Last night after going to see our MP (see fracking thread in BS) we thought we would have an "evening off" and went over to Denshaw to have a look at one part of the Whit-Friday band competitions.
This must by now rate as traditional music as it has been going on for so long 1884 at least.
I had never been to such a contest before and found it quite enthralling, though not my usual type of music. We arrived about 8:30 in the evening and stayed until the end, well after midnight.
Each band forms up and performs a march while moving to the position where they will be judged on a second piece of music that is presented to a judge who cannot see who is performing.
We saw more than 30 bands, there having been 65 at this venue during the contest. There are many contests running in different villages on the same day and to figure in the area contest each band has to perform in at lead six villages.
You do tend to get repeats of the piece of performed music but surprisingly this means that you start to get the finer points of the presentation coming to the fore. I was very impressed by Black Dyke when they performed close to the end of what must have been quite an endurance feat and produced what to me sounded like an impeccable rendition of a piece that I had already heard three times from other bands, adding nuances to the music that showed their high level.
This really was high class music being presented free to the public and we shall be making sure that we can get there in time to hear even more next year.
It might not be folk but it surely trains your listening ear, trying to guess how the judge is going to sort out an order.