiddlers, but young peasants or tradesmen, music lovers, some of them from wealthy famous families. The brass bands were taught by skilled instructors, organists or retired military musicians. At the beginning, the repertoire of brass bands included march, polka, waltz and funeral marches. In the 20th century the scores became more complex, such as ouvertures to operas and operettas mainly taken from the works of Italian classical composers (Verdi, Rossini, etc) and the first brass band concerts were organized. Over time, the repertoire of brass bands gets bigger, including Romanian and Hungarian music, and the brass bands start performing also at the events taking place within the Romanian and Hungarian communities.
Orchestra (Stadtkapelle)
It is worth mentioning that it was an orchestra (?Stadtkapelle?) and not a brass band that was first set up in Brasov, as the town already had a brass band. The rural brass bands were also invited at countryside events organized by the Saxons in their towns (e.g. Honterusfest). The promenade concerts were performed both by the military brass band and by ?Stadtkapelle?.