Results
-
£32.00Chorale Prelude
This stately work is very loosely based on the opening chords from 'The Lamb', although there are no direct quotations from that work. The opening chorale is played as gradually more themes are added above in a dignified and legato subject where instruments sustain notes to give a lingering echo effect. Players need to be aware of their role in this to maximise the effect. The second subject increases the intensity until the time signature change introduces a second chorale. Then, a short imitative passage leads to a rising appogiatura theme and the climax of the work, which re-introduces the original chorale in a major tonality. With versions for brass ensemble, brass band, wind orchestra and woodwind orchestra, this work has been placed in concerts when a meaningful, reflective moment is required.
-
£32.00Tubilation
A fantastic tuba feature with brass band backing. Driving semiquaver rhythms push this piece forwards whilst remaining away from the centre of attention which is undoubtedly the big old tuba! Full of semiquavers and scales rushing up to the top of the range of the instrument, there can be no doubt that the tuba is the star of the show. The solo part is carefully thought through with enough rests to make it approachable, while the syncopatino in the other parts give the music an energy that is maintained to the very final flourish, instigated by a demisemiquaver scale run on the tuba! Intermediate and above ensemble parts, but the solo tuba part needs a fairly skilled and confident player to get the most out of this piece.
-
£45.00strange geometry
Descriptionstrange geometrywas commissioned by Morgan Griffiths and the Hammonds Saltaire Band for their performance at the Brass in Concert Championships of 2015.As a bit of a space/sci-fi geek, as well as a musician, two events during the summer of 2015 had a particular effect on me. The first was the tragic early death in a plane crash of the famous film composer James Horner. Horner's music, particularly in films like 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan', 'Avatar', 'Apollo 13' and even his debut in Roger Corman's 1980 budget film 'Battle Beyond the Stars', defined for a generation the sound of sci-fi at the cinema. Along with John Williams he created the vocabulary for those who wish to express other-worldly wonder in music and his inventive talent will be much missed in an industry where originality has become something of a dirty word in recent years.The second event was the epic flyby of Pluto by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft. There are many reasons to find this mission inspiring - for example, the scientists and engineers behind it created a craft that has travelled at 37,000 mph for nine years and three billion miles to arrive within seventy-two seconds of the predicted time for the flyby. That they achieved this with such accuracy is an outstanding tribute to humanity's ingenuity and insatiable curiosity. However, the most exciting aspect of the mission was the clear, high resolution pictures of this unthinkably remote and inhospitable world beamed back to mission control. The best previous image of Pluto was an indistinct fuzzy blob - suddenly we could see mountains made of ice, glaciers of methane and carbon monoxide and nitrogen fog - features previously unimagined on a world thought to be a slightly dull ball of cold rock. The BBC's venerable astronomy programme 'The Sky at Night' waxed lyrical about these newly discovered features, referring to "the surprising discoveries of mountains and strange geometry on the surface of this cold distant world".I like to think that Horner would have been as inspired as I have been by this real-life science story, and this piece uses some of the vocabulary of the sci-fi movie soundtrack in a tribute to the memory of a great musician and to the inspirational geeks at NASA who have boldly taken us where no-one has gone before.Note: This work comes with a B4 portrait score. Listen to a preview and follow the music below!Performance Notes:The cornet section should play this piece standing up in a roughly semicircular arrangement around the outside of the band facing towards the audience, starting with solo cornets 1&2 to the conductor's left (roughy behind the normal repiano cornet seat) then 2nd cornets, repiano, soprano, 3rd cornets and finishing with solo cornets 3&4 standing roughly behind the normal 2nd trombone seat. If time and logistics permit, the trombones should occupy the first three solo cornet seats, although this is optional. A suggested band layout (with percussion) is given here.Solo cornets 1&2, repiano cornet, 2nd cornets, 3rd cornets, flugel, solo and 1st horn, 1st baritone and euphoniums will require fibre straight mutes - ideally NOT metal ones. Soprano cornet, all solo cornets, 3rd cornets and all trombones will require cup mutes - ideally the cornet mutes should be the adjustable cup type and these should have the cup adjusted quite tight to the bell to give a 'closed' sound. Soprano cornet, solo cornet 3&4 and repiano cornet will require harmon mutes - TE indicates 'Tube Extended', TR indicates 'Tube Removed'. Soprano and repiano cornets will also require metal straight mutes. Vibrato should only be used very sparingly throughout, and never in muted passages.Percussion Requirements:Percussion 1: tubular bells, concert bass drum (not a kit pedal drum), tam tam, clash cymbals, 3 x tom toms, 1 x suspended (clash) cymbal and snare drum.Percussion 2: vibraphone (bowed and with mallets), bass drum and tam tam (shared with perc. 1), additional suspended (clash) cymbal and snare drum.Percussion 3: glockenspiel, 4 x timpani (ideally 23", 25", 28" and 30")Approximate duration 5'50"
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£20.00Scarborough Fair
DescriptionScarborough Fair is a traditional English ballad about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough. The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.As the versions of the ballad known under the title Scarborough Fair are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the theory that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task.As the song spread, it was adapted, modified, and rewritten to the point that dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century, although only a few are typically sung nowadays. The references to the traditional English fair, "Scarborough Fair" and the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" date to 19th century versions. A number of older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, "twixt Berwik and Lyne", etc.The earliest notable recording of it was by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, a version which heavily influenced Simon and Garfunkel's later more famous version. Amongst many other recordings, the tune was used by the Stone Roses as the basis of their song "Elizabeth my Dear".
