Results
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£59.95Ballet for Band (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
1st Section Test Piece 2016 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championship. Recorded on Polyphonic DPRL901D Joseph Horovitz (The Brass Band Music of)
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£102.99Lake of the Moon (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
3rd Section Test Piece 2016 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championship.The travels of the Aztec people as they headed south through North America looking for a new home, acted as the inspiration for Lake of the Moon. The composition contains small fragments of Oriental music and South American rhythms and occasionally, Russian Cossacks seem to raise their heads. The journey from North to South is not without danger, which is represented by threatening sounds within the music. In the Adagio divoto the composer takes us along to the Texcoco Lake, which the Aztecs called the lake of the moon. Bring a little bit of South American history to your concert with Lake of the Moon.Duration: 11:15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£84.95A Day in the Life of a Knight (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Here we have a most descriptive piece of writing - a story through music. A fantastic 1st section test piece and championship concert work:The opening scene would depict standing on the battlements of a castle hearing the thundering hoofs of our brave Knight's horse miles in the distance. His arrival is expected, and his reputation is known across many lands. Today, he is to joust amongst mere mortal knights and compete for the hand of the fair (and local) Princess.He vanquishes all competitors and wins the day. The scene moves to evening and court where reception and dance is to be held for our winning knight. Both Knight and Princess become centre of attention during the dance. Their eyes only for each other.At last, the Knight has a chance to be a lone with his Princess as they steal away from the celebrations to a star lit rampart above the castle gardens, where the Knight declares his ever-lasting love and pledges his life and of honour to her. He asks her hand, meanwhile monks pray in the below chapel hoping for union. She say's yes. It is announced in court, then blown from the battlements.Day breaks; he is brought word of evil doings back in his own land. He leaves word to the Princess that he will be back soon to take her hand. The trouble back home was a rouse to get him away from the Princes so one of the vanquished, a dark knight in yesterdays joust, has summoned a dragon to kidnap the princess for his own.As the truth of the deception reaches our Knight he quickly returns to face the varlet that has taken his Lady. This time tis no joust, but a fight to the death with the dark knight and dragon. Our champion proves his best once again and wins the day and the hand of his Princess forever!- Phil LawrenceSuitable for 1st Section Bands and aboveDuration: 11.15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£59.95Swedish Festival Music (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
This three-movement suite was commissioned by the Swedish Brass Band Association as the test piece for the Championship Section of their 2008 National Contest. The first movement is inspired by the magnificent Swedish hymn 'How Great Thou Art'. Indeed the influence of that hymn can be traced in all three movements. The declamatory style of the opening gives way to other, more reflective expressions of awe and wonder. A more animated section develops before a final, triumphant statement of the 'How Great' idea returns to finish the movement. The slow second movement features another much-loved Swedish hymn. The music provides plenty of scope for expressive playing, and a feeling of intimacy should be created by the use of several short solo passages. The third movement Allegro brings a totally different, dance-like mood with frequent references to a reel from the region of Uppland. This eventually brings a return to the opening subject and a final, triumphant reference to 'How Great Thou Art'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£94.95Waiting for a Pain Hit!??!!? (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Waiting For a Pain Hit!??!!? was written during November and December 2006 as an entry in the 2006/07 Swiss Brass Band Association Composers Competition. It was later chosen as the Championship Section set test piece for the 2010 Swiss National Brass Band Championships.The piece originates from sketches for a Brass Quintet which was written whilst I was in my second year of studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The piece, now being much more elaborate both musically and structurally than the original, aims to explore the many various textures available to a large brass ensemble. The aims of the piece, from its earliest stages, were mainly exploration of textures as well as dealing with issues of continuity and whilst the piece certainly contains challenging technical elements, they were not a driving force behind its inception and more organically grew from the primary aims of the piece. I was purposefully looking throughout the writing and editing