Results
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£39.95Rhapsody on a Theme by Purcell - Contest Edition (Brass Band - Score only)
Contest VersionIn his relatively short lifetime, Henry Purcell (1659 -1695) achieved stellar musical success and was known and admired internationally by his contemporaries. He is justifiably considered one of England's greatest composers.I thought long and hard before using this magnificent theme as the basis for a band piece because I think that Benjamin Britten has said just about everything possible regarding it in his The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Bearing this in mind, I tentatively set about working on this composition. Once started though, the job became fun because the theme still yielded possibilities - even after Britten!The piece is basically a set of linked variations, much like Rachmaninov's great Rhapsody on theme by Paginini. The music starts slowly and makes much use of crisply dotted rhythms - a Purcellian characteristic. The theme is heard twice before the music changes into a jaunty duple time variation based on the opening motif of Purcell's theme. After this, the mood changes to a waltz-like variation in which clear references to the original theme can be heard. The slow movement follows, and is based on rising and descending scalic figures. This variation is an 'A-B-A' movement with two similar passages framing a more vigorous middle section which features antiphonal fanfare-like figures. Without any preamble, the last variation launches itself - a rumbustious dance which has a distinctive feel to it.The theme eventually reappears as a counter-melody to this dance music before a final triumphant treatment of the melody featuring a somewhat athletic bass line. The music accelerates at the Coda and disappears in a 'puff of smoke'.- Kevin Norbury
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£38.95Unity Series Band Journal - Numbers 530 - 533, June 2024
530: Carol Arrangement - God rest you merry, gentlemen (Noel Jones)This swing arrangement of the traditional English carol also features references to O come, all ye faithful (C.C. 61) and Jingle Bells (C.C. 121). Play with imagination and a sense of style!531: Go, tell it on the mountain! (Nathanael Watchorn)Historically, the passion of enslaved people in America for singing about the Gospel of Jesus is well documented, but it was men of three generations, each named John Wesley Work, who enabled spirituals to become more widely known. John Wesley Work Sr, a church choir director in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote and arranged music for the pioneering Fisk Jubilee Singers whose early repertoire consisted largely of spirituals. This passion and knowledge of spirituals was passed down through the generations. John Work III travelled hundreds of miles to collect songs by attending church services in remote areas. In 1940, he published a collection of 230 songs which included a setting of Go, tell it on the mountain! that is still performed today.Nathanael Watchorn, a Bandsman at Regent Hall Corps in London, is a new contributor to the journals. He originally wrote this as a vocal arrangement for the group FourHymn, subsequently transcribing it for the corps' Young People's Band, while he was Band Leader.532: Carol Arrangement - They all were looking for a king (Stephen Hull)At the North American Composers Forum, Major Len Ballantine challenged participants to find an unfamiliar song in the Salvation Army Song Book and try to write an arrangement of the listed tune. Stephen Hull happened across They all were looking for a king (S.A.S.B. 128) and the tune Childhood (T.B. 421) which lead to this arrangement.533: March - Washed and healed (Eiliv Herikstad)The Christian experience of many people will have been positively impacted by the life of the late Bandmaster Eiliv Herikstad, either personally or through his musical leadership and compositions. This march is the second publication from this well-known Salvation Army composer since his Promotion to Glory last year. This march is more traditional in style that many of his compositions but contains a strong Christian message and demonstrates his compositional expertise.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£127.95Music of the Angels (Symphonic Brass Ensemble - Score and Parts)
