Brass achieves academic respectability

In 1975 four musicians — Holger Fransman, Kauko Karjalainen, Arvo Kuikka and Olavi Lampinen (whose place was taken after his death in 1983 by Jukka Vuolio) — realised the urgency of taking action to save what was left of the surprising — and endangered — tradition of the Finnish brass septet.¹

They lobbied, hunted, researched and appealed. Soon the Finnish Academy decided to finance a large research project with the title “Processes of change in Finnish musical culture”. Fortunately our four musician’s work on the septet tradition was included in it, Kauko Karjalainen being given official responsibility to head this section. The study should be completed by the end of 1986.

The following aspects have, so far, been raised: brass septets as an instrumental combination (practical and historical aspect), educational and professional background of the players (sociological aspect), septets as social entertainment (sociological aspect), brass septets and popular movements and organizations (historical, political and sociological aspect), brass septets as “regional orchestras” of their time (cultural aspect), septets reflecting the rural and urban cultures (change in rural culture), providing the septets with instruments (historical and practical aspect) and finally the repertoire of the septets (historical, musicological and also sociological aspect). There is also the question of the change of sound ideal. Charles Haam describes the establishment of brass bands in the United States around 1830 as “a dramatic change”² — before that people were accustomed to hear mostly woodwinds in military bands.

In Finland the development towards brass bands began as early as the 1840’s. The military bands had a very strong Russian influence at that time, indeed they belonged to Czar’s army. No doubt the military brass bands then served as a model for the amateur civilian bands, especially when, occasionally, military bands were abolished and the musicians moved to different parts of Finland. There is much in common with Swedish brass bands (mostly sextets). A similar study of these is available for comparison.⁴ This is also the study from which the concept of meso music has been taken.

Although the great majority of the septet repertoire has consisted of marches, dance music and folk tunes, there are also pieces which were originally composed for brass septet and which alongside arrangements of concert overtures and opera paraphrases can be considered as “art music”. Tiera by Jean Sibelius, a composition that has been published and recorded⁵ is one example.