Results
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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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£89.95Revelation (Score and Parts)
Symphony for Double Brass on a theme of Purcell 1995 marked the tercentenary of Purcell's death, and my new score Revelation has been written as a tribute to his music and the ornate and confident spirit of his age. There are five major sections: 1 Prologue 2 Variations on a ground bass I 3 Fugue 4 Variations on a ground bass II 5 Epilogue and Resurrection The score uses many features of the Baroque Concerto Grosso, and arranges players in two equal groups from which soloists emerge to play in a variety ofvirtuoso ensembles. It quotes freely from Purcell's own piece Three Parts on a Ground in which he has composed a brilliant sequence of variations over a repeating six-note bass figure. This original motif can be heard most clearly beneath the duet for Cornet 5 and Soprano at the beginning of the 2nd section. There is, of course, a religious dimension to Revelation as the title suggests, and the score is prefaced by lines by the 17th century poet John Donne. His Holy Sonnet paraphrases the Book of Revelation in which the dead are raised at the sounds of the last trumpet. Donne's trumpets are themselves placed stereophonically ". . . At the round Earth's imagined corners" and it is this feature that today's players represent as they move around the performing area. Their final apocalyptic fanfares can be heard at the close of the score, as Purcell's music re-enters in a lasting tribute to England's first composer of genius. Philip Wilby September 1995 At the round Earth imagined corners, blow your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise from death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go. All whom the flood did, and fire shall o 'erthrow All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes Shall Behold God, and never taste death woe. John Donne after Revelation Ch. 11 v.15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Revelation (Score Only)
Symphony for Double Brass on a theme of Purcell 1995 marked the tercentenary of Purcell's death, and my new score Revelation has been written as a tribute to his music and the ornate and confident spirit of his age. There are five major sections: 1 Prologue 2 Variations on a ground bass I 3 Fugue 4 Variations on a ground bass II 5 Epilogue and Resurrection The score uses many features of the Baroque Concerto Grosso, and arranges players in two equal groups from which soloists emerge to play in a variety ofvirtuoso ensembles. It quotes freely from Purcell's own piece Three Parts on a Ground in which he has composed a brilliant sequence of variations over a repeating six-note bass figure. This original motif can be heard most clearly beneath the duet for Cornet 5 and Soprano at the beginning of the 2nd section. There is, of course, a religious dimension to Revelation as the title suggests, and the score is prefaced by lines by the 17th century poet John Donne. His Holy Sonnet paraphrases the Book of Revelation in which the dead are raised at the sounds of the last trumpet. Donne's trumpets are themselves placed stereophonically ". . . At the round Earth's imagined corners" and it is this feature that today's players represent as they move around the performing area. Their final apocalyptic fanfares can be heard at the close of the score, as Purcell's music re-enters in a lasting tribute to England's first composer of genius. Philip Wilby September 1995 At the round Earth imagined corners, blow your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise from death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go. All whom the flood did, and fire shall o 'erthrow All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes Shall Behold God, and never taste death woe. John Donne after Revelation Ch. 11 v.15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£30.00La Musica Notturna Delle Strade di Madrid
DescriptionLuigi Boccherini was born in Lucca, Italy, into a musical family. His father, a cellist and double-bass player, sent him to study in Rome at a young age. In 1757 they both went to Vienna, where the court employed them as musicians in the Burgtheater. In 1761 Boccherini went to Madrid, entering the employ of Prince Luis Antonio of Spain, younger brother of King Charles III. There he flourished under royal patronage, until one day when the King expressed his disapproval at a passage in a new trio, and ordered Boccherini to change it. The composer, no doubt irritated with this intrusion into his art, doubled the passage instead, which led to his immediate dismissal. Then he accompanied Don Luis to Arenas de San Pedro, a little town in the Gredos mountains, where Boccherini wrote many of his most famous works. Although neglected after his death and throughout the 19th and early 20th century (he was known mockingly as 'Haydn's Wife' for a time), Boccherini's music has been rediscovered in recent decades.La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid('Night Music of the Streets of Madrid') is a string quintet of seven short movements composed during Boccherini's exile in Arenas, no doubt to remind him and his prince of happier times. The music is reminiscent of "the gaiety and bustle of Spain's capital, recalling the sound of the city's church bells ringing for evening prayer, the popular dances that were the delight of its young people, and the blind beggars singing their typical songs". This arrangement excludes the first and last two movements, comprising the middle four:Il Tamburo di Soldati(The Soldier's Drum)Minuetto dei Ciechi(The Minuet of the Blind Beggars)Il Rosario(The Rosary)Passe Calle(The Passacaglia of the Street Singers)The music was featured in the Russell Crowe filmMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the World(2003) set during the Napoleonic Wars and featuring the adventures of the Royal Navy ship HMS Surprise and her captain Jack Aubrey as they pursue the French ship Acheron into the Pacific Ocean.You can listen to an audio preview while following the score in the video below!Duration approximately 5'00".
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.95Unity Series Band Journal February 2014 Numbers 414-417
No.414 March - Zambia Salute (Paul Drury)In April 2009, a group from Chelmsford Citadel Corps visited Zambia. The purpose of the visit was to assist in the leadership of the Zambian Territorial Music School, held at Chikankata. This march was written to commemorate the event and received its premiere performance at the final festival. The melody featured is the chorus of the song, I know not why Dod's wondrous grace (S.A.S.B. 730).No.415 A Joystrings sing-along (Erik Silfverberg O.F.)This piece represents the first published work since the sudden Promotion to Glory of Bandmaster Erik Silfverberg O.F. The Joystrings made Salvation Army history about fifty years ago, introducing rock music on the Christian music scene. Many of their songs have become classics and have been used as thematic material in our brass music. Here is a selection of three of their songs, to be used either as a band piece or as accompaniment to a sing-along. The three songs are:- 'I want to sing it', 'It's an open secret' and 'Have faith in God'.No.416 Festival Arrangement - At the cross (Martyn Thomas)The well-known song, 'At the cross' (T.B. 580), is given a lively new setting by Martyn Thomas. The rock and swing treatment of this old melody should appeal to many!No.417 Lord of all (Martin Cordner)This piece was written for the 120th Anniversary of Balham corps (London Central Division) in 2011. In terms of a theme, the anniversary occasion prompted the primary thought that the piece should first be a praise-offering to God, acknowledging him for who he is. Therefore songs referenced in the piece are praide songs: 'Lord, reign in me', 'He is Lord', 'All hail the Lamb', along with a song of testimony, 'I'm a soldier bound for Glory' (T.B. 382),which speaks of the Christian hope in Heaven and challenges Salvationists to influence others by living out that hope. There is also a brief reference to the National Anthem of the Democratic Republic of Congo (4 bars before D)- man acknowledgement to the faithfulness of corps soldiers who in recent years have arrived from that country.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days