process to create a piece of music with a seamless, ethereal quality to both the structure and the musical content.There are no 'performance directions' throughout the piece, the reasoning for this is explained below. However, I have spent much time and thought over the tempo markings throughout the piece and the tempos throughout the piece are the desired tempi and care should be taken with these. The tempo markings contained throughout the piece form a vital part of the structure and affect the continuity of the piece. Metronome marks contained within a box show the tempo of the new section in relation to the tempo that precedes it by use of metronome modulations. Any alterations to the tempo of the section that precedes it will alter the boxed metronome marks.The title of a piece of music, please forgive my generalisation, is to give an insight into 'what a piece is about'. I suppose that this piece is no different, but with the title being slightly abstract I shall resist the temptation to reveal what it means to me. The title, I feel, needs to be open to interpretation along with the music within. That's the way, with this piece especially, I like my music to be. Freedom to find our own meaning and a way to express it from within the score is vital. It is only then that the piece can take on its own identity and grow in ways that even I might not have imagined, revealing different sides to its personality with each performance.Before the music begins I have included some text. Do these words hold the key to the music?! Can they help??! I DON'T KNOW!!! I just like the rhythms, the pulse and the imagery. Hopefully, all of this can help to create a picture. But let it be your picture...- Paul McGhee, June 2010
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.95Ballet for Band (Score Only)
Ballet for Band was written as the test-piece for the Championship section finals of the National Brass Band Championships, held at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1983.Although the work is not programmatic, within the space of ten minutes, the composer uses a form which might be considered to be the form of a ballet. Therefore there is a fanfare at the beginning which might be the overture, different characters appear, and scenes are quite clearly marked by, for instance, baritones or by muted trombone, although the listener is encouraged to use his own imagination.Thematically the work is tightly controlled, with the same material re-appearing in many different guises, as a flugel horn solo, as a waltz on the horns, and on the euphonium. Horovitz employs a rich harmonic pallet, but the work is most definitely rooted in a tonal language, with hints of Straussian richness later in the work.The work is notable for its middle section, in which the music gets slower and slower, providing a real test of control throughout the band.Ballet for Band was by no means Joseph Horovitz's first work for the medium: his fine "Concerto for Euphonium and Band" is frequently played, and he has also written a cantata entitled "Samson" for choir and band.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£95.00Daphnis and Chloe (The Second Suite) (Score and Parts)
This revised (2012) version of the complete Second Suite from RAVEL's DAPHNIS & CHLOE arranged by Howard Snell, has been chosen as the test piece for the Championship Section of the NATIONAL BRASS BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS OF GREAT BRITAIN of 2012 at the Roya
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£74.95Eden (Score and Parts)
This work was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust as the test piece for the final of the 2005 Besson National Brass Band Championship, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.The score is prefaced by the final lines from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (completed in 1663), in which Adam and Eve, expelled from Paradise, make their uncertain way into the outside world:"...The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and providence their guide:They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way."My work is in three linked sections. In the first, the characters of Adam, Eve and the serpent guarding the Tree of Knowledge are respectively represented by solo euphonium, cornet and trombone. The music opens in an idyllic and tranquil mood and leads into a duet between euphonium and cornet. Throughout this passage the prevailing mood darkens, though the soloists seem to remain oblivious to the increasingly fraught atmosphere. A whip-crack announces the malevolent appearance of the solo trombone who proceeds to engage the solo cornet in a sinister dialogue.The second section interprets the Eden story as a modern metaphor for the havoc mankind has inflicted upon the world, exploiting and abusing its resources in the pursuit of wealth. Though certainly intended here as a comment on the present-day, it is by no means a new idea: Milton himself had an almost prescient awareness of it in Book I of his poem, where men, led on by Mammon:"...Ransacked the centre and with impious handsRifled the bowels of their mother earthFor treasures better hid. Soon had his crewOpened into the hill a spacious woundAnd digged out ribs of gold."So this section is fast and violent, at times almost manic in its destructive