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£45.00The Sword and the Star
DescriptionThe Sword and the Star was written in 2006 for the Middleton Band at the request of their Musical Director, Carl Whiteoak. The inspiration for the work was the band's badge, which features a medieval archer. The town of Middeton's historical link with the symbol of the Archer came from the English victory at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513, where bowmen from Middleton and Heywood under the command of Sir Richard Assheton played a vital part in crushing the invading Scottish army. Sir Richard captured one of the Scottish commanders and presented the prisoner's sword to the St Leonard's church in Middleton in recognition of the town's contribution. As long time Lords of the Manor, the Assheton family crest was for centuries featured in the coat of arms of Middleton council, and when Middleton became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale the black star from the Assheton crest was used to represent Middleton in the new borough's coat of arms. Hence the title The Sword and the Star, for a piece which attempts to give an impression of the town as it was then and as it is now.The music is in three short sections - a fanfare, a lament and a bright scherzo - and simply aims to contrast the medieval hamlet of Middleton with the bustling urban centre it has now become. The central lament features a Scottish song called "The Flowers of the Forest", written to mourn the loss of so many of Scotland's young men on the field of Flodden; the song returns in a much more positive form at the end of the piece.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£33.00
Ungarsk dans - Trad. - Scott Rogers
The piece's minor key melody and beat-afterbeat accompagniment give associations to other well-known dances from Hungary, like Czardas and Brahm's famous Hungarian Dances. A lively tempo is an important element to create the energy and excitement we have come to expect in these dances!
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
-
£120.00
Celebration for Band - John Brakstad
Many Norwegian bands have grown up around factories; but Norwegian factories are often located in the countrysides - by a fjord or lake, by a river or waterfall that provided power for the factory.The factory was the foundation for the existence of the community, but it was also essential for the community's cultural life; choirs, bands etc. (cp. British brass bands and mining)."Celebration for band" tries to give a picture of the environment and life around a band like this, with both factory noise and the natural world (Pastorale), as well as the challenges and development of the band itself.The composition is built up of five connected episodes:- Fanfare and Prologue (concludes with a feeling of the untamed power of the river) - Pastorale I: " At the river"- Intermezzo: " The Factory" (starts with the opening of water for the turbines: snare drum. Factory whistle and bell call to work, and the spinning and weaving machinery starts up.)- Pastorale II: " Summer evening on the fjord." - Finale: " Challenge and Progress"
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
-
£72.00
Luftforsvarets jubileumsmarsj - Frode Thingnaes
Frode Thingnaes was one of the "Grand Old Men" of the Norwegian Military Bands. This march was commissioned by the Norwegian Air Force to it's 50 years anniversary in 1994.There was a wish tht the march should give associations to Glenn Miller, a wish that Thingnaes put into the trio part of the march in the most elegant manner.
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
-
£35.00
Song of Hope - Peter Meechan
Song of Hope is dedicated to my good friend Ryan Anthony (principal trumpet with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra) and his charity, Cancer Blows - a foundation set up to raise awareness and money to further the research that has helped give their family a hope for a future following Ryanas diagnosis of Multiple MyelomaUpon hearing the middle movement (simply titled aSonga) of my cornet concerto, Milestone, Ryan asked me if I could change the end from its current reflective ending to something more uplifting, and to title it Song of Hope, giving it much more meaning than I could have ever imagined.As well as a wind band scoring without soloist, Song of Hope exists with 1, 2 or 3 soloists, accompanied by either wind band, brass band, brass ensemble or symphony orchestra.For my friend Ryan.Each set comes with the soloist part for 1 soloist. Please download the alternative 2 or 3 soloist parts from the link above.
Estimated dispatch 12-14 days
-
£14.95Allegretto from Symphony 3 - Johannes Brahms - Denis Burton
Allegretto or Poco Allegretto to give it it's complete title, is the third movement of Johannes Brahms Third Symphony. The Third Symphony was completed in 1883, some six years after his Second and is considered by critics as one of...
Estimated dispatch 4-7 working days
View Music