In 1998 Gregson was commissioned by conductor Martyn Brabbins to write a short concert opener with choir to mark his debut as Music Director of the Huddersfield Choral Society. Entitled ...and the seven trumpets... this ten minute flourish is founded on a verse from Chapter 8 of the Revelation To John (The Apocalypse), the last book in the Bible: 'and I saw the seven Angels which stood before God: and to them were given seven trumpets'. The performance employed the full power of the Huddersfield Town Hall organ and the brass section of the BBC Philharmonic, including seven trumpets and four horns placed strategically around hall.The following year, when Gregson received a commission from the Cheshire-based Foden's Brass Band (conducted at that time by Nicholas Childs) for a work to mark its centenary in 2000, he turned to the first portion of ...and the seven trumpets... as the basis for an ambitious celebratory work entitled The Trumpets of the Angels. "The opportunity to create an extended work which would break out of the brass band mould was an important milestone for me," the composer says. In 2015 he was asked by Nicholas Childs to create a new performing edition without organ for the Black Dyke Band. This received its first performance in April 2016 at the European Brass Band Festival in Lille. In 2018, Gregson revisited the music for a third time, returning the opening fanfares to orchestral brass and transforming substantial portions of the 'Black Dyke' version to create Music of the Angels, a dramatic canvas for symphonic brass and percussion.An array of bells and gongs offer an unmistakable key to the source of Gregson's inspiration. Inscribed In tribute to Olivier Messiaen, the work's principal material and its sound world, but crucially not the underlying musical processes, are influenced by Messiaen's masterpiece for wind and percussion, Et exspecto ressurectionem mortuorum (1964). Music of the Angels begins with braying of horns suggestive of the start of an ancient ritual. Six 'angel' trumpeters, set behind the ensemble, answer in sequence, with the evocative sound of tam-tams creating the Messiaen-like aura. Once the horns have reached the performing space, four of the trumpeters deliver highly contrasting fanfare cadenzas. At the climax of this episode, the individual fanfares are presented together, as if, perhaps, to reflect the Biblical writer's apocalyptic visions of hail, fire, seas of blood and the cataclysmic destruction of man and beast.This powerful vision of death and destruction gives way to a prayerful lament, re-imagining a sung Kyrie Eleison from the 'Black Dyke' edition, with flugel horn and euphonium obligati. The hushed atmosphere is broken by tenor and side drums, and trumpets five and six, which gallop away like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the biblical account their steeds had 'heads like lions with fire and smoke and sulphur issuing from their mouths'.As the reverberation of a dramatic climax dies we hear the entry of the seventh trumpet, from 'on high', blazing forth with a version of the main that extends across the entire compass of the instrument - almost three octaves. Supported by a 'holy trinity' of gongs, an 'epic' final cadenza introduces new material which is further developed in a frenetic final section. This is announced by two sets of timpani, to the left and right. Braying brass (euphoniums and horns) once more adds an air of foreboding. As the music builds towards a magisterial conclusion, the Messiaen-inspired tritones of the principal motif are smoothed out into perfect 5ths and combined with the earlier material in a full-voiced chorale, over which the seventh trumpet blazes in triumph.- Programme note by Paul HindmarshScored for1 Trumpet in E flat (Trumpet 5)6 Trumpets in B flat (Trumpet 4 doubling Flugel Horn)4 Horns in F3 Tenor Trombones1 Bass TromboneEuphonium2 Tubas2 Timpani (Percussion 3 doubles Timpani 2)Percussion (3 players): 3 Tam-tams, 3 Suspended Cymbals, Bass Drum, Tenor Drum, Snare Drum, Tubular Bells.Duration: 16.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£124.99Metamorphosis (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
The opening of this three-movement work features an initial appearance of the thematic material that returns in various guises later on in the work. The leitmotiv centres on a minor second.A range of thematic variations is heard in the lively and energetic Metamorphosis One. This movement is interrupted by an atmospheric meno mosso, containing melodic passages that return to the opening theme.Metamorhosis Two is characterised by various changes in tempo and musical character. Seven different soloists transform the thematic material - each in their own way. This eventually culminates in a passionate tutti passage.The source of inspiration for Metamorphosis Three is the so-called BACH-motif, a musical autograph consisting of the notes B flat, A, C and B. This distinctive motif arises from the leitmotiv (here a descending minor second), which continues to evolve through various transpositions and transformations. For the composer, this spectacular last movement is an homage to one of the greatest and most influential composers in the history of music: Johann Sebastian Bach.Duration: 17:00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95The Day of the Lord (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
This music was inspired by passages from the Old and New Testaments where the last days are prophesied. It features several references to the tune 'The judgment day' along with the more contemporary songs 'I see the King of Glory' and Salvation belongs to our God.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.95Judd: Gymnopedie
