Results
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£29.50Eden (Score Only)
This work was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust as the test piece for the final of the 2005 Besson National Brass Band Championship, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.The score is prefaced by the final lines from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (completed in 1663), in which Adam and Eve, expelled from Paradise, make their uncertain way into the outside world:"...The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and providence their guide:They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way."My work is in three linked sections. In the first, the characters of Adam, Eve and the serpent guarding the Tree of Knowledge are respectively represented by solo euphonium, cornet and trombone. The music opens in an idyllic and tranquil mood and leads into a duet between euphonium and cornet. Throughout this passage the prevailing mood darkens, though the soloists seem to remain oblivious to the increasingly fraught atmosphere. A whip-crack announces the malevolent appearance of the solo trombone who proceeds to engage the solo cornet in a sinister dialogue.The second section interprets the Eden story as a modern metaphor for the havoc mankind has inflicted upon the world, exploiting and abusing its resources in the pursuit of wealth. Though certainly intended here as a comment on the present-day, it is by no means a new idea: Milton himself had an almost prescient awareness of it in Book I of his poem, where men, led on by Mammon:"...Ransacked the centre and with impious handsRifled the bowels of their mother earthFor treasures better hid. Soon had his crewOpened into the hill a spacious woundAnd digged out ribs of gold."So this section is fast and violent, at times almost manic in its destructive energy. At length a furious climax subsides and a tolling bell ushers in the third and final section.This final part is slow, beginning with an intense lament featuring solos for tenor-horn, flgel-horn and repiano cornet and joined later by solo baritone, soprano cornet, Eb-bass and Bb-bass.At one stage in the planning of the work it seemed likely that the music would end here - in despair. Then, mid-way through writing it, I visited the extraordinary Eden Project in Cornwall. Here, in a disused quarry - a huge man-made wound in the earth - immense biomes, containing an abundance of plant species from every region of the globe, together with an inspirational education programme, perhaps offer a small ray of hope for the future. This is the image behind the work's conclusion and the optimism it aims to express is real enough, though it is hard-won and challenged to the last.John Pickard 2005
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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£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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£29.95Judd: Christmas Presence
Written for Birmingham Citadel Band to play at their annual carol concert at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, this piece tells the story of the Nativity using the carols 'Who is he?' and 'Calypso Carol' (Christmas Collection 16). Brief appearances are made by the shepherds ('While shepherds watched'), the angels ('Ding dong! merrily on high') and the wise men ('Three kings' march' and 'We three kings of Orient are'). The music finishes with a majestic setting of the chorus of 'Who is he?', reminding us who the baby Jesus is:'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story,'Tis the Lord, the king of Glory!At his feet we humbly fall,Crown him, crown him Lord of all!
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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£11.99
Smoke 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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£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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£19.99
Handel 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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£35.00Postcard to Grimethorpe (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
I composed the original version of Postcard to Grimethorpe in 1993 at the request of Elgar Howarth, for a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, given by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. This was at a time when after the Grimethorpe Colliery pit closed the future of the band was in severe jeopardy. The concert was given in aid of the band, both through publicity and funding.Then in late 2022 Jack Stamp, the American composer, conductor and educator, and at that time international composer-in-association with Grimethorpe, contacted me to say that he had discovered my short piece in the band library, and asked if I might extend it for a recording he was sponsoring for the band - the repertoire to consist entirely of music specially composed for Grimethorpe.I agreed and decided to extend the piece by using the miner's hymn Gresford, as a symbolic gesture of protest at the many thousands of miners in the UK who were made redundant from their jobs. After an angular (quasi-atonal) first section, the hymn enters, softly at first, but with each phrase it becomes more powerful and insistent, ending with the final phrase triumphantly accompanied by melodic percussion (replacing the drums and cymbals of the earlier phrases, as if the band were then on the march). However, this short work ends softly and gently, as if anger has been replaced by quiet resolution and determination, looking to the future with confidence.- Edward GregsonDuration: 3.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days