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£29.95
Rhapsody in Brass (Score Only)
Rhapsody in Brass is in three movements and was written for the British Open Championships in 1949, held at Belle Vue in Manchester. The contest winners were Fairey Aviation Works Band under the baton of Harry Mortimer. Eric Ball came second with Ransome & Marles and Stanley Boddington 3rd with Munn and Felton Band. Rhapsody in Brass had the unusual distinction of being written as a test piece by a Salvation Army composer. Eric Ball's Resurgam was the only other piece to achieve that dual personality in that era.Dean Goffin was born in 1916 in Wellington, New Zealand, son of Henry Goffin, a Salvation Army officer and composer. At 19 he was appointed Bandmaster of the Wellington South Band and when World War II started, he enlisted in the New Zealand Armed Forces where he became Bandmaster of the 20th Infantry Battalion and later the 4th Brigade Band. During the time he served with them in the Middle East and Europe, he composed and arranged numerous pieces among which Rhapsody in Brass and the march Bel Hamid, later adapted for Salvation Army use and renamed Anthem of the Free.After the war, Dean kept on composing and his work was featured by the Wellington South Band. Later he transferred to Timaru for another job and became Bandmaster there. He was studying music at the time and as he wanted to take part in a competition for devotional selections for Salvation Army use, he sent some of his compositions to the International Headquarters. When Rhapsody for Brass was chosen as the test-piece for the British Open Championships, people at the Salvation Army started asking questions about the lack of publications of his work. It was discovered that the pieces submitted for the competition didn't meet the exact criteria. Among these pieces was one of his most appealing works The Light of the World which was published a year later, in 1950, the same year as he completed his Bachelor of Music studies at Otagu University.After entering the Salvation Army Training College in Wellington with his wife, Marjorie, Dean was in 1956 appointed National Bandmaster in the British Territory. Later he became National Secretary for Bands and Songster Brigades and in this period he organised the yearly festival in the Royal Albert Hall and was responsible for the national music schools in the UK. Dean returned to his home country in 1966 and to mark the centenary of the Salvation Army in New Zealand he was knighted by the Queen in 1983. Sir Dean Goffin died on 23 January 1984.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£32.50Vienna Nights (Score Only)
The City of Vienna stands at one of the historic crossroads of the world, linking east and west and embracing artistic influences from all sides. In the 250th anniversary year of Mozart's birth, this fantasy on Mozart's celebrated Piano Sonata in A (K331), has been composed true to the form and content of the original, but also to the underlying substance of the conception.One of Mozart's distinguishing features, and one that links him to later music by Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler and Schoenberg, is the breadth of his musical vision. His music links intellectual rigour with ecstatic utterance and darker preoccupations. It is, perhaps, this shadow-laden side of his musical nature which gives his work a profundity often absent in the work of his contemporaries. Admirers of his Requiem Mass or the Statue music in Don Giovanni will recognise that it is this extra sense of reality which makes Mozart so relevant to the modern age, and where he may link hands with the other great Viennese thinkers such as Berg, Webern and Adorno.The composer follows the three movement plan of the Sonata closely. The original begins with a Theme and Variations which is freely quoted. His Minuet is mirrored in the Recitative and Notturno, where each section of the band lays down a metaphoric rose to his memory. Famously, the sonata ends in populistic style with a Turkish Rondo. Ever since the Hapsburg-Ottoman Wars, which came to an end in the seventeenth century, Viennese composers have included Turkish elements in their music, not least in the use of certain percussion instruments. Vienna Nights is thusly a homage.It celebrates the world's greatest composer, but also the city which fostered his work. Here, in your imagination, you might easily conjure up a caf table near the Opera House, where Mozart, Mahler and Sigmund Freud, observed by us all from a discreet distance, may meet as old friends.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£83.00
A Bournemouth Suite - Benjamin Tubb
