Q1 Which brass bands were playing together in the video?
Answer: Grimethorpe Colliery Band and Dinnington Colliery Band (both from Yorkshire) – we told you that before you watched the video!
Q2 Who was the conductor, and what is she famous for?
Answer: Sue Perkins, famous as a comedian and TV presenter
Q3 What were they playing and who wrote the music?
Answer: The William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini, an Italian composer (for an Opera first performed in 1829)
Q4 Who was the person that the music is about?
Answer: William Tell was a 14th century folk hero from Switzerland, a bit like Robin Hood. He was arrested but was told he would be spared execution if he shot an apple off his son’s head with a single arrow, which he did!
Q5 How many brass instruments were being played?
Answer: that’s a hard one! Did you try and count them all in the video? We counted: 19 cornets (4 at the back, 8 in the middle row and 7 in the front row) of which we guess 2 will be soprano cornets; 2 flugelhorns; 7 tenor horns; 4 baritone horns, 4 euphoniums, 7 trombones, 4 Bb tubas (the really big ones) and 4 Eb tubas (the almost as big ones). That’s a total of 51 brass instruments!
Q6 What type of brass instruments were playing?
Answer: as in any standard British brass band, there are cornets, soprano cornets, flugelhorns, tenor horns, baritone horns, euphoniums, trombones, Bb (” B flat”) tubas and Eb (“E flat”) tubas
Q7 What other musical instruments were being played?
Answer: British brass bands also include percussion, in this case we spotted: timpanis (the big kettle drums); a drum kit; a gong; a bass drum; a side drum; cymbals; and a triangle; but there may be more we didn’t spot!
Q8 How would you describe the music?
Answer: there is no definitely right answer to this, but we can say it is a very lively, stirring piece of music. It’s fast, and has a few different sections where the instruments playing change, sometimes fewer and sometimes more. The end is a very rousing finale with everyone playing loudly at full tilt! It conjures up images of horses galloping.
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