Many Moods of the Humboldt Bay Brass Band

From a contemporary Veterans Day tribute and works by classical composers Handel, Holst and Rossini, to a show-piece for tubas and an interactive premiere, the Humboldt Bay Brass Band performs its only HSU concert of the year on Saturday, November 7.

The Veterans Day tribute is a recent American composition called “Images,” which commemorates the World War II battles on Iwo Jima. Humboldt Bay Brass Band director and HSU Music professor Gilbert Cline describes it as “ an intense, impressive composition.”

The evening’s program includes Handel’s rousing “Hallelujah Chorus,” Rossini’s famous “Tancredi Overture” and “A Moorside Suite” by Gustav Holst, composer of “The Planets.” Another familiar tune, “Scarborough Fair," will feature a baritone horn solo by Phil Sams.

The audience will get its chance to participate in the world premiere of an interactive work, appropriately titled “Reciprocity.” It includes Gil Cline’s invention, “The Helicopter Doppler Trumpet.”

The Band will also premiere its version of “Them Basses,” by 20th century American composer Getty Herschel Huffine. “It’s one of the only pieces of music ever written in which the basses—the tubas—carry the melody from start to finish,” Cline said.

The Humboldt Bay Brass Band is a British-style brass band, comprised of 24 brass players and three percussionists. Members include HSU students and alumni, as well as community players from a wide area ranging from the Eel River Valley to northern Humboldt and southern Oregon. They include players for such other local ensembles as the Humboldt and Eureka symphonies, the Marching Lumberjacks, the Crabgrass Band, Bandemonium, and the Mel Bay Hotel Biscuit Band.

Most villages and towns in Great Britain have a brass band of this type, and many compete for national honors, often playing some of the selections the Humboldt Bay Brass Band performs in this concert.

Humboldt Bay Brass Band plays its only HSU concert of the year on Saturday November 7 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID.

Media: Times-Standard Northern Lights, Humboldt State Now, North Coast Journal, Arcata Eye.