Bournemouth Suite was written by Benjamin Tubb in 2005, when the composer was just 17 years of age. After spending many school holiday weeks with his grandparents in the coastal town of Bournmouth, it was obvious that these experiences would make a great basis for a composition.This testpiece is split into three separate movements: Balloon Ride, The Pier at Night and The BIC. Each movement has its own unique character, although there are ideas shared by all three throughout, one of which is the opening syncopation.Balloon RideThe First movement, Balloon Ride, describes a journey on "The Bournemouth Eye", a tethered hot air balloon that takes you up 500 feet. It's located in the middle of the town centre, which enables you to see surrounding countryside for up to 20 miles! The movement begins rather ominously as the balloon raises from the ground which leads into a more lively section caharacteresed by the repeating quavers in the lower brass and woodblock. The movement ends in much the same way as it started - signalling the return to terra firma.The Pier At NightDuring the summer there are several large firework displays in the town centre. The second movement, The Pier At Night descirbes an evening spent on the beach in deckchairs watching the montage of colours in the night-time sky. With demanding solos for horn and cornet, as well as exposed playing spread throughout the band, this slow movement will really test a band's expressive and lyrical playing.The 'BIC'The Bournemouth INternational Centre, also known as "The BIC" is one of Bournemouth's most visited attractions, and regularly hosts shows such as 'Riverdance' and pantomimes. Inside is a world of entertainment and the centre itself is just a stone's throw from both "The Bournemouth Eye" and the Pier. The 3rd movement has been written to describe the buzz of activity surrounding the BIC, and the entire works ends with the same syncopated motif from the beginning.A Bournemouth Suite was set as the 'set-test' at the Pontins Brass Band Championships 2009.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£124.95Hyperlink - Peter Graham
Hyperlink was commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain (funded by Arts Council England and the Department for Education) for its 70th Anniversary Year. Since the anniversary coincided with other significant celebrations in 2022 (including the Royal Albert Hall/Ralph Vaughan Williams 150th and the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II) it was requested that these also be recognised in some way.
Where better to begin this challenging brief but with a computer search for the NYBBGB founder Dr Denis Wright (coincidently born in Kensington, home of the RAH). The subsequent rabbit warren of hyperlinks led me to structure the work through a series of "associations":
Movement I - The Voice of Jupiter.
Alongside the discovery that Denis Wright had been a church organist was the realisation that while the RAH has hosted thousands of musical events the fabric of the building actually incorporates a musical instrument, the famous Henry Wills organ (aka The Voice of Jupiter).Organ and J S Bach are synonymous (e.g. Toccata in D min) and so both become fundamental to the content of the movement. An opening 7 note quote from the Toccata leads to a mammoth sound cluster, as if every note on the huge RAH organ is sustained. The material which follows is based upon the notes BACH (in German notation). The notes are manipulated in various ways in a 12 tone matrix; reversed, inverted and so on. Other techniques employed in the movement are ones of which Bach was master, including ground bass and fugue.
Movement II - Remember Me.
The lives of Salvationist composer Ray Steadman-Allen (born 1922) and Ralph Vaughan Williams are remembered here, with "RSA" in musical notation and fragments of RVWs famous Tuba Concerto providing the source material.While writing the movement my father passed away and to close his funeral service the family chose the uplifting Robert Lowry hymn They'll sing a welcome home. It seemed fitting to conclude the movement with a reflective setting of the chorus, the repeated phrase "Welcome, welcome home" eventually disappearing into the ether.
Movement III - Vivat.
The finale takes the form of a short fantasy upon Hubert Parry's marvellous coronation anthem I Was Glad, truly a celebratory note with which to conclude.The first performance of Hyperlink was given by the NYBBGB conducted by Martyn Brabbins at the Royal College of Music, London on August 6th 2022.
Estimated dispatch 3-7 working days
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The Last Rose of Summer - John Stevenson - Matt Kingston
A belter of a folk tune - not that it's really a folk tune of course, it's by the Irish composer John Stevenson. It's the percussion section that make this one special - their snare rolls and bass drum thwacks reminiscent of Highland Cathedral.
