Results
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£15.00Harrison's Dream (Brass Band - Study Score) - Graham, Peter
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 GrahamJuly 2000 Recorded on Polyphonic QPRL219D Master Brass (Volume Fifteen). Duration: 14'30"
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£110.00Diversions after Benjamin Britten (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Suite by Lucy Pankhurst, Simon Dobson, Paul McGhee and Gavin HigginsHaving devised a collective centenary tribute for Michael Tippett at the 2006 RNCM Festival of Brass (Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett by five eminent composers of brass band music, PHM002), I commissioned this companion piece as a Benjamin Britten tribute for the 2013 festival. In the late 1970s, while researching a book about the English composer, and Britten's first teacher, Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), I came across a copy of the printed score of Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Op.10) for string orchestra, in which Britten had written descriptive titles for each of the variations suggesting appropriate character traits of his much loved mentor and guide. The character variations are cast in march, song and dance forms.Taking inspiration from Britten's youthful tribute, I invited four award-winning composers, who have all made significant contributions to the brass band medium, to create their own personal reflections on four aspects of Britten's character and music, designed to form a suite of Diversions after Benjamin Britten, but which can also be played separately.Lucy Pankhurst's hauntingly lyrical Prelude: His Depth refers to the emotional and symbolic subtexts that underpin Britten's operas, taking its musical cue from Britten's many arrangements of folk songs. The flugel horn takes a prominent role throughout.Simon Dobson's breathless Scherzo: His Vitality reminds us with its rapid passage work and leaping bass 'groove' that Britten loved tennis and fast cars in his younger days.Paul McGhee's evocative interpretation of the March: His Sympathy represents Benjamin Britten's pacifism, as the composer writes: 'We view the music through the eyes of a pacifist. Whilst war and violence surround us, we do not engage in it and though it continues to happen around us. With the use of muted effects in most of the band throughout the piece, the flugel horn is the lone voice of reason, standing firm against the mechanical and destructive society in which it is forced to live. As the machine of war continues around the lone voice, the voice is gradually dismissed and mocked as the war machine rumbles on into the distance.'In an extended finale, entitled Toccata: His Skill, Gavin Higgins celebrates Benjamin Britten's consummate creativity. For the RNCM Festival of Brass premiere, the four contrasting movements were framed and connected by Britten's Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury for three trumpets, with the trumpet soloists spaced round the hall. I am grateful to the Britten Estate and publishers Boosey & Hawkes for giving permission for the elements of Britten's fanfare to be incorporated in the collective work.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 19.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£45.00
Diversions after Benjamin Britten (Brass Band - Score only)
Suite by Lucy Pankhurst, Simon Dobson, Paul McGhee and Gavin HigginsHaving devised a collective centenary tribute for Michael Tippett at the 2006 RNCM Festival of Brass (Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett by five eminent composers of brass band music, PHM002), I commissioned this companion piece as a Benjamin Britten tribute for the 2013 festival. In the late 1970s, while researching a book about the English composer, and Britten's first teacher, Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), I came across a copy of the printed score of Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Op.10) for string orchestra, in which Britten had written descriptive titles for each of the variations suggesting appropriate character traits of his much loved mentor and guide. The character variations are cast in march, song and dance forms.Taking inspiration from Britten's youthful tribute, I invited four award-winning composers, who have all made significant contributions to the brass band medium, to create their own personal reflections on four aspects of Britten's character and music, designed to form a suite of Diversions after Benjamin Britten, but which can also be played separately.Lucy Pankhurst's hauntingly lyrical Prelude: His Depth refers to the emotional and symbolic subtexts that underpin Britten's operas, taking its musical cue from Britten's many arrangements of folk songs. The flugel horn takes a prominent role throughout.Simon Dobson's breathless Scherzo: His Vitality reminds us with its rapid passage work and leaping bass 'groove' that Britten loved tennis and fast cars in his younger days.Paul McGhee's evocative interpretation of the March: His Sympathy represents Benjamin Britten's pacifism, as the composer writes: 'We view the music through the eyes of a pacifist. Whilst war and violence surround us, we do not engage in it and though it continues to happen around us. With the use of muted effects in most of the band throughout the piece, the flugel horn is the lone voice of reason, standing firm against the mechanical and destructive society in which it is forced to live. As the machine of war continues around the lone voice, the voice is gradually dismissed and mocked as the war machine rumbles on into the distance.'In an extended finale, entitled Toccata: His Skill, Gavin Higgins celebrates Benjamin Britten's consummate creativity. For the RNCM Festival of Brass premiere, the four contrasting movements were framed and connected by Britten's Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury for three trumpets, with the trumpet soloists spaced round the hall. I am grateful to the Britten Estate and publishers Boosey & Hawkes for giving permission for the elements of Britten's fanfare to be incorporated in the collective work.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 19.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£119.95Harrison's Dream (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Graham, Peter
