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£56.00 -
£30.00The Sword and the Star
DescriptionThe Sword and the Star was written in 2006 for the Middleton Band at the request of their Musical Director, Carl Whiteoak. The inspiration for the work was the band's badge, which features a medieval archer. The town of Middeton's historical link with the symbol of the Archer came from the English victory at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513, where bowmen from Middleton and Heywood under the command of Sir Richard Assheton played a vital part in crushing the invading Scottish army. Sir Richard captured one of the Scottish commanders and presented the prisoner's sword to the St Leonard's church in Middleton in recognition of the town's contribution. As long time Lords of the Manor, the Assheton family crest was for centuries featured in the coat of arms of Middleton council, and when Middleton became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale the black star from the Assheton crest was used to represent Middleton in the new borough's coat of arms. Hence the title The Sword and the Star, for a piece which attempts to give an impression of the town as it was then and as it is now.The music is in three short sections - a fanfare, a lament and a bright scherzo - and simply aims to contrast the medieval hamlet of Middleton with the bustling urban centre it has now become. The central lament features a Scottish song called "The Flowers of the Forest", written to mourn the loss of so many of Scotland's young men on the field of Flodden; the song returns in a much more positive form at the end of the piece.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£76.99The Sound of Music (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Hammerstein & Rodgers - Iwai, Naohiro
The musical The Sound of Music represents the last collaborations between the successful duo Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the story about the Austrian Von Trapp family that immigrated to the United States of America. Generations have fallen in love with the musical, made particularily famous through its subsequent cinematic release. Naohiro Iwai combines all the musical's highlights: Do-Re-Mi, The Lonely Goatherd, So Long, Farewell, Edelweiss, and Climb Ev'ry Mountain.Duration: 8:30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£104.99The Divine Right (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Harper, Philip
At the time of composing this piece, the Arab Spring was sweeping through the Middle East. It seemed that almost every week a new country's people had risen up against the regimes and dictatorships which had prevailed for generations, leaving many nations at a defining crossroads in their history. There were so many possible ways ahead: so many hopes, yet so many uncertainties.This music is a depiction of these revolutionary times, and several musical themes are in turn presented, discussed, considered, fought over, altered, rejected or accepted.Most nations have had, or probably will have, their own Arab Spring, including the United Kingdom. Events of 17th Century Britain provide the context for this piece, particularly those following the execution of the tyrant King Charles I on 30 January 1649. The regicide was in part due to Charless steadfast belief in the Divine Right of Kings, and led to a tumultuous interregnum, where England stood at its own defining crossroads. The music begins turbulently, before King Charles appears and is led to the gallows outside Banqueting House in central London where he is brutally decapitated. From the assembled crowd rose, according to one observer,a moan as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again.The music descends to emptiness.The musical argument which follows is not strictly programmatic, but a number of musical themes are all thrown into the melting pot, representing ideas such as: religion; military force; reasoned Parliamentary debate; and the chattering, irrepressible voice of the people. Additionally, there are some quotations from the music of royalist composer Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656), who was often in tune with the feeling of the times.This defining episode in England's history was brought to a close with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and as the exiled King Charles II rode back into London the diarist John Evelyn wrote:Never was so joyful a day seen in this nation. I stood in the Strand and beheld it, and blessed God.At the end of the piece the bells ring out, and the musical appearance of the King has transformed from turbulent to triumphant.Duration: 17.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£80.00The Unfortunate Traveller (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Holst, Imogen - Hindmarsh, Paul
