User:Ruglenrover/Eric Ball composer

Eric Walter John Ball was born in Kingswood near Bristol on 31st October 1903, the eldest of three sons of Jack and Lily Ball. His mother had been born into a Baptist family and had joined The Salvation Army at an early age, holding the rank of Captain when she married Eric’s Father in 1902. He was the eldest of 16 children whose parents had also been active Salvationists, so that the young Eric was very much at home with Christian ideals and the practice of expressing them through music from a very early age.

The family moved several times in Eric’s early years and it was in London, where his Father was managing a small chain of Grocers shops, that he began his musical education. This was through the discipline of a Salvation Army Young peoples Band in Ealing as well as private piano study. When the Family later moved to Kent he continued his private studies with a local Anglican organist, who versed him in harmony and counterpoint as well as teaching him the organ. He progressed rapidly and had a short period as Organist of Holy Trinity Church in Dartford.

His heart however was in The Salvation Army and by 1919 at the age of sixteen had obtained a job in The Salvation Army Musical Instrument Department at Judd Street in central London. He soon progressed to The Musical Editorial Department where he spent twenty eight years and worked alongside such well known Salvation Army composers as Philip Catelinet, Bramwell Coles, Albert Jakeway and George Marshall, as well as Henry Hall, later to become famous as a Band Leader.

His first published work, a march called Hoist The Flag, appeared in 1922 and he soon began producing such pace setting works as The Old Wells, Songs of The Morning and the tone poem Exodus. This, alongside various accompanying duties and the completion of his ARCM as well as becoming a full time Salvation Army Officer in 1927. He was also conducting various Salvation Army Bands and reached the pinnacle of achievement in that field when was appointed to the Bandmastership of The International Staff Band in 1942.

Within two years the world of Brass Band music, inside and outside The Salvation Army, was shocked to hear in April 1944 that due to a controversy over his involvement in spiritualist activities Major Eric Ball had resigned as an Officer in The Salvation Army. He now had to find other means of support for himself and his wife Olive and turned to what he knew well, Brass Bands.

By the Autumn of 1945 he was Adjudicating at Brass Band Contests and had been engaged by Brighouse & Rastrick in May that year as their Professional Conductor. Eric Ball went on to win the National Championships with them in 1946 and the British Open with CWS Manchester in 1948. What he really wanted to do however was compose music and by the mid fifties had withdrawn from conducting Bands on a competitive basis, preferring to limit his involvement to conducting concerts and taking courses, particularly those where young players were taking part.

He was responsible for some of the greatest works ever performed by bands at contests, his compositions remain central pillars to the development of brass band repertoire. From “Resurgam” to “The Wayfarer” – he pieces displayed immense musicality and technical brilliance. His works are inspirational in their content, although in general, musically conservative in outlook and quiet strict in format. Eric Ball was also equally skilled in pastiche and arrangements as both his “Festival Music” and his skilled adaptation of “Checkmate” showed. He was a man of his time and a man of greater convictions and beliefs. His music gloriously reflected both.

Test Pieces used at the Major Championships: 11 pieces used 13 times. British Open: Salute to Freedom – 1946; Resurgam – 1950; The Conquerors – 1951; Tournament for Brass – 1954; Sunset Rhapsody – 1958; The Undaunted – 1959; Main Street – 1961; Festival Music – 1971. National Finals: Festival Music – 1956; Journey Into Freedom – 1967; A Kensington Concerto – 1972; Sinfonietta – The Wayfarer - 1976 European Championships: Journey Into Freedom - 1982

Colonel Brindley Boon, the former National Secretary for Bands of The Salvation Army, summed up what is certainly the popular view that Eric Ball’s music, “is supreme because it is pleasant to listen to, it has a deep message which stirs Salvationists and all listeners alike, it’s chording and harmony is very pleasant, and the great thing is that he has tunes in his music. There is melody, memorable melody, that one can go away singing, rather than just a very clever conglomeration of sound which perhaps leaves us a little cold”.

Eric Ball died in 1989 and left a unique and irreplaceable body of music for his first love, the Brass Band.