Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I am trying (without success) to find the name and composer of a piece of music which the band very occasionally played at lunch parade.

The name is two words, the second being Espanol or Espagnol

The original that I have heardwas very short - perhaps four minutes

The music is bright, fast paced, almost dance music and reminds me of Agustin Lara though I doubt he was the composer

I think the composer was Finnish but ....

It is Not Rimsky-Korsakov Cappricio Espagnol or Lalo Symphonie Espagnole or Concerto No.4 in E Minor, woo20: Rondo al Espagnol or the Tuba Concerto Espanol

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance

David.

I'm sure I re-call such a march but the name escapes me. Whenever I hear marches, I can normally remember the name.

Over to our illustrious Spanish resident John Hop, who I am sure will know !

Marcha Español, by Gerald Crossman ... is the WRONG ANSWER. Unfortunately, it's the only one that Google has offered me. I know it's wrong, because it's an accordion solo. Crossman was a prolific composer of accordion pieces. I am confident that accordions in our time would not have been tolerated on lunch parade. Nor anywhere else, for that matter. The accordion held that place in musical culture which is now reserved for violas, trombones and ukuleles. Nobody in that era could have imagined anything like (for instance) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S1I-vtzCUU

But I digress. In fact that's my sole reason for posting.

More about Gerald Crossman - you can hear something of his here http://www.turnipnet.com/mom/bande_20ju ... ossman.mp3 at about 2m12s. It's a piece called Banda Español - but I doubt whether it was ever used for lunch parade.

Although Gerald Crossman has nothing whatever to do with CH, you might be interested in this brief biography: http://www.turnipnet.com/mom/geraldcrossman.htm. It reveals, among other things, that he was involved with All India Radio in 1945, about the same time as my father - so they might have met.

I'm still digressing.

As a former band member, the title Banda Español doesn't ring the faintest bell with me at all.

I guess we'll just have to wait for John H to surface.

J.R. wrote:As a dormer band member, the title Banda Español doesn't ring the faintest bell with me at all.

Banda Espanol looks like a Spanish kids' comic film - certainly not classical music

Most of the march music we played was by Sousa or Alford, but having looked them up, none have the word Español in their title.
By chance I had a visitor who had run a band in Hull, and he could think of nothing either.
My first concert piece with the band was Finlandia by Sibeluis, but never on Band parade.
Marching bands in Spain tend to play pasodobles, of which there are many, but I can't imagine Bandy allowing something like that to be played.
I will keep cogitating.
Semper Fidelis?

BTW
Red Herring alert.

Alan Bennett, "Untold Stories" mentions CH pupils at Oxford. Said they came from a very different background to him.
Interesting observation since they probably didn't.

Thanks John. No, I can't imagine 'Bill' Bailey consenting to that.

Do you remember the time a senior band member or someone else took band practice in his abscence, and 'St Louis Blues' was played. I vaguely remember he banned it from ever being played on lunch parade, though my memory is fading slightly.

Found it! but I was wrong twice - French composer and spelling of Spanish connection

Rhapsody Espana / Espana Rhapsody by Emmanuel Chabrier (Ravel wrote a piece with an almost identical name)

Thanks everyone for their attempts.

Oddly, the title doesn't ring a bell with me David. I'll find it on the web and see if I remember it being played on band-parade.

p.s.

There are several versions on YouTube. Here's one by the Russian Naval band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2SwMeT0t-k

Yes, I do re-call it, but not played as a march. The beat/timing is wron.