Imogen Holst (1907-1984) submitted The Unfortunate Traveller (1929) as her final work as a student portfolio at the Royal College of Music, where her composition teacher was Gordon Jacob. The title was taken from Thomas Nashe's famous 1594 picaresque novel of the same title. The Suite was first performed on 12 February 1933 at her Majesty's Theatre, Carlisle, by the St. Stephen's Band, with the composer conducting. Te concert was given in memory of Holst's uncle, Dr. H.A. Lediard. Holst had been impressed with the band's performance of his A Moorside Suite at the 1928 National Brass Band Championships (The Crystal Palace, South London) and was keen to work with them. Writing in Imogen Holst, a life in music, Christopher Grogan indicates that it was Gustav Holst's suggestion to include his daughter's work in the programme, quoting Imogen Holst's remarks made in interview to The Daily Mail as follows: "....it is the first time, so far as I know, that a woman has conducted a brass band at a public concert....It has been a delight to rehearse the St. Stephen's Band. It was their performance at the Crystal Palace Festival that inspired me to write this Suite, which I have dedicated to them."Imogen Holst accompanied her father to the Crystal Palace in 1928 to hear the performances of A Moorside Suite, and was so excited by the played and, audibly, by her father's music that she decided to write a brass band piece for her final examination. Te result was The Unfortunate Traveller (1929). However, it was not possible for her to present a brass band work for examination. She arranged it for string orchestra so that it could be played before she left the RCM in July 1930. Following the premiere of the original in 1933, the manuscripts did not resurface until 1969 Imogen found them among her late mother's effects. Although she requested score and parts be destroyed, they ended up in the possession of Manchester composer John Golland, who marked up the score presumably with the intention of creating a new performing edition. The original scoring reveals a lack of experience with what can be a tricky medium.With the agreement of the Holst Foundation, a revised edition, with additional percussion, was prepared in 2011 since when the work has been fortunate to travel round the world as a concert and contest piece. The original includes drums in the March only. The title was taken from Tomas Nashe's famous 1594 picaresque novel of the same title. Several Morris Dance tunes are introduced during the course of the four short movements, including Bonnie Green Garters, Shepherd's Hey, The Rose and The Wind Blaws Cauld. Quirky twists and turns of harmony and spirited rhythms that remind us how much Imogen Holst loved tradition English dance music.In September 2025, I made a performing edition of the composer's arrangement for string orchestra. The manuscript lacks the final movement, which I arranged in a similar style, ie. without extending the upper ranges. Making this edition raised some issues regarding the accuracy of my band version and some of the solutions I used to smooth out the voicing. I have used the composer's second thoughts to refine my performing edition and to correct a textual errors.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 10.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£45.00Lament (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Bridge, Frank - Hindmarsh, Paul
The English composer Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941) did not take an active part in the First World War. However, he was devastated by the slaughter on the western and the eastern fronts, especially the loss of so many of his musicians friends and colleagues. Writing in 1963, his former pupil Benjamin Britten confessed that 'a lot of my feelings about the First World War which people seemed to see in the War Requiem came from Bridge. He had written a piano sonata in memory of a friend killed in France and though he didn't encourage me to take a stand for the sake of a stand, he did make me argue and argue and argue. His own pacifism was not aggressive, but typically gentle'.Bridge composed this Lament for string orchestra on 14 June 1915, in memory of Catherine Crompton, who drowned when the Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine on 7 May, 1915. According to figures researched by Liverpool historian Kevin Roach (www.lusitania.net), 1201 men, women and children lost their lives out of the 1962 people aboard. Ninety-four children died, including Catherine, her twin brother Paul and four other siblings. Paul Crompton, Snr. (44), a British businessman working in Philadelphia, his wife Gladys (40) and the family nanny were also drowned. How Bridge's dedication came about is uncertain. The music critic Edwin Evans, who knew Bridge well, has written that the Catherine was a young friend. It is also possible that he came across the family photograph which was published in many newspapers in the wake of the tragedy. By that time, Bridge was greatly distressed by the war as a whole. It seems perfectly in keeping with his pacifist leanings and the strength of his reaction, that this poignant and deeply touching 'war memorial' should mourn a child who he did not know, rather than one of the thousands of young men who fell in battle.Through the musical tears of this melancholy lullaby, Bridge may have regarded the death of young Catherine Crompton as symbolic of the loss of so many innocent lives in wartime. His response to this personal tragedy was characteristically spontaneous and utterly sincere. It is one of his most effective miniatures, poignant yet restrained in its lyrical beauty, with a compelling directness and simplicity of construction.This brass band transcription is pitched one tone lower than the original for string orchestra.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 5.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£45.00Lament (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
