Results
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£40.00The Unfortunate Traveller (Brass Band - Score only)
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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£30.00Love Unknown (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
This is a beautiful setting of a John Ireland favourite (Ireland composed the melody over lunch one day at the suggestion of organist and fellow-composer Geoffrey Shaw).The arrangement offers a tranquil moment for a concert programme, using a mixture of light and heavier scoring to bring the melody to life.The final verse pulls together the full band sound and then concludes with a reduced ensemble to produce a moment of peace and reflection in the performance.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£24.95Brother James' Air (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
The 'brother James' who wrote this beautiful tune was James Leith Macbeth Bain. He was born in Scotland in 1840 and died in Liverpool in 1925. Besides being a musician, he was a poet, mystic and had a great interest in healing. He published a book called 'The brotherhood of healing' in 1906 and spent the latter years of his life working with the underprivileged in Liverpool. He wrote this simple but charming tune to accompany the familiar paraphrase of Psalm 23 which comes from the Scottish Psalter of 1650; 'The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£82.95Terra Australis (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
A descriptive work in one continuous movement. Terra Australis portrays the discovery of Australia, the wonders of the land, the promise of new life and the nation's anthem, closing with a massive grand chorale and an energetic conclusion.National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain Championship Section Finals 2010Australian Championships Easter 2007Recorded on Polyphonic QPRL231D Terra Australis
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£50.90Nottingham
This hymn tune, attributed to Mozart, is usually associated with words by Francis Ridley Havergal; 'Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£109.99The Four Noble Truths (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
The Four Noble Truths are the most basic expression of the teaching of Buddha and therefore still form the guidelines for Buddhists to this day. The four truths are Dukkha, which describes times of major stress in our lives - birth, ageing, desire and death; Samudaya which describes those parts of our life that induce stress, feeling, craving, desire; Nirodha which tells us how to eliminate those aspects of our lives which induce stress and Magga which describes the eight disciplines which can help us eliminate the origins of stress from our lives. It can be seen from these over-simplified definitions, that the Four Noble Truths fall into two pairs, the first two describing the origins of stress and the second two describing how we can reduce stress. To reflect this, the four movements of this work are also combined into two pairs - two quick movements and two slow movements. A fascinating work from this great English composer.Duration: 14:00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£164.99Music of the Spheres (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Music of the Spheres was commissioned by the Yorkshire Building Society Band and first performed by them at the European Brass Band Championships in Glasgow, May 2004. The piece reflects the composers fascination with the origins of the universe and deep space in general. The title comes from a theory, formulated by Pythagoras, that the cosmos was ruled by the same laws he had discovered that govern the ratios of note frequencies of the musical scale. ('Harmonia' in Ancient Greek, which means scale or tuning rather than harmony - Greek music was monophonic). He also believed that these ratios corresponded to the distances of the six known planets from the sun and thatthe planets each produced a musical note which combined to weave a continuous heavenly melody (which, unfortunately, we humans cannot hear). In this work, these six notes form the basis of the sections Music of the Spheres and Harmonia. The pieces opens with a horn solo called t = 0, a name given by some scientists to the moment of the Big Bang when time and space were created, and this is followed by a depiction of the Big Bang itself, as the entire universe bursts out from a single point. A slower section follows called The Lonely Planet which is a meditation on the incredible and unlikely set of circumstances which led to the creation of the Earth as a planet that can support life, and the constant search for other civilisations elsewhere in the universe. Asteroids and Shooting Stars depicts both the benign and dangerous objects that are flying through space and which constantly threaten our planet, and the piece ends with The Unknown, leaving in question whether our continually expanding exploration of the universe will eventually lead to enlightenment or destruction.Duration: 18:00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£119.95Harrison's Dream (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
At 8.00pm on the 22nd of October 1707, the Association, flagship of the Royal Navy, struck rocks off the Scilly Isles with the loss of the entire crew. Throughout the rest of the evening the remaining three ships in the fleet suffered the same fate. Only 26 of the original 1,647 crew members survived. This disaster was a direct result of an inability to calculate longitude, the most pressing scientific problem of the time. It pushed the longitude question to the forefront of the national consciousness and precipitated the Longitude Act. Parliament funded a prize of �20,000 to anyone whose method or device would solve the dilemma. For carpenter and self-taught clockmaker John Harrison, this was the beginning of a 40 year obsession. To calculate longitude it is necessary to know the time aboard ship and at the home port or place of known longitude, at precisely the same moment. Harrison's dream was to build a clock so accurate that this calculation could be made, an audacious feat of engineering. This work reflects on aspects of this epic tale, brilliantly brought to life in Dava Sobel's book Longitude. Much of the music is mechanistic in tone and is constructed along precise mathematical and metrical lines. The heart of the work however is human - the attraction of the �20,000 prize is often cited as Harrison's motivation. However, the realisation that countless lives depended on a solution was one which haunted Harrison. The emotional core of the music reflects on this, and in particular the evening of 22ndOctober 1707. Peter GrahamCheshireJuly 2000
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£37.95
Harrison's Dream (Brass Band - Score only)
At 8.00pm on the 22nd of October 1707, the Association, flagship of the Royal Navy, struck rocks off the Scilly Isles with the loss of the entire crew. Throughout the rest of the evening the remaining three ships in the fleet suffered the same fate. Only 26 of the original 1,647 crew members survived. This disaster was a direct result of an inability to calculate longitude, the most pressing scientific problem of the time. It pushed the longitude question to the forefront of the national consciousness and precipitated the Longitude Act. Parliament funded a prize of �20,000 to anyone whose method or device would solve the dilemma. For carpenter and self-taught clockmaker John Harrison, this was the beginning of a 40 year obsession. To calculate longitude it is necessary to know the time aboard ship and at the home port or place of known longitude, at precisely the same moment. Harrison's dream was to build a clock so accurate that this calculation could be made, an audacious feat of engineering. This work reflects on aspects of this epic tale, brilliantly brought to life in Dava Sobel's book Longitude. Much of the music is mechanistic in tone and is constructed along precise mathematical and metrical lines. The heart of the work however is human - the attraction of the �20,000 prize is often cited as Harrison's motivation. However, the realisation that countless lives depended on a solution was one which haunted Harrison. The emotional core of the music reflects on this, and in particular the evening of 22ndOctober 1707. Peter GrahamCheshireJuly 2000
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£10.00Isaiah 40 (Brass Band - Study Score)
Commissioned for the final of the 1996 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. The timeless truths contained in Isaiah 40 were written to encourage a people facing very intimidating circumstances. The Jewish people of the 5th Century BC were preparing to make an arduous journey though the desert to return to their ravaged homeland after a lengthy exile in the sophisticated society of Babylon. Both Scripture and music sound out a message of hope, as they view life from an eternal perspective, thus placing change in its proper context. Because 'the Lord is the everlasting God' his word 'stands forever' and 'those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength'. They will not merely get through somehow but 'they will soar on wings like eagles'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days