Results
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£78.20The Rocketeer - James Horner - Roland Smeets
Before Titanic,James Horner was not above composing scores for cartoonish family films, and many of those that brought him on their production board owe him greatly. The Rocketeer entails the story of a young pilot during World War II who happens upon a rocket pack that allows him to fly. The film is based on the tradition of old film serials that left theater-goers hanging with "To be continued," and aside from modern production, it is old fashioned and innocent fun. Horner's score begins and ends with the brilliant "Main Title," which is so moving it was used in previews for later films that did not yet have finished scores. Most of th Rocketeersoundtrack elicits the adventure and lifting spirit of the film and reveals how Horner incorporates rich instrumentals in the tiniest crevices. Even when the film involves danger, as in "Jenny's Rescue," the composer takes care when it is hardly even required. Instead of some "duh-duh-duhs," he brings on a full, stunning orchestra and when he overdoes it, it is in a jolly way -- he never exhausts his medium. That is what separates him from inferior composers, and what makes a nice film like The Rocketeer extra nice. It is a soundtrack worth listening to.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£74.99Olympus - Philip Harper
Selected as the test-piece for the 3rd Section Regional contests of the National Brass Band Championships 2012The music begins with a depiction of the exciting Opening Ceremony where noisy fanfares and sudden swells add to the cosmopolitan flag-waving clamour. Without a break the music leads to The Chariot Race, a fast compound-time gallop withthundering hooves in the basses and percussion, and a heroic melody introduced by the tenor horns. Chariot racing was the main equestrian event in the Ancient Greek Games, which were founded in memory of King Oenomaus. In the Greek legend he suffereddefeat in a chariot race to his son-in-law and Zeus' grandson, Pelops, but much of the music is bitter-sweet to symbolise the fact that Pelops had to cheat to win drawing parallels with some of the issues still facing modern-day athletics. A slow, mystical passage follows, describing The Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The statue of Zeus, who was honoured throughout the Ancient Games' history, was housed inside the temple and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Themusic depicts this period of the dawn of one of mankind's most ancient civilisations and there is a series of solo passages above a drone. The next section is called The Olympic Flame and a broad and lyrical anthem-like melody develops slowly in the euphoniums, which gradually ascends until the horns can take it over before passing upwards again to the cornets (Higher). The musicbursts into bright life at the lighting of the flame and the regular rhythmic pattern which has been established goes through an accelerando (Faster). The final section is called The Olympic Truce and aims to capture the cooperative spirit of the ancient practice of ending wars for the duration of the games. The anthem-like melody makes an affirmatory return (Stronger) and the work ends asit began with a blaze of colour and a real sense of optimism and global celebration. "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stonger)NOTES ON PERFORMANCEPercussion requirements: 1 to 3 players (3 Timpani, Snare Drum, Tenor Drum, Cymbals, Glockenspiel, Triangle)
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£45.00Bathgate Hills Trilogy - Andrew Duncan
Composed by Andrew Duncan and written for the West Lothian Schools Band, A Bathgate Hills Trilogy is in three movements, each one dedicated to and representing a different hill.Comments from the composer:Movement 1 - Dechmont LawThe first movement describes the peculiar events which took place in November 1979 when a forestry worker, Bob Taylor, had a close encounter with an alien spacecraft in Dechmont Woods at the bottom of Dechmont Hill. Bob Taylor's account from the time describes a large sphere like object about twenty feet across which pulled him by the legs towards it, caustic smoke then caused him to pass out. He awoke a short time later in the same spot but the spaceship had gone leaving behind marks in the soil. His story caused a great deal of media interest and a great deal of excitement in the local community.Movement 2 - The Knock HillThe Term 'Knock' is Scottish Gaelic for 'hill' and the Knock Hill is the highest peak in the Bathgate Hills being 305 metres above Sea Level. On a clear day the Knock hill has excellent views of the Bass Rock to the East and the distant hills of Arran to the West as well as of the whole of West Lothian and across the Firth of Forth to Fife and beyond to the North.The second movement is a description of a leisurely walk to the summit of this hill and the enjoyment of a pleasant summer's day spent walking and taking in the beautiful panoramic views. However, as is the case with the Scottish Summer, a change in the weather finds a clear blue sky being replaced with dark rain clouds. The changed weather brings a sudden brief but unwelcome cold downpour of rain, drenching anyone out walking! Finally, the clouds pass and the more pleasant summer weather returns.Movement 3 - Cairnpapple HillCairnpapple Hill is a near neighbour of the Knock Hill. It is almost as high but interest in Cairnpapple Hill lies in the outstanding archaeological monument near the summit, an Iron Age burial chamber. The chamber dates back to 25 years BC and was built by a mysterious people known as the Beaker People (so called because they left behind a number of large earthenware beakers). The mysteries of Cairnpapple Hill have always been a source of fascination for me ever since first visiting the hill as a school child.The third movement describes the lives of the Beaker People. The landscape they would have looked out on would have been mostly dense forest which would have contained many perils including dangerous wolves and bears. Life was harsh and short for the Beaker People and they would always have been close to danger and to death. The average life expectancy for the Beaker People was only 31 years of age. The summit of the hill would have been clear of forest and would have afforded the Beaker People some protection as they could see all around the near countryside enabling them to keep a watchful lookout for their enemies - both animal and human!
