Trapped in the Land of Hope and Glory

 

A swarm of trombones
is a sight to behold.
But it's tiresome to watch
all that puffing and pumping,

and the noise that they make
will drive any man to drink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And who ever thought
that adding more voices
granted permission
to sing every verse
of every anthem,
should be sentenced to.
a few years of hard labor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moreover
if you've seen one tenor horn
then you've seen them all.
Hearing a horde of them
does not improve the experience,
and instead makes you wish
that you'd never seen none.

 

 

 

 

 For when music becomes an ordeal,
a quagmire from which there is no escape,
you can only hope
that you will endure the torment

 until the last note dies away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This photo postcard
of a large outdoor concert
gives no time or place.

The brass band is easily
over 75 musicians,
all men in bowlers and straw hats.
And the choir arranged
on stepped bleachers
could be 350 singers or more.
 

My best guess
is that the brass instruments,
and the chimney pots at top right, look British.
And the hats and the fashion look 1910-ish.
But the purpose of the event,
whether patriotic, religious, or temperance,
must remain unknown.

Yet for one gentleman and a young lad
this was one concert best forgotten.

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone is waiting
to see who will pay the pipers.