MARCHES of GEORGE ALLAN - Collection
12 Road & Contest Marches by "The March King"
1. The Wizard
2. Jupiter
3. Imperioso
4. Battle Abbey
5. Bravura
6. Pendragon
7. Impetus
8. Shawville
9. The Diplomat
10. Diomed
11. Vigilant
12. Raby
GEORGE ALLAN (1864 - 1930)
March King of the North East
George Allan was born in New Shildon (County Durham) on March 21st 1864. He showed an aptitude for music from an early age and he was a member of the Church Choir and New Shildon Juvenile Band. He was to spend his working life as a Wagon Painter in the Shildon Railway Works, but devoted much of his free time to his passion for music, playing in the Shildon Saxhorn Band, then conducting the band along with the orchestra which was attached to Shildon Operatic Society. He was also to become an adjudicator for band contests. It is as a composer of marches that George Allan is known today having made over seventy contributions to the genre. He is a con temporaryof both James Ord Hume (1864-1932) and William Rimmer (1862-1936), yet today may not be so widely remembered as these two icons of the brass band world. He clearly had some success as a composer in his day.
An article from The Cornetdated November 14th 1896 describes GA as hard working, steady and courteous and also states that after a period of hard study, he brought himself before the brass band world as composer of some of the very best music for brass bands. Indeed George Allan must have been quite a pioneering spirit as he was successful in printing and publishing copies of his own marches from his home address of 2 Pears Terrace, New Shildon and then 4 Osborne Terrace, Leeholme. He was later to enlist the help of Oscar Brandstetter, a printer and engraver from Leipzig. An advertisement from the band press of 1911 refers to:
only a few copies of the 3rd edition of Battle Abbey remaining, so he must have had some success in market ing these marches.
Jack Kitchen, a member of the Shildon Band for many years, recalled that George Allan was so fond of bands that at the Annual Durham Miners Gala (a huge event throughout the 20th century), Allan would sit on the grass at the entrance to the field and hear all the bands march on. This would inspire him to set to and compose another march for the following year.
In 1994 Black Dyke Mills Band recorded a CD entitled Great British Marches and it is interesting to note that of the thirteen marches collectively attributed with the title Great, five were from the pen of George Allan. I was surprised to learn that this composer, of whom I knew very little, lived only a few miles away from my place of birth. and indeed just a couple of streets away from my fathers childhood home. I took a keen interest in his music from this point.
In 2001 four bands from the North East collaborated in a CD recording to pay tribute to George Allan. The original plan was for each band to record one Allan march, alongside other music from repertoire of the day. In the course of researching the project I met with Miss Dorothy Allan, the composers grand-daughter. She spoke with great fondness of her talented forbear and told me that following his death she had given most of his old music to the Shildon Band. A subsequent meeting was organised in the former bandroom, which at that time was about to be sold. Unfortunately an inspection of the remaining band library revealed no significant musical items. However upon investigating the loft space, we discovered a series of large envelopes, each containing copies of George Allan Marches. These were editions published by the composer himself in the first decades of the 20th century, some with familiar names, others not previously heard of. After consulting with the bands, the programme of the CD recording was changed and with the support of the Northern Regional Brass Band Trust and Durham County Council, the bands of Barnard Castle, Ever Ready, Ferryhill & Langbaurgh recorded thirteen George Allan Marches in a unique tribute to the North East composer.
It is a source of great delight that David and Graham Horsfield of Kirklees Music have taken on this project to re-publish these marches in a new edition, with the aid of todays technology. This enables new generations of bands to enjoy the music and perform these little gems, in concerts, march contests and in processions at events such as the Annual Durham Miners Gala, so beloved by the composer George Allan.
STEVE ROBSON, March 2009