The English composer Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941) did not take an active part in the First World War. However, he was devastated by the slaughter on the western and the eastern fronts, especially the loss of so many of his musicians friends and colleagues. Writing in 1963, his former pupil Benjamin Britten confessed that 'a lot of my feelings about the First World War which people seemed to see in the War Requiem came from Bridge. He had written a piano sonata in memory of a friend killed in France and though he didn't encourage me to take a stand for the sake of a stand, he did make me argue and argue and argue. His own pacifism was not aggressive, but typically gentle'.Bridge composed this Lament for string orchestra on 14 June 1915, in memory of Catherine Crompton, who drowned when the Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine on 7 May, 1915. According to figures researched by Liverpool historian Kevin Roach (www.lusitania.net), 1201 men, women and children lost their lives out of the 1962 people aboard. Ninety-four children died, including Catherine, her twin brother Paul and four other siblings. Paul Crompton, Snr. (44), a British businessman working in Philadelphia, his wife Gladys (40) and the family nanny were also drowned. How Bridge's dedication came about is uncertain. The music critic Edwin Evans, who knew Bridge well, has written that the Catherine was a young friend. It is also possible that he came across the family photograph which was published in many newspapers in the wake of the tragedy. By that time, Bridge was greatly distressed by the war as a whole. It seems perfectly in keeping with his pacifist leanings and the strength of his reaction, that this poignant and deeply touching 'war memorial' should mourn a child who he did not know, rather than one of the thousands of young men who fell in battle.Through the musical tears of this melancholy lullaby, Bridge may have regarded the death of young Catherine Crompton as symbolic of the loss of so many innocent lives in wartime. His response to this personal tragedy was characteristically spontaneous and utterly sincere. It is one of his most effective miniatures, poignant yet restrained in its lyrical beauty, with a compelling directness and simplicity of construction.This brass band transcription is pitched one tone lower than the original for string orchestra.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 5.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£64.95Adam Zero, Suite from (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Bliss, Arthur - Childs, Robert
Selected as the Section 2 test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2025Following his ballet Checkmate, Bliss composed another score for the, by then, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Miracle in the Gorbals, which was choreographed by Robert Helpmann, to a scenario by Michael Benthall. Premired in 1944, the ballet made a considerable impact and was a box-office success. It was followed in turn by a further collaboration with Helpmann and Benthall, Adam Zero. This would serve Helpmann, in the eponymous role, as a vehicle in two respects: demonstrating his gifts as a dancer-actor and as a choreographer. First performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 8 April 1946, Adam Zero was conducted by Constant Lambert, the work's dedicatee. Bliss considered it 'his most varied and exciting ballet score'. Benthall provided a synopsis for the programme:There is a philosophy that life moves in an endless series of timeless cycles. As Nature passes through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, so man is born, makes a success in his own particular sphere, loses his position to a younger generation, sees his world crumble before his eyes and only finds peace in death. This age-old story is told in terms of a Company creating a ballet and calling on the resources of the theatre to do so. Lighting, stage mechanism, dance conventions, musical forms and costumes and scenery of all periods are used to symbolize the world of 'Adam Zero'.Apart from Adam, as the Principal Dancer, other main roles included the Stage Director (representing Omnipotence), and Adam's Fates (Designer, Wardrobe Mistress, and Dresser). 'The Woman in this allegory', wrote Bliss, 'under the symbol of the Choreographer, was both the creator and destroyer of Adam: his first love, his wife, his mistress, and finally the figure of beneficent Death.' When the curtain rose, the 'audience saw the Covent Garden stage right back to the wall, completely empty except for the protagonists, 'the Company poised, still and expectant, as they await the birth of... Adam Zero.'Unfortunately, soon after the premire, Helpmann injured himself and had to withdraw from the remaining performances. Despite generally positive reviews, the ballet did not capture the imagination of audiences and, to Bliss's considerable disappointment, was not revived. Seventy years would elapse before its first major return to the stage, in 2016, performed by the ballet company of Stadttheater Bremerhaven with choreography by Sergei Vanaev.Bliss extracted a concert suite from the ballet, conducting its first performance with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 28 October 1948. For his own suite, arranged for brass band in 2023, Dr Robert Childs chose three dances linked to the seasons, book-ending them with the ebullient 'Fanfare Overture' and 'Fanfare Coda'. After Adam has grown to manhood, his Fates clothe him in a costume synonymous with confident youth, appropriate for the virile, ardent 'Dance of Spring'. In the 'Approach of Autumn', Adam, now wearing a sombre costume, has grown older: his Fates have streaked grey in his hair and put lines on his face. But they had earlier raised Adam to the zenith of his power, and the 'Dance of Summer' depicts him in the prime of life, in music of sweeping grandeur. The 'Fanfare Coda' signals that the next cycle of life is about to begin.Duration: 10.