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EDRICH SIEBERT : Man of Brass
by PHILIP SCOWCROFT
Edrich Siebert is still, twenty years
after his death, a much performed figure in the brass band
world. Many of his prolific arrangements and compositions
are suitable for, and are eagerly lapped up by, junior bands
and their members, though others have been played and recorded
by major bands.
He was born Stanley Smith Master in
London on 9 May 1903 and began his musical career in 1917
as a boy musician in the Cheshire Regiment in which he served
until 1929. There he at first played piccolo and flute, then
saxophone; but he soon became attracted to the sonorities
of brass instruments and that was to be a lifelong love affair.
Whilst in the army he had ample opportunity to assess the
capabilities of the various instruments; generally speaking,
he was self taught.
Recalled to the army during the Second
World War he travelled more than ten thousand miles with the
regimental band, entertaining troops in Sicily, Italy and
later Austria. Each concert ended with a Good Night Song,
written, composed and conducted by himself. (He composed
other songs during his career, among them The Biggest Blooming
Marrow in the World). In Austria during 1945-6 the band
broadcast every week on the Forces network from Graz and for
those engagements he was both announcer and player.
Discharged again from the army in 1946,
he decided to become a full-time arranger and composer and
from then on the story of his life becomes effectively a long
list of publications. It was a great day for him when Harry
Mortimer formed the All-Star Brass band and included in its
first recording Siebert’s Polished Brass and cornet
trio Three Jolly Sailormen. In addition Mortimer asked
him to make arrangements for the Band; other All-Star Siebert
recordings included Warriors Three and, possibly his
best known piece, The Lazy Trumpeter. Recordings of
Siebert compositions also came from other bands, among them
Fodens, Creswell Colliery, Morris Motors, Fairey and Cory.
He arranged for Chappell. His galop Over the Sticks was
adopted as the signature tune of the radio programme "Mid-day
Music Hall". He died in 1984.
Siebert’s publications, arrangements
and originals, are legion. The great majority are for brass,
for either quartet or (mostly) full band. A number were for
military or wind band – he had after all been a military
musician – and these include Bees a-Buzzin’,
once popular as a brass band piece but also done for four
saxophones and military band, Military Cha-Cha and
the clarinet feature Wind in the Wood. Occasionally
he wrote for orchestra and Tick Tock Serenade is an
example.
His arrangements for brass were often
of popular hits or traditional tunes but they also included
César Franck’s The Accursed Huntsman and
works by, among others, Bach, Mozart, Verdi, Delibes, Brahms,
Mussorgsky, Massenet and Tchaikovsky. Compositions included
many marches (The Big Parade, The Legionnaires, Follow
the Band, Marching Sergeants, Vermont, Ballycastle Bay, On
the Ball, The Rover’s Return, The Queen’s Guard,
Portsmouth Chimes and The Queen’s Trumpeters)
and solos for various instruments including some, in his day
at any rate, not often accorded solo status, like The Bombastic
Bombardon and Dear to my Heart for bass and The
Eternal Triangle for triangle as well as, more usually,
for trombone (Fiorella) and cornet (Tango Militaire).
A remarkable number of Siebert publications
seem to constitute an extended "Cook’s Tour"
of the United States: Boston Bounce, Carolina Cakewalk,
Connecticut Capers, Delaware Waltz, Hawaiian Hoedown, Louisiana
Polka, Rhode Island Rag, Salt Lake City Samba, Santa Fe Trail,
Texas Tango and Marching to Michigan. These and
other miniatures, like Boogie in the Bandstand, the
Latin American numbers Cucarumba and Tango Taquin,
Edelweiss Waltz, the pasodoble La Mancha, Brass Band
Bounce, the "rondo giocoso" Irish Rondo,
Gipsy Wedding, Brass Tacks, Palm Beach (a barcarolle),
Little Dutch Doll, John Gilpin’s Ride, Three Jolly
Airmen and the Irish, Scottish and Welsh Cameos
are all short. Rather longer are the suites Brass Band
Sketches and The Rising Generation, Summer Serenade
and the spring fantasy The Cuckoo and the Bumblebee.
If my experience is any guide, Siebert
must have claimed royalties on a huge number of performances,
but unlike some writers for band – Eric Ball, Gilbert
Vinter, Gordon Langford and Denis Wright among them –
the virtual lack in his output of a major work has probably
meant that his reputation stands lower than theirs. But for
all that, he is worthy of our remembrance.
© COPYRIGHT Philip Scowcroft, 2005
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