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 GrahamJuly 2000 Recorded on Polyphonic QPRL219D Master Brass (Volume Fifteen). Duration: 14'30"
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95
Harrison's Dream (Brass Band - Score only) - Graham, Peter
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 GrahamJuly 2000 Recorded on Polyphonic QPRL219D Master Brass (Volume Fifteen). Duration: 14'30"
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£54.95Cornish Pastiche (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Wiffin, Rob
A three movement suite depicting aspects of Cornish life and culture.The first movement, Sea Shanties, uses two contrasting call-and-response melodies. The second of these is playful in nature and appears in a number of guises, some more discordant than others, reflecting the crew's use of the shanty to let the captain know what they thought of him! Having passed by, the ship disappears into the sea mist. Laments were traditionally reserved for occasions of the death of a member of the clan. In forming the melody for Celtic Lament I had in mind the type of sorrowful song that would suite the elegiac nature of such an occasion.The last movement of the suite attempts to catch the spirit of the Furry Dance, the ancient dance that heralds the coming of spring. It resembles a farandole but is probably better described as an unashamed romp.My intention was to make Cornish Pastiche readily accessible to both players and listeners. The language is unashamedly tonal but is treated with some harmonic twists to add occasional piquancy. The technical demands on the players are meant to be moderate but conductors and players are asked to observe the different layers, especially in the Basse Dance, and not overload the texture with over-zealous weight on the melodic line.- Rob WiffinDuration: 11.15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£64.95Four Cities Symphony (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Newton, Rodney
This piece was commissioned by the National Contesting Council as the 4th section test piece for the 2008 Regional Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.This symphony (the composer's 12th) has four movements played without a break. The first centres on two aspects of the city of London: its history and pageantry and its role as a busy modern metropolis.The second movement depicts Paris, its street cafes and boulevards and riverside walks, in the form of a romantic waltz.The third movement is constructed around the Gregorian chants of the Lord's Prayer (Pater noster, qui es in caelis) and the Creed (Credo in unum Deum) in an evocation of the city of Rome. After a powerful climax, mysterious tramping footsteps are heard as the ghosts or a Roman legion march through the city by night. The vision fades and the pater noster is heard once again before the movement is brought to a close with the ancient Ambrosian chant, Christus Vincit, Christus Regnet, Christus Imperat.The final movement is an evocation of the city of Moscow, with its great historic buildings, its turbulent history and its fiery traditional music. At the outset a rather dour folk-like melody is heard which is transformed into a lively Cossack dance.This work is dedicated to Howard Wilson, former principal euphonium of City of Coventry Band who, in 1972, introduced the composer to top section brass band contesting.Duration: 11.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£110.99The Four Noble Truths (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Sparke, Philip
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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£74.95Endeavour (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Sparke, Philip
Commissioned by the Festival of Bands, Brisbane 1988, for the Bicentennial World Brass Band Championship held there on 29th July.Endeavour takes its title from the name of the ship in which Captain James Cook circumnavigated the world and attempts to depict in music some aspects of the history of the great continent which he discovered.The Unknown Continent tells the story of the many fruitless voyages undertaken to find the mysterious Terra Australis and conjures up something of the awe and excitement its discovery engendered. Early struggles and hardships of the first settlers are described in The New Challenge but the true story of Australia over the last 200 years is one of success and Celebration ends the piece in triumph.Duration: 11.30 mins
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£37.95
Endeavour (Brass Band - Score only) - Sparke, Philip
Commissioned by the Festival of Bands, Brisbane 1988, for the Bicentennial World Brass Band Championship held there on 29th July.Endeavour takes its title from the name of the ship in which Captain James Cook circumnavigated the world and attempts to depict in music some aspects of the history of the great continent which he discovered.The Unknown Continent tells the story of the many fruitless voyages undertaken to find the mysterious Terra Australis and conjures up something of the awe and excitement its discovery engendered. Early struggles and hardships of the first settlers are described in The New Challenge but the true story of Australia over the last 200 years is one of success and Celebration ends the piece in triumph.Duration: 11.30 mins
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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