FROM THE ARCHIVES:Everything from golf to gramophones was blamed for the disappearance of the country's brass and other bands, lamented in this article in 1930. – JOE JOYCE
MANY OF the civilian bands that were once so popular with the people of Ireland have almost disappeared within the last ten to fifteen years, and their passing will be regretted by many.
Dr. J. F. Larchet, the well-known leader of the Abbey Theatre Orchestra, and Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, when approached, stated that this decline had been more noticeable in recent years. He thought that the gramaphone , the wireless and the cinema were the real cause of this apathy.
Another informant while agreeing that the gramaphone and the wireless had something to do with the passing of the bands, considered that there were other more important reasons. First amongst these reasons he put the lack of proper teachers for band conductors. In none of the existing schools of music, such as the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Leinster School of Music, and the Municipal School, were there any classes for bandmasters. In these schools there were only classes for individual instruments.
The first real cause of this decline was the Great War. During the Great War all the bands of the country were disorganised through the majority of them members joining up. That was a sufficiently severe blow, but the greater blow came during our own troubled period, when gatherings of any kind were prohibited, and the instruments were broken, stolen or neglected in such a manner that they became unserviceable. The whole result was that the bands were never reorganised.
Again, people today would not find the time to attend band performances; for they were too much taken up with outdoor games, such as golf, tennis, etc. Golf, our informant thought, was one of the primary reasons why people had given up attending band recitals. It was a game that was almost unknown in Ireland fifteen or twenty years ago, but was extraordinarily popular today.
In the old days there was a band in nearly every town and village of Ireland, whether it was a Foresters’ band, an A.O.H. band, a Temperance Society band or a Confraternity band, and the competition and rivalry between them was great. It is not such a far cry, either, to the days when the “band promenades,” as they were known, were most popular: in fact,as such places as Sorrento Park, Dalkey, the grounds of the Marine Hotel, Kingstown, and Howth, these bands promenades were held every weekend. Feasts of good music were provided and the performances were most popular among rich and poor.
One of the most popular nights of all was the Thursday night recital in the Depôt Square, Phœnix Park given by the old Royal Irish Constabulary band. To-day, these Thursday night recitals were still continued by the Civic Guard Depôt Band, under the baton of Supt D. J. Delaney, but they were the last of the old “band promenades.”
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