Results
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£95.00Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
A Centenary Tribute by Michael Ball, Edward Gregson, Elgar Howarth, Bramwell Tovey and Philip WilbyThis unique 'pice d'occasion' arose out of a telephone conversation in 2004 with Alan Wycherley, who was the soprano cornet player of the Foden's Richardson Band at the time. He indicated that the band would like to include an original birthday tribute for Edward Gregson (60) and Elgar Howarth (70) in its concert at the 2005 RNCM Festival of Brass in Manchester. I have been Artistic Director of Manchester's Festival of Brass since it was established in 1990 as a BBC Radio 3 series, As the centenary of the birth of Sir Michael Tippett fell on 5 January 2005, I devised this collective work as a way of embracing all three anniversaries in a novel way.The idea of joint compositions is not a new one in the classical music world. In the 1860s, Verdi was joined by a number of his contemporaries in a Requiem Mass for Rossini. In this country there have been a number of orchestral examples over the past fifty years, but never before for the brass band. Although Tippett composed only one work for brass band, Festal Brass with Blues, his orchestral works and operas are full of idiomatic brass writing. The theme I chose for this celebration is one of Tippet's most memorable miniatures featuring wind and brass. In the opera Midsummer Marriage it marks the entry of the Ancients. It is also included in the orchestral Suite in D (1948), for the Birthday of Prince Charles.I invited five of the leading contemporary voices in brass band music to add their own creative perspectives to the little Tippett theme, with it's characteristic rhythms, embellishments and modality - the Lydian mode. Each contribution was designed to fit into a tonal and formal template to give the whole work a flow and continuity. In Danse des Amis, Bramwell Tovey has composed a jazzy, humorous variation. Inspiration came from Tippett's love of jazz and, more personally, from the characteristically syncopated gait of the distinguished music critic John Amis, who Tovey once observed leaving a performance of Tippett's opera King Priam before the end. Incidentally, that performance was conducted by Elgar Howarth.We hear Edward Gregson in lyrical mode. His Midsummer Song is redolent of the sound world of Tippett's opera A Midsummer Marriage and it ends with a brief reference to a favourite of Gregson's, Tippett's Concerto for Orchestra. Michael Ball provides a brief moment of light, airy activity bringing to mind perhaps Tippett's love of Shakespearian fantasy, especially The Tempest. Elgar Howarth juxtaposes a slowed down version of the processional theme with distant recollections of fanfares from King Priam. Philip Wilby has rounded the tribute off with a spectacular fugue. During its inexorable progress Wilby ingeniously introduces the two other birthday references - the three-note musical signature that Elgar Howarth includes in much of his music and the characteristic theme which begins Edward Gregson's substantial work for brass an organ The Trumpets of the Angels. An elaborated reprise of Tippett's little theme is followed by a dynamic coda.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 13.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£40.00
Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett (Brass Band - Score only)
A Centenary Tribute by Michael Ball, Edward Gregson, Elgar Howarth, Bramwell Tovey and Philip WilbyThis unique 'pice d'occasion' arose out of a telephone conversation in 2004 with Alan Wycherley, who was the soprano cornet player of the Foden's Richardson Band at the time. He indicated that the band would like to include an original birthday tribute for Edward Gregson (60) and Elgar Howarth (70) in its concert at the 2005 RNCM Festival of Brass in Manchester. I have been Artistic Director of Manchester's Festival of Brass since it was established in 1990 as a BBC Radio 3 series, As the centenary of the birth of Sir Michael Tippett fell on 5 January 2005, I devised this collective work as a way of embracing all three anniversaries in a novel way.The idea of joint compositions is not a new one in the classical music world. In the 1860s, Verdi was joined by a number of his contemporaries in a Requiem Mass for Rossini. In this country there have been a number of orchestral examples over the past fifty years, but never before for the brass band. Although Tippett composed only one work for brass band, Festal Brass with Blues, his orchestral works and operas are full of idiomatic brass writing. The theme I chose for this celebration is one of Tippet's most memorable miniatures featuring wind and brass. In the opera Midsummer Marriage it marks the entry of the Ancients. It is also included in the orchestral Suite in D (1948), for the Birthday of Prince Charles.I invited five of the leading contemporary voices in brass band music to add their own creative perspectives to the little Tippett theme, with it's characteristic rhythms, embellishments and modality - the Lydian mode. Each contribution was designed to fit into a tonal and formal template to give the whole work a flow and continuity. In Danse des Amis, Bramwell Tovey has composed a jazzy, humorous variation. Inspiration came from Tippett's love of jazz and, more personally, from the characteristically syncopated gait of the distinguished music critic John Amis, who Tovey once observed leaving a performance of Tippett's opera King Priam before the end. Incidentally, that performance was conducted by Elgar Howarth.We hear Edward Gregson in lyrical mode. His Midsummer Song is redolent of the sound world of Tippett's opera A Midsummer Marriage and it ends with a brief reference to a favourite of Gregson's, Tippett's Concerto for Orchestra. Michael Ball provides a brief moment of light, airy activity bringing to mind perhaps Tippett's love of Shakespearian fantasy, especially The Tempest. Elgar Howarth juxtaposes a slowed down version of the processional theme with distant recollections of fanfares from King Priam. Philip Wilby has rounded the tribute off with a spectacular fugue. During its inexorable progress Wilby ingeniously introduces the two other birthday references - the three-note musical signature that Elgar Howarth includes in much of his music and the characteristic theme which begins Edward Gregson's substantial work for brass an organ The Trumpets of the Angels. An elaborated reprise of Tippett's little theme is followed by a dynamic coda.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 13.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£14.95Healing Waters (Cornet and Piano)
This is an original, poignant setting by Kenneth Downie of words by Albert Osborn, the 6th General of The Salvation Army. The words of the chorus are perhaps better known than the verses; 'From a hill I know, Healing waters flow, O rise Immanuel's tide, And my soul overflow!'