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£33.15Libera Me from 'Requiem' (Brass Band) Faure arr. Rob Bushnell
Composed between 1887 and 1890, Gabriel Faure's Requiem is not only one of his best-known works but one of the most popular piece of choral music in the Classical repertoire, coming 23rd in the Classic FM's Hall of Fame 2024. Believed to be a tribute to his father (who died in 1885), Faure himself said "My Requiem wasn't written for anything - for pleasure, if I may call it that!" It started life as a five-movement work but was later expanded to be the final seven-movement work we know today. The first version (which Faure called "un petit Requiem") was first performed on 16 January 1888, with Faure conducting, a second version premiered on 21 January 1893 before the final version (reworked for full orchestra) was played on 12 July 1900; the Requiem was performed at the composer's own funeral in 1924.The Libera Me, or Deliver Me, was actually written in 1877 and is the sixth part of the Requiem.Faure once said of the work, "Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest." Upon interview, he also said, "It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience. The music of Gounod has been criticised for its inclination towards human tenderness. But his nature predisposed him to feel this way: religious emotion took this form inside him. Is it not necessary to accept the artist's nature? As to my Requiem, perhaps I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write something different."This arrangement is for the British-style brass band, with alternative parts for horns in F and bass-clef lower brass. The tenor solo is featured on the euphonium. A recording of the original composition can be found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXwFNoBHCf0 Duration: 4.20 minutes approx. Difficulty Level: 4th Section + PDF download includes parts and score. Sheet music available from www.brassband.co.uk Instrumentation: Soprano Cornet Eb Solo Cornet Bb Repiano Cornet Bb 2nd Cornet Bb 3rd Cornet Bb Flugel Horn Bb Solo Horn Eb 1st Horn Eb 2nd Horn Eb 1st Baritone Bb 2nd Baritone Bb 1st Trombone Bb 2nd Trombone Bb Bass Trombone Euphonium Bb Bass Eb Bass BbTimpani
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£33.00In Storm and Sunshine (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Heed, John Clifford - Houlding, Christopher
New Jersey born composer and musician John Clifford Heed, who was born during the American Civil War was as a cornet soloist and arranger in the legendary band of John Philip Sousa. J.C Heed was also known as the "March Wizard". According to local legend in his hometown, it is claimed that Heed possibly wrote "The Stars and Stripes Forever". Chris Houlding's vibrant arrangement of "In Storm and Sunshine" is written in the style of a vibrant circus march, to be performed as quick as possible! Duration: 5.00. Suitable for 2nd Section Bands and above.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£30.00Russian Rag - George L Cobb, Sandy Coffin
Interpolating the world famous"Prelude" by RachmaninoffCommissioned by John Wallace, this arrangement of Russian Rag has been crafted by Sandy Coffin through close listening of the available recordings of the Harlem Hellfighters Band. Sandy had been heavily involved with the Historic Brass Society symposium 2017 held in New York and assisted John with his research on this fascinating band and the style of music it generated.Eye-witness accounts refer to the 369th band 'dancing' rather than 'marching'. Above all, in modern performance, finding a 'dancing beat' is crucial to a successful performance of this Ragtime march in order to do justice to the great pioneering work of James Reese Europe. Note the cheeky virtuosity and rubato!Look and Listen (courtesy of Tullis Russell Mills Band):Background to the Harlem HellfightersThe US Army 369th Regiment, made up largely of African-Americans from New York, became known as the Harlem Hellfighters because of the heroic reputation which accrued to them during the actions they engaged in during the First World War in Europe.James Reese Europe was one of the most active African-American composer/musical directors in the pre-war American music scene. The legendary Harlem Hellfighters Band, which he assembled in 1917 from African-American and Puerto Rican musicians, came at an important transitional point in musical history. A new form of music called jazz was emerging from Ragtime and the performing