Results
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£35.00Cranborne Chase - Philip Harper
Cranborne Chase was commissioned by the Charles Church Camberley Band in 2011 in memory of solo horn player and life-long member Libby Godden.Libby joined the band in 1966 which marked the start of a long association, during which she progressed to the solo horn position, recruited four family members to play with the band, and had spells on the committee as publicity officer and chairman. Most recently she led the Training Ensemble in her role as Assistant Bandmaster. Libby continued to be active with the band despite a diagnosis of cancer, which finally claimed her life in February 2011.Programme notes from the composer, Philip Harper:The Music: As well as invoking the joyous spirit befitting Libby's approach to life, there are several musical ideas woven into the score. After a brief introduction, the main theme uses the musical letters of Libby's surname: G, O(A), D, D, E, N(G), whilst the harmonic progression here is based on that of the slow movement of Edward Gregson's Partita for Brass Band, one of Libby's favourite passages of music.To further imbue the piece with Libby's persona, the lyrical theme is first introduced as a traditional brass band quartet (two cornets, horn and euphonium), one of her favourite musical genres.After the first rehearsal of the piece the band members, with the composer's blessing, decided on the name Cranborne Chase, which is the name of a place in Dorset with which Libby Godden had a great affinity.Raising Funds for Cancer Research UK. The Music Company (UK) Ltd has been involved in charitable work for many years both nationally and internationally. Through publishing Cranborne Chase, The Music Company is extending its charitable support by helping to raise funds for the Cancer Research UK charity, in memory of Libby Godden (a band-friend since childhood of Clair Tomalin, Business Director of The Music Company (UK) Ltd).A donation will therefore be made by The Music Company (UK) Ltd for every purchased set of this piece. There is a hope that every band in the UK will have Cranborne Chase as part of their library and included in their concert programmes, enabling a significant amount of money to be raised for Cancer Research UK through the enjoyment of music.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£30.00Exegesis - Tim Paton
An exciting, original composition for brass band by Tim Paton. A complex work which entwines melodic lyricism amidst contemporary harmonies and scoring. A tour de force of Tim's creativity and a rewarding challenge for the performers and audience.Tim comments: The term exegesis is applied to a study which works out the meaning of something, an interpretation of a series of events, a comparison of ideas within a given medium, for example, "Biblical exegesis". This brass band piece is a musical exegesis.Section one is made up of three main themes, and although these themes are tonal within themselves, there is a sense that they are trying to understand one another. From the very beginning of this section, there is an element of bi-tonality and dissonance.The middle section is ponderous, where we hear elements of these three themes. It could be called the 'thinking section'.Section three almost interrupts this middle section, with fanfares displaying a realisation, still containing bi-tonality, but in harmony! We are soon led in to a hymn like celebration, followed by a determined, militaristic section for the percussion. Finally, the fanfares which opened this third section, reappear, taking us to a final conclusion.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£35.00Loch Lomond - Andrew Duncan
A great arrangement of this Scottish classic 'anthem'.Opening with beautiful tranquility of the familiar melody, led by a solo line on the Flugelhorn. The piece then develops and grows into a rousing, up-beat rendition with further growth and counter-melodies through to its full-on closing.With optional bagpipes and/or electric guitar parts, this is a super tribute to a classic melody.Look and Listen (performance courtesy of Kingdom Brass 2012, includes addition of a sung verse to further engage the audience):
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.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 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.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 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.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£40.00Sorcerer's Apprentice, The - Paul Dukas arr. Phillip Littlemore
French composer Paul Dukas wrote his symphonic poem, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, between 1896 and 1897. Subtitled 'Scherzo after a ballad by Goethe', the piece was inspired by Goethe's 1797 poem of the same name. By far the most performed and recorded of Dukas' works, perhaps it's most notable appearance was in the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia from 1940, which led to the piece becoming widely known to audiences outside the classical concert hall.The original orchestral work is some 10 minutes in length, however this brass band transcription has been abridged to create a more manageable 6-minute work, yet it still retains the urgency, magic and colour of the original. Duration: 6'00"Difficulty: 2nd section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Finale from Symphony No. 1 - Sergei Rachmaninov arr. Phillip Littlemore
Rachmaninov composed his First Symphony in 1895, at the age of just 22 years. It received its first performance on March 27, 1897, at a Russian Symphony Society concert in St. Petersburg with Alexander Glazunov conducting. The premiere was not well-received, and Rachmaninov himself blamed Glazunov for a lacklustre approach for beating time rather than finding the music. Some contemporary reports even suggested that Glazunov was inebriated when he took to the stage!Despite the disappointment of the premiere performance, Rachmaninov never destroyed the score but left it behind when he left Russia to settle in the West, eventually it was given up for lost. After the composer's death, a two-piano transcription of the symphony surfaced in Moscow, followed by a set of orchestral parts at the conservatory in Saint Petersburg. In March 1945, the symphony was performed in Moscow for the first time since its 1897 premiere. It was a grand success, and this led to a new and more enthusiastic evaluation of the symphony. In March 1948 it received a similarly successful American premiere and the work proceeded to establish itself in the general repertory.The final movement (Allegro con fuoco) is colourful and grand but not without its darkly contrasting, menacing episodes that intensifies its malevolence. It is a work overflowing with ideas demonstrating a strong, highly individual, and self-assured young talent.Duration: 5'40"Difficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00Ave Maria - Franz Schubert arr. Phillip Littlemore
Franz Schubert wrote his Ave Maria in 1825. It is the third of three song settings from Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, itself written in 1810. It's proper title is Ellen's Song, named after the heroine of Scott's poem, Ellen Douglas.It has been suggested that the opening two words of the original song may have led to the idea of it being arranged for the full text of the Roman Catholic Prayer. It is now most often performed in this latter adaptation, thus leading to the misconception that it was originally set with the prayer in mind.Even in Schubert's own brief lifetime, he was only thirty-one when he died, this song was considered a masterpiece. It acquired greater popularity when it was used in the 1940 Walt Disney film Fantasia where its beauty and simplicity offered calm and respite following the tempestuous strains of Mussorgsky's A Night on Bare Mountain .Duration: 3'40"Difficulty: Suitable for all
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00
Clans Collide - Harper, P
An antiphonal piece pitting two teams against each other in a musical battle led by soprano cornet on one side, and trombone on the other. The music is duel-like and virtuosic and blood will be spilled!Championship sectionDuration 4 mins
In stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 days
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