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£24.95Healing Waters (Cornet Solo with Brass Band - Score and Parts)
This is an original, poignant setting by Kenneth Downie of words by Albert Osborn, the 6th General of The Salvation Army. The words of the chorus are perhaps better known than the verses; 'From a hill I know, Healing waters flow, O rise Immanuel's tide, And my soul overflow!'
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£94.00Montage (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Each of the movements of the symphony take as their starting point forms originating in music of the 16th and 17th centuries.The first, an intrada, introduces the main thematic material (based on the interval of a minor third) in its embryonic state. As the piece progresses, this material is developed and manipulated in a variety of ways. The interval of the third remains central to the overall scheme of the work, even unifying the three movements on a tonal plane (I: F (minor); II: A flat (major); III: C flat (minor). The internal structure of the intrada is an arch form: ABCBA, roughly modelled on the first movement of Concerto for Orchestra by Witold Lutoslawski, to whose memory the movement is dedicated.A chaconne follows - the basic material now transformed into expansive solo lines underpinned by a recurring sequence of five chords (again, a third apart). The movement's structure combines both ternary form and golden section principles and the chaconne's continuous cycle of chords may be visualised as circles.The final movement, a rondo, bears the dramatic weight of the entire work, as the underlying tonal tensions surface. A musical journey ensues, making diversions through lyrical territories as well as through more spiky, jazz-flavoured ones. The aural (and visual) montage is perhaps most apparent towards the climax of the piece, where three keys and polyrhythms sound simultaneously in the upper brass, xylophone, horns, and timpani. The climax itself combines the lyrical music heard earlier with the rondo theme, now presented by cornets and trombones in canon.The teleological thrust of the movement (if not the entire work) can be symbolized by the flight of an arrow, as it steers a predetermined course towards its target.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.95Over the Horizon (Soprano Cornet Solo)
Soprano Cornet Solo with Brass BandOver the Horizon (2017), whilst both harmonically and compositionally a simple endeavour, is a spine-tingling beautiful melody for soprano cornet. Based on the painting seen in the sleeve notes of Steve Stewart's album of the same name, the work takes its inspiration from the open expansiveness of the ocean, glistening in the moonlight as four people sit quietly - two parents, a boy, and a girl. A feeling of heartfelt longing throughout the work which is developed both melodically and texturally by soloist and accompaniment; perhaps reflecting the desire to know indeed what is over the horizon. The longing intensifies with a climatic section of grandeur - a feeling of longing which arguably isn't resolved until that all-important - and high - last note.Over The Horizon was written for and commissioned by Steve Stewart and Cory Band in Spring 2017.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.95
Sprites and Flares (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Sprites and Flares (2015), refers to the uncertain activities of sprites (upper atmospheric lightening) and solar flares (solar activity from the sun which cannot penetrate the earth's atmosphere) and uses these two ideas as a basis for the kind of musical material heard within the work - dramatic, swirling motifs, often of a virtuosic nature.The work's dramatic opening ensures the first thirty seconds are high in energy and full of impact. Following this, the music dies down and presents an ethereal atmospheric section, perhaps reflecting the calm before the storm. Before long, the music takes a turn for dramatic, fast, virtuosic playing, all reflecting the theme of the work, and indeed remains in this style through to the close, gaining momentum and becoming ever- more triumphant as the work reaches its close. A huge ending is heard, full of excitement and drama, but more importantly grandeur and rich harmonic-chords.The work was commissioned by and written for Leyland Band and its conductor, Thomas Wyss, as the finale to its 2015 Brass in Concert programme, premiered at The Sage, Gateshead, on 15th November 2015.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£87.95Masquerade (Score and Parts)