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£64.95Adam Zero, Suite from (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Selected as the Section 2 test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2025Following his ballet Checkmate, Bliss composed another score for the, by then, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Miracle in the Gorbals, which was choreographed by Robert Helpmann, to a scenario by Michael Benthall. Premired in 1944, the ballet made a considerable impact and was a box-office success. It was followed in turn by a further collaboration with Helpmann and Benthall, Adam Zero. This would serve Helpmann, in the eponymous role, as a vehicle in two respects: demonstrating his gifts as a dancer-actor and as a choreographer. First performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 8 April 1946, Adam Zero was conducted by Constant Lambert, the work's dedicatee. Bliss considered it 'his most varied and exciting ballet score'. Benthall provided a synopsis for the programme:There is a philosophy that life moves in an endless series of timeless cycles. As Nature passes through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, so man is born, makes a success in his own particular sphere, loses his position to a younger generation, sees his world crumble before his eyes and only finds peace in death. This age-old story is told in terms of a Company creating a ballet and calling on the resources of the theatre to do so. Lighting, stage mechanism, dance conventions, musical forms and costumes and scenery of all periods are used to symbolize the world of 'Adam Zero'.Apart from Adam, as the Principal Dancer, other main roles included the Stage Director (representing Omnipotence), and Adam's Fates (Designer, Wardrobe Mistress, and Dresser). 'The Woman in this allegory', wrote Bliss, 'under the symbol of the Choreographer, was both the creator and destroyer of Adam: his first love, his wife, his mistress, and finally the figure of beneficent Death.' When the curtain rose, the 'audience saw the Covent Garden stage right back to the wall, completely empty except for the protagonists, 'the Company poised, still and expectant, as they await the birth of... Adam Zero.'Unfortunately, soon after the premire, Helpmann injured himself and had to withdraw from the remaining performances. Despite generally positive reviews, the ballet did not capture the imagination of audiences and, to Bliss's considerable disappointment, was not revived. Seventy years would elapse before its first major return to the stage, in 2016, performed by the ballet company of Stadttheater Bremerhaven with choreography by Sergei Vanaev.Bliss extracted a concert suite from the ballet, conducting its first performance with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 28 October 1948. For his own suite, arranged for brass band in 2023, Dr Robert Childs chose three dances linked to the seasons, book-ending them with the ebullient 'Fanfare Overture' and 'Fanfare Coda'. After Adam has grown to manhood, his Fates clothe him in a costume synonymous with confident youth, appropriate for the virile, ardent 'Dance of Spring'. In the 'Approach of Autumn', Adam, now wearing a sombre costume, has grown older: his Fates have streaked grey in his hair and put lines on his face. But they had earlier raised Adam to the zenith of his power, and the 'Dance of Summer' depicts him in the prime of life, in music of sweeping grandeur. The 'Fanfare Coda' signals that the next cycle of life is about to begin.Duration: 10.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£87.95Trombone Concerto (Trombone Solo with Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Wiffin, Rob
My Trombone Concerto was commissioned by Brett Baker following an earlier piece I had written for him called Shout! It was composed in Spain in the summer of 2010. Once I started writing I realised that this concerto was inevitably going to draw on my own experiences as a trombone player.The first movement was really a matter of getting the right thematic ideas and balancing the tutti and solo passages so, for formal structure, I studied the Gordon Jacob Trombone Concerto. There is a lyrical section preceding the first Allegro that owes much in spirit (but not in the actual music) to The Eternal Quest, Ray Steadman-Allen's Salvation Army solo.The slow movement seemed determined to come out in the vein of a Richard Strauss song. I wanted to write something ineluctably 'cantabile' as we trombone players rarely get a chance to play the melody. There is a brief allusion to that wonderful moment when the trombone gets to sing above the orchestra in Sibelius' seventh symphony. Arthur Wilson, that great exponent of the singing style in trombone-playing and my teacher at college died in the summer of 2010 so it seemed appropriate to dedicate this movement to him.The last movement is the lightest of the three in style and is slightly jazz-inflected, hopefully providing some fun for the soloist.While wanting to test the instrument I did not set out with the intention of making the concerto difficult but there are undoubtedly challenges of technique, range and style to be met by the soloist.- Rob Wiffin
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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