Results
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£45.00Diversions 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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£59.95Festival Suite (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
This three movement suite for brass band was commissioned by the Solothurnischer Blasmusikverband (SOBV) in Switzerland for their 2009 Festival. The first movement, Energy, is appropriately lively in character. It is dominated by an agitated theme on trombones and cornets, driven by a percussion accompaniment, and complemented by pulsating counterpoint from the rest of the band. The second movement is called Repose and its opening melodious theme on cornets provides a welcome respite from the restlessness and verve of the opening movement. The lyrical nature of the music is sustained throughout. The finale, Suspense, opens with a theme containing more than a hint of foreboding which recurs several times. There are numerous abrupt changes of dynamics, and also a brightening of mood, before everything finishes in a blaze of sound.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£100.00Handel in the Band (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Handel in the Band is a virtuoso set of symphonic variations on one of Handel's best known keyboard dances, the Sarabande from his Suite in D minor, HWV 437, based on the Spanish traditional dance La Folia. Kenneth Downie's work was commissioned by Brass Band Treize Etoiles, for performance at the 2013 Swiss National Brass Band Championships, where it was conducted by James Gourlay. The title is a reference to Percy Grainger's popular Handel in the Strand, and is indicative of the witty and theatrical nature of the music, which is more playful than conventional competition pieces and as such offers different challenges to brass bands as well as being thoroughly entertaining for audiences.Kenneth Downie is one of the most respected and experienced brass band composers. His music has been widely performed and published throughout the brass band world since the 1960s.Handel in the Band was selected as the set work for the Championship Section final of the 2018 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, which took place at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 6th October 2018.Duration: 15.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£19.99Handel in the Band (Brass Band - Score Only)
Handel in the Band is a virtuoso set of symphonic variations on one of Handel's best known keyboard dances, the Sarabande from his Suite in D minor, HWV 437, based on the Spanish traditional dance La Folia. Kenneth Downie's work was commissioned by Brass Band Treize Etoiles, for performance at the 2013 Swiss National Brass Band Championships, where it was conducted by James Gourlay. The title is a reference to Percy Grainger's popular Handel in the Strand, and is indicative of the witty and theatrical nature of the music, which is more playful than conventional competition pieces and as such offers different challenges to brass bands as well as being thoroughly entertaining for audiences.Kenneth Downie is one of the most respected and experienced brass band composers. His music has been widely performed and published throughout the brass band world since the 1960s.Handel in the Band was selected as the set work for the Championship Section final of the 2018 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, which took place at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 6th October 2018.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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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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£40.00Variations 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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£65.00Smoke Sketches (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Smoke Sketches is Daniel Hall's first original work to be published in the Faber Music Brass Band Series. Daniel is one of the most gifted of the rising generation of composers writing for brass bands. Smoke Sketches was composed at the invitation of Brass Bands England for the Intermediate Section of the 2017 National Youth Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.This colourful, jazzy suite draws inspiration from the ancient art of gazing into smoke from fire to find stories through the act of divination. Into the Blaze suggests someone briskly fire-walking, barefoot, with unexpected sparks fizzling from the ground. A Lonesome Ember captures the fleeting life of a small ember, beginning insignificantly and gradually evolving into a larger being before disappearing into ash, while Spark of Light bristles with life and energy.Band Grade 3/4, duration 8 minutes.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£11.99Smoke Sketches (Brass Band - Score only)
Smoke Sketches is Daniel Hall's first original work to be published in the Faber Music Brass Band Series. Daniel is one of the most gifted of the rising generation of composers writing for brass bands. Smoke Sketches was composed at the invitation of Brass Bands England for the Intermediate Section of the 2017 National Youth Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.This colourful, jazzy suite draws inspiration from the ancient art of gazing into smoke from fire to find stories through the act of divination. Into the Blaze suggests someone briskly fire-walking, barefoot, with unexpected sparks fizzling from the ground. A Lonesome Ember captures the fleeting life of a small ember, beginning insignificantly and gradually evolving into a larger being before disappearing into ash, while Spark of Light bristles with life and energy.Band Grade 3/4, duration 8 minutes.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£82.95
Occasion (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Occasion was published especially for the National Youth Brass Band Championship of Great Britain, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 4th October, 1986.Occasion for Brass Band is in four movements: Fanfare, Festivities, Elegy and Dance. The opening Fanfare was originally written as a Wedding Fanfare for Paul and Hazel Patterson in 1981, while the Elegy and Dance were commissioned as a test-piece for the first Westsound/Ayrshire Invitation Contest in 1982 for the leading bands in Scotland. Festivities was therefore written last, to complete the work and give it its essentially 'festive' character. Except for the Elegy, which is contemplative, the music throughout is extrovert and joyful. The opeing Fanfare may be performed separately - of the Fanfare may be ledt out entirely, making the work a three movement Suite.Duration: 11 minutes
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£37.95
Occasion (Brass Band - Score Only)
Occasion was published especially for the National Youth Brass Band Championship of Great Britain, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 4th October, 1986.Occasion for Brass Band is in four movements: Fanfare, Festivities, Elegy and Dance. The opening Fanfare was originally written as a Wedding Fanfare for Paul and Hazel Patterson in 1981, while the Elegy and Dance were commissioned as a test-piece for the first Westsound/Ayrshire Invitation Contest in 1982 for the leading bands in Scotland. Festivities was therefore written last, to complete the work and give it its essentially 'festive' character. Except for the Elegy, which is contemplative, the music throughout is extrovert and joyful. The opeing Fanfare may be performed separately - of the Fanfare may be ledt out entirely, making the work a three movement Suite.Duration: 11 minutes
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