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Mr Marcello's Adagio - Benedetto Marcello - Matt Kingston
Flugel Solo. They were a talented bunch, the Marcello family. Benedetto - composer of this charming, melodic adagio - was dubbed "the Michelangelo of music", had a music conservatoire in Venice named after him.
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Bli Hos Oss - Egil Hovland - Stan Nieuwenhuis
From an excerpt of Captive and Free, by Norwegian composer Egil Hovland, comes a hopeful, lyric addition to the choral repertoire arranged for various wind and brass band by Stan Nieuwenhuis. The serene music compliments the inspirational and reassuring text, Luke 24:29.
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£49.95Vivaldi's mission to Saturn on a dog named Bongo for Brass Band - Paul Saggers
Using material from Antonio VivaldiasThe Four Seasons, this programmatic work depicts the following story:The year is 2024, Earth has been invaded by a group of evil organists called aThe Buxtehudariansa, wiping out most of mankind. However, a secret group of highly intelligent dogs have defrosted the composer Antonio Vivaldi who was cryogenically frozen by the Vatican society of music for obedient dogs. Their chief dog leader aBongoa who over years of listening to the music of Vivaldi has gained the ability to fly, is set to undertake a mission to Saturn to obtain the golden Bassoon with which to defeat the tyrannical Buxtehuderians. With Vivaldi firmly mounted on Bongo they take off, entering full dog overdrive and breaking through the many satellites and second-hand saxophones that surround the earths atmosphere. As they fly through space, Vivaldi sadly gets distracted by a drunken trombonist and becomes separated from Bongo. Bongo now summons his musical ability to perform Vivaldias second movement of Spring from the Four Seasons on a glockenspiel stored at the international space station, enticing Antonio back on their mission. They finally arrive at Saturn and swiftly grab the golden Bassoon, returning to Earth with a thump. Their mission is complete! But can they defeat those pesky organists?Time will tell...Duration: 7a30Difficulty: 5.5/6
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£42.00Patapan. Arranged for brass band by Lynda Nicholson
Arranged for brass band by Lynda Nicholson Patapan is a French Christmas Carol written by the French composer, Bernard de la Monnoye (1641-1720). The words are written from the perspective of the Shepherds in Bethlehem, playing their drums and flutes at the birth of Jesus. " Patapan" mimics the sound of the drums and the scale passages on the the flutes. Patapan begins with a solo side drummer playing a punchy rhythm in 2/2 with a tambourine being added before this rhythm underpins the melody played by the full band. A section featuring the trombones follows before the main theme returns after which a short duet for Euphonium and flugal leads into a rousing final section with a Rock feel. This final section has the full band playing with the tunes in the cornets, a fast quaver movement in the middle of the band and cleverly, the melody in counterpoint in augmentation played by the trombones. This arrangement is part of the Lynda Nicholson Collection To hear a sound file of Patapan scroll down.
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£42.00Silent Night. Franz Gruber arranged for brass band by Andrew Duncan
Silent Night is an Austrian Christmas Carol written by Franz Gruber, (1787-1863). Franz Gruber was an primary school teacher, organist and composer who lived in the village of Arndorf in Austria. Silent Night (Stille Nacht) has become one of the best loved Christmas Carols ever written. This arrangement for brass band imagines Christmas morning in a small Austrian village, such as Arndorf, with the sound of the local church bells ringing out along with the sound of a choir singing Silent Night accompanied by the local band.. The arrangement features the tubular bells playing a simple descending scale, which is also played by muted cornets (2nd and 3rd cornets). After 2 verses of the hymn the coda features a short trombone trio with a jazzy feel which leads into a final scale from the tubular bells and cornets bringing the piece to a peaceful close. To hear a sound file of Silent Night scroll down.
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