The following was forwarded to When Steel Talks by veteran arranger Pelham Goddard
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Pelham Goddard challenges the qualifications of the judges
It is the view of the public-at-large that panorama music today has become the judges' piece and does not have the sound and feel of arrangers' music of long ago. Recently I read a comment on When Steel Talks in which the person spoke about the real panorama hit tunes of years gone by.
Pan Trinbago is conducting seminars in which arrangers meet with the judges who will guide the arrangers in producing their work for the market. This is bordering on insanity since these very judges are unqualified to guide any arranger as they are generally NOT arrangers. Judges are usually selected from musicians whose specialties and certifications do not include arranging, orchestration and composition. How then can these judges guide arrangers who are, more likely than not, more skilled than they in the area of arranging?
Arrangers are usually more knowledgeable and creative than the judges since they must know all their chords, harmonic progressions, voicings in all keys, counter melodies, counterpoint, modulations and so on. I will like to see or to hear or, as a matter of fact, go to where these judges perform their work; at the least, they should provide examples to the arrangers.
Replies
I could never understand how judges can decide which arrangement is better or best unless they are arrangements of the same tune and even that would be difficult.
It's like saying a composition/arrangement by Mozart is better than one by Beethoven. It's all personal taste. What makes the judge be the arbiter of what is good, better or best out of two or more arrangements of two or more different songs?
Either scrap the competition or give all the bands a test piece to play.
WELL SAID PELHAM!!!
PG your article is very well said.
Reading the posts on this topic,has confirmed my long held theory that Panorama (especially as presently constituted and placed within the Carnival) would seriously affect the development of the Steelband.Too much energy and resources have to be expended in a very short space of time,at the expense of the Steelbands full participation in the Carnival,such as...playing in fetes,the once popular Pan Blockos ( reminds me of those glorious Solo Harmonites days) brining out Mas or playing for Mas bands on Carnival days.
I have said before,competitive Brass-O-Rama died because the brass bands saw the writing on the wall.....even DJ-Rama died because the then DJs also realized that having such a competition was not in their best interest.
Steelbands competitions disallows/ed amplification,but they are expected to compete with the "Brass Bands' and DJs with the KWs of power coming through top of the line sub-woofers,mid-range and treble speakers.Building and operating a proper system takes time and expertize,both of which has been loss or seriously curtailed ( reminds me of Fonclaire,who had a wicked set,with great sound ) by a short sighted movement.The irony of all this is,Steelbands are still amplified at the competition,and the sound engineers can make you or break you......And yes,they are not your band,resident sound engineers.
The judging would always be flawed or correct,it depends on who is answering/asking.....but I always believe if you are too judge music and give points ,you must have a body of work to show you are competent at doing,what you are asking of others.
I want to quote Sweet Eustace point,that is crucial to being the Champion and being a runner-up.....
"results are a total of all the points awarded by each judge individually and not collectively so if the most popular band scores well on the majority of thew judges sheets they are still not guaranted to get the highest total, example Exodus may get 97, 95 98,96.5,73,96 , 75 eliminate the highest and the lowest their scoree will be 459.5 compared to like all stars who may be awarded 89,88, 93,90,92,97,98, after the highest and lowest is eliminated their score would be 463,"
It has been suggested at PT meetings,that each judge's score be posted on screens,as soon as they are ready after a band's performance.
Sooner or later , Oswald Alexander , it will become obvious to everyone , ( even Val Young :) ).
Let's hope its sooner and not later !
Let's introduce / reintroduce the People's Choice and put some hefty money behind it. You get a ballot when you buy you ticket into the North or South Stands. This should open up some interesting areas.
I fully agree.
However, I don't think that judges should provide any examples to arrangers ...simply NOT the way to go.
PJ
exactly who were the judges in the large band category, in all fairness to those judges in the other categories (some of whom were involved in steelband when Pellham was still in shortpants) I do believe Pellham you need to withdraw your last comments Hugh Borde took pan where you will never be able to,Merle Albnino De coteau was involved in pan before you were and was an arranger before you were, just a sample of the people to whom your acidic comments are directed, a lot of us are extremely dissapointed with the results which may or may not be a true reflection of the general concensus of the majority of the judges, come on peoplehow many times do iI have to say this it is results, Khuent you are an intelligent fella results are a total of all the points awarded by each judge individually and not collectively so if the most popular band scores well on the majority of thew judges sheets they are still not guaranted to get the highest total, example Exodus may get 97, 95 98,96.5,73,96 , 75 eliminate the highest and the lowest their scoree will be 459.5 compared to like all stars who may be awarded 89,88, 93,90,92,97,98, after the highest and lowest is eliminated their score would be 463,
stay focused and styop thinking like duncey heads it would be clear from the average popular points that Exodus would be popular with the judges but because of the extremely low scores and the fair scores plus the high scores the mats would favour all stars as opposed to exodus, no fault of all the judges but some of the judges would have different taste or opinions ar they may be biased, the tale of the tape comes down to maths not choice, I am not chiding that this was the case this year but the semi final results looks closer to what the final results should be based on the concensus of some people
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