energy. At length a furious climax subsides and a tolling bell ushers in the third and final section.This final part is slow, beginning with an intense lament featuring solos for tenor-horn, flgel-horn and repiano cornet and joined later by solo baritone, soprano cornet, Eb-bass and Bb-bass.At one stage in the planning of the work it seemed likely that the music would end here - in despair. Then, mid-way through writing it, I visited the extraordinary Eden Project in Cornwall. Here, in a disused quarry - a huge man-made wound in the earth - immense biomes, containing an abundance of plant species from every region of the globe, together with an inspirational education programme, perhaps offer a small ray of hope for the future. This is the image behind the work's conclusion and the optimism it aims to express is real enough, though it is hard-won and challenged to the last.John Pickard 2005
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.50Eden (Score Only)
This work was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust as the test piece for the final of the 2005 Besson National Brass Band Championship, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.The score is prefaced by the final lines from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (completed in 1663), in which Adam and Eve, expelled from Paradise, make their uncertain way into the outside world:"...The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and providence their guide:They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way."My work is in three linked sections. In the first, the characters of Adam, Eve and the serpent guarding the Tree of Knowledge are respectively represented by solo euphonium, cornet and trombone. The music opens in an idyllic and tranquil mood and leads into a duet between euphonium and cornet. Throughout this passage the prevailing mood darkens, though the soloists seem to remain oblivious to the increasingly fraught atmosphere. A whip-crack announces the malevolent appearance of the solo trombone who proceeds to engage the solo cornet in a sinister dialogue.The second section interprets the Eden story as a modern metaphor for the havoc mankind has inflicted upon the world, exploiting and abusing its resources in the pursuit of wealth. Though certainly intended here as a comment on the present-day, it is by no means a new idea: Milton himself had an almost prescient awareness of it in Book I of his poem, where men, led on by Mammon:"...Ransacked the centre and with impious handsRifled the bowels of their mother earthFor treasures better hid. Soon had his crewOpened into the hill a spacious woundAnd digged out ribs of gold."So this section is fast and violent, at times almost manic in its destructive energy. At length a furious climax subsides and a tolling bell ushers in the third and final section.This final part is slow, beginning with an intense lament featuring solos for tenor-horn, flgel-horn and repiano cornet and joined later by solo baritone, soprano cornet, Eb-bass and Bb-bass.At one stage in the planning of the work it seemed likely that the music would end here - in despair. Then, mid-way through writing it, I visited the extraordinary Eden Project in Cornwall. Here, in a disused quarry - a huge man-made wound in the earth - immense biomes, containing an abundance of plant species from every region of the globe, together with an inspirational education programme, perhaps offer a small ray of hope for the future. This is the image behind the work's conclusion and the optimism it aims to express is real enough, though it is hard-won and challenged to the last.John Pickard 2005
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£79.99Journey of the Lone Wolf (Score and Parts)
Championship Section Finals Test Piece for National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2016Journey of the Lone Wolf tells the story of the hungarian composer Bla Bartk. It was commissioned by Dr. Nicholas Childs for Black Dyke Band, who gave the first performance on Sunday 26 January 2014 at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester as part of the Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass.The composer's programme notes for each movement:1. Capturing the Peasants' SongAfter the upheaval of moving to Budapest the young Bla Bartk meets Zoltn Kodly and the pair embark on summertime adventures throughout the Hungarian countryside to collect and catalogue the astonishing variety (both harmonically and rhythmically) of gypsy and folk music heard in the Balkans. The arrival of WW1 plunges Bartk's beloved Hungary into chaos.2. Night MusicBartk was at times a cold man, aloof and lonely. The odd moments of tenderness he showed are portrayed here in a series of evocative solos. His brief but intense affairs speak of a love he could only long for. Jazz is my night music and here there are hints of what Bartk may have heard in the USA later in his life.3. Flight and FightHaving been forced by the world's evils to leave his homeland of Hungary for America, Bartk, the anti-fascist, felt isolated and angry. In this movement we hear his longing for a simpler time of gypsy folk dances as well as his maturity and depth as a composer finally exploring deeper colours and darker themes.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days