style of Europe's band was immersed in the flow of this new direction.Europe's Harlem Hellfighters influenced and inspired everyone who heard them, including the welcoming crowd when they disembarked in France, bowled over by their swinging rendition of La Marseillaise. Reese Europe became a war hero, commanding a machine-gun unit as well as the band.On return from War in 1919 the band led a ticker-tape parade along Fifth Avenue in New York and soon made about 30 shellac recordings. These recordings display some of the fingerprints of their performing style: ragging, improvising, muting, wailing, smearing (their word for glissando) - and from the evidence of their recordings they took the printed page as a blueprint for individuality.In May 1919 during the Hellfighters' triumphant coast-to-coast tour after their return, James Reese Europe was tragically murdered, bringing to premature close, at the age of 39, the work of a great musical innovator.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£30.00That Moaning Trombone - Carl D Bethel, Sandy Coffin
Comic March One-StepCommissioned by John Wallace, this arrangement of That Moaning Trombone has been crafted by Sandy Coffin through close listening of the available recordings of the Harlem Hellfighters Band. Sandy had been heavily involved with the Historic Brass Society symposium 2017 held in New York and assisted John with his research on this fascinating band and the style of music it generated.Eye-witness accounts refer to the 369th band 'dancing' rather than 'marching'. Above all, in modern performance, finding a 'dancing beat' is crucial to a successful performance of this Ragtime march in order to do justice to the great pioneering work of James Reese Europe.Note the the reckless abandon with which glissando, at that time a novel effect, is used!Look and Listen (courtesy of the Tullis Russell Mills Band):Background to the Harlem HellfightersThe US Army 369th Regiment, made up largely of African-Americans from New York, became known as the Harlem Hellfighters because of the heroic reputation which accrued to them during the actions they engaged in during the First World War in Europe.James Reese Europe was one of the most active African-American composer/musical directors in the pre-war American music scene. The legendary Harlem Hellfighters Band, which he assembled in 1917 from African-American and Puerto Rican musicians, came at an important transitional point in musical history. A new form of music called jazz was emerging from Ragtime and the performing style of Europe's band was immersed in the flow of this new direction.Europe's Harlem Hellfighters influenced and inspired everyone who heard them, including the welcoming crowd when they disembarked in France, bowled over by their swinging rendition of La Marseillaise. Reese Europe became a war hero, commanding a machine-gun unit as well as the band.On return from War in 1919 the band led a ticker-tape parade along Fifth Avenue in New York and soon made about 30 shellac recordings. These recordings display some of the fingerprints of their performing style: ragging, improvising, muting, wailing, smearing (their word for glissando) - and from the evidence of their recordings they took the printed page as a blueprint for individuality.In May 1919 during the Hellfighters' triumphant coast-to-coast tour after their return, James Reese Europe was tragically murdered, bringing to premature close, at the age of 39, the work of a great musical innovator.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£30.00The St Louis Blues - Sandy Coffin, W C Handy
Two-Step MarchCommissioned by John Wallace, this arrangement of The St Louis Blues has been crafted by Sandy Coffin through close listening of the available recordings of the Harlem Hellfighters Band. Sandy had been heavily involved with the Historic Brass Society symposium 2017 held in New York and assisted John with his research on this fascinating band and the style of music it generated.Eye-witness accounts refer to the 369th band 'dancing' rather than 'marching'. Above all, in modern performance, finding a 'dancing beat' is crucial to a successful performance of this Ragtime march in order to do justice to the great pioneering work of James Reese Europe.Note the flutter-tonguing and use of muting, the counter-melody in soprano cornet, and the wilder and yet wilder nature of each repetition of the Chorus.Look and Listen:Background to the Harlem HellfightersThe US Army 369th Regiment, made up