This is a transcription for brass band of the first, and most well-known, of Erik Satie's three Gymnopedies for piano which were composed in 1888. All three are similar melodically and pianistically. However, the first and last are more well-known, partly due to the later orchestrations by Debussy. Tenor Horn and Eb Bass mutes are requested by the arranger and will enhance the transcription if available.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Judd: Music of a Legacy - Contest Version - Steven Ponsford
Newly edited contest version.This piece pays tribute to the vast heritage of Salvation Army brass band music. Written in one movement, it is rhapsodic in nature and quotes references from just a few of the many iconic pieces from the past, progressing naturally through the different styles of music; firstly marches, followed by meditations, major works and then solos. The underpinning theme that binds the work together is the much-loved hymn, by Timothy Dudley-Smith, drawing particular attention to the last line of the first verse; Lord for the years, we bring our thanks today. This is music of thanksgiving to the rich inheritance that inspires writers today to continue the mission of the gospel through this very special and unique genre.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Judd: Music of a Legacy - Original Version - Steven Ponsford
This piece pays tribute to the vast heritage of Salvation Army brass band music. Written in one movement, it is rhapsodic in nature and quotes references from just a few of the many iconic pieces from the past, progressing naturally through the different styles of music; firstly marches, followed by meditations, major works and then solos. The underpinning theme that binds the work together is the much-loved hymn, by Timothy Dudley-Smith, drawing particular attention to the last line of the first verse; Lord for the years, we bring our thanks today. This is music of thanksgiving to the rich inheritance that inspires writers today to continue the mission of the gospel through this very special and unique genre.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Judd: Themes from New World Symphony
For three years the Czech composer Dvorak lived and worked in America and this, his ninth and last symphony, contains impressions of that continent. This arrangement for brass band follows the scheme of the original in movement order and theme presentation although a certain amount of 'condensing' of material has naturally been inevitable.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.95Island Whirl (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Island Whirl was commissioned by Margaret Milligan who wanted a brand new piece of music composed as a present for Ian, her husband for his 70th birthday. Ian Milligan is a keen and dedicated musician and he is the musical director of Callendar Brass, based in Callendar near Stirling in Scotland.Margaret contacted me about the possibility of composing a short lively piece which had a Scottish theme that would be ideal for Callendar Brass Band and any other ensemble to get their teeth into. This piece takes its inspiration from the traditional Scottish folk song 'An Eriskay Love Lilt' which is a particular favourite of both Margaret and Ian.With thunderous Celtic drums the piece opens in a whirlwind of sound with fanfare brass and an off-stage soloist that can perform using either the cornet or trumpet. After the exciting opening, the brass and drums die away to allow the off-stage soloist to air the traditional tune 'An Eriskay Love Lilt'.The beautiful haunting melody, keeping its originality throughout undergoes a series of changes in the accompanying harmonic material before dying away to allow the Celtic drums to return. The percussion whip the band into a frenzy as the piece gets faster and faster. Just prior to the final notes the band diminuendo to allow one last closing statement from the Eriskay Love Lilt lead by the off-stage soloist before the ensemble charge to a dramatic close.When performing this piece I would recommend the off-stage soloist taking a position somewhere in the audience, so they can almost feel part of the performance. In addition, with the two tom-tom parts that represent the Celtic drums, bands should make the most of showcasing them by getting the two drummers out to the front of the band to perform. The ideal stage position would be with the players set up in stereo with one player in front of the soprano cornet and the other in front of the solo trombone.With the various choreographed movements from both the off-stage soloist and the percussionists. This piece is a great addition to any concert repertoire and is an ideal showcase for bands who want to try something a little different.I wish Ian at 70 years young, all the very best with his music making in the many years to come and I hope this piece, composed especially for him and Callender Brass brings them many years of musical enjoyment.Paul Lovatt-Cooper
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days