The first performance took place on the 4th. September 1993 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester during the British Open Brass Band Championships.Note by Philip Wilby:Masquerade is a centenary tribute to Verdi's last opera Falstaff and takes its final scene as the basis for my own piece. Thus I have used some of Verdi's music, and some of Shalespeare's plot, and woven them into a fabric with highly demanding music of my own to produce a work in the great tradition of operatically-based brass band pieces. Such scores date from the very beginnings of band repertory and are often not direct arrangements in the established sense but new compositions produced in homage to a past master. They may still offer performers and audience alike something familiar interwoven with something new. My own piece reuses some elements from the original story: . .Falstaff has been caught in a web of his own lies by the ladies of the town, who propose to teach him a lesson. The story opens at night in Windsor Great Park. The plotters, variously disguised in Hallowe'en fashion (as fairies,elves hobgoblins etc!) assemble in the park to await Falstaff's arrival (musicologists will, perhaps, note a rare use of 'large bottle in F' being used during this scene of suppressed alcoholic revelry!). Falstaff's companions, Bardolph,Piston and Robin, enter (represented here by the three trombones!), and are variously abused by the masqueraders. At the height of the Tout an alarm sounds and Falstaff (euphonium cadenza) enters as Midnight strikes. From a safe hiding place he watches as the disguised Nanetta (principal comet) sings a serene solo as the moon appcars above the trees. With sudden force the others seize him and drag him from his hiding place. As in the traditional game 'Blind Man's Buff', he is roughly turned seven times (a sequence of solo accelerandi) until, at last, he recognizes his assailants as his sometime friends. Far from complaining, Verdi's character concludes the opera with a good-humoured fugue on the words.... 'All the World's a Joke... Every mortal laughs at the others, But he laughs best who has the final laugh. Philip Wilby.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Masquerade (Score Only)
The first performance took place on the 4th. September 1993 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester during the British Open Brass Band Championships.Note by Philip Wilby:Masquerade is a centenary tribute to Verdi's last opera Falstaff and takes its final scene as the basis for my own piece. Thus I have used some of Verdi's music, and some of Shalespeare's plot, and woven them into a fabric with highly demanding music of my own to produce a work in the great tradition of operatically-based brass band pieces. Such scores date from the very beginnings of band repertory and are often not direct arrangements in the established sense but new compositions produced in homage to a past master. They may still offer performers and audience alike something familiar interwoven with something new. My own piece reuses some elements from the original story: . .Falstaff has been caught in a web of his own lies by the ladies of the town, who propose to teach him a lesson. The story opens at night in Windsor Great Park. The plotters, variously disguised in Hallowe'en fashion (as fairies,elves hobgoblins etc!) assemble in the park to await Falstaff's arrival (musicologists will, perhaps, note a rare use of 'large bottle in F' being used during this scene of suppressed alcoholic revelry!). Falstaff's companions, Bardolph,Piston and Robin, enter (represented here by the three trombones!), and are variously abused by the masqueraders. At the height of the Tout an alarm sounds and Falstaff (euphonium cadenza) enters as Midnight strikes. From a safe hiding place he watches as the disguised Nanetta (principal comet) sings a serene solo as the moon appcars above the trees. With sudden force the others seize him and drag him from his hiding place. As in the traditional game 'Blind Man's Buff', he is roughly turned seven times (a sequence of solo accelerandi) until, at last, he recognizes his assailants as his sometime friends. Far from complaining, Verdi's character concludes the opera with a good-humoured fugue on the words.... 'All the World's a Joke... Every mortal laughs at the others, But he laughs best who has the final laugh. Philip Wilby.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£64.00Three Spanish Impressions (Score and Parts)
Three Spanish Impressions originally were part of a large, single movement work called " SPAIN" Whilst happy with the content of the work, I realised that it was rather unwieldy and a bit too long, so, with the publishers blessing, created a shorter suite from the existing material.The brooding and repetitive opening movement takes its mood perhaps from the Miles Davis/Gil Evans album "Sketches of Spain", albeit in a less stringent harmonic language. The middle movement is a delicate and fragile waltz, with shades of a romance within, and the finale, a colourful and robust fandango, also contains a lyrical heart!The thematic material, whilst written very much as a pastiche of the music of Spain, is original, and the accent is firmly on melody and musicianship!Alan FernieJune 2007
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days