largely of African-Americans from New York, became known as the Harlem Hellfighters because of the heroic reputation which accrued to them during the actions they engaged in during the First World War in Europe.James Reese Europe was one of the most active African-American composer/musical directors in the pre-war American music scene. The legendary Harlem Hellfighters Band, which he assembled in 1917 from African-American and Puerto Rican musicians, came at an important transitional point in musical history. A new form of music called jazz was emerging from Ragtime and the performing style of Europe's band was immersed in the flow of this new direction.Europe's Harlem Hellfighters influenced and inspired everyone who heard them, including the welcoming crowd when they disembarked in France, bowled over by their swinging rendition of La Marseillaise. Reese Europe became a war hero, commanding a machine-gun unit as well as the band.On return from War in 1919 the band led a ticker-tape parade along Fifth Avenue in New York and soon made about 30 shellac recordings. These recordings display some of the fingerprints of their performing style: ragging, improvising, muting, wailing, smearing (their word for glissando) - and from the evidence of their recordings they took the printed page as a blueprint for individuality.In May 1919 during the Hellfighters' triumphant coast-to-coast tour after their return, James Reese Europe was tragically murdered, bringing to premature close, at the age of 39, the work of a great musical innovator.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£121.00Decennium - Eric Swiggers
'Decennium' was composed in 2003 as a commission by the municipality of Berheze for its tenth anniversary. The composition describes the history of this town in the Province of Brabant, consisting of 6 different villages: Heesch, Heeswijk, Dinther, Nistelrode, Loosbroek and Vorstenbosch. The composition starts with a slow introduction, Adagio Misterioso, suggesting the atmosphere in long-ago days when the area consisted mainly of swamps, meres and low woods. (The word 'Bern' is a synonym of 'Born' meaning source or water, whereas 'Hese' is derived from 'Haisjo' meaning brushwood ). Above the dark sounds we hear far away trumpet signals announcing the Middle Ages. After a piercing crescendo, we hear the full sound of festive trumpets. A medieval dance, as was to be heard in the Heeswijk castle, follows. This dance gets a more and more stirring character and finally turns into a merry popular dance ending with a burst of laughter reproduced by descending scales with the muted trombones and trumpets. A slow transition with a quotation from a Gregorian plainsong (Domine Deus) and church bell ringing, referring to the Abbey of Berne, brings us to a romantic Larghetto. This part describes the quiet rural life in a beautiful natural surrounding. The last dying note contrasts with the threatening ostinato, referring to the rise of the industrialization, which provoked quite some resistance with the local people. Once more we hear the 'Domine Deus' but much more powerful this time. When the resistance calms down, the work concludes with an Alla Marcia. The first notes of the main theme could be heard all through the composition and now we hear the complete main theme again. The new town is born. A festive conclusion refers both to the tenth anniversary and the optimism and confidence as to the future.
Estimated dispatch 10-14 working days
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£69.95Triquetra (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Graham, Peter
Triquetra takes the form of a free fantasia on the familiar hymn Old Hundreth. The tune appears in full in four different guises - harmonically and rhythmically altered on each occasion. Fragments of the melody are also used to generate new ideas, most notably in the contrasting middle section where the opening phrase of the hymn appears in inversion.As to the title, the Triquetra (from the Latin triquetrus meaning three-corned) symbol is representative of the Christian Trinity and in that respect relates to the final line of text in Old Hundreth, also known as the Doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.Triquetra was written for Stephen Cobb in recognition of 30 years outstanding service as conductor of the International Staff Band of the Salvation Army.Duration: 7.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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