Results
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£64.95Adam Zero, Suite from (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Bliss, Arthur - Childs, Robert
Selected as the Section 2 test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2025Following his ballet Checkmate, Bliss composed another score for the, by then, Sadler's Wells Ballet, Miracle in the Gorbals, which was choreographed by Robert Helpmann, to a scenario by Michael Benthall. Premired in 1944, the ballet made a considerable impact and was a box-office success. It was followed in turn by a further collaboration with Helpmann and Benthall, Adam Zero. This would serve Helpmann, in the eponymous role, as a vehicle in two respects: demonstrating his gifts as a dancer-actor and as a choreographer. First performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 8 April 1946, Adam Zero was conducted by Constant Lambert, the work's dedicatee. Bliss considered it 'his most varied and exciting ballet score'. Benthall provided a synopsis for the programme:There is a philosophy that life moves in an endless series of timeless cycles. As Nature passes through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, so man is born, makes a success in his own particular sphere, loses his position to a younger generation, sees his world crumble before his eyes and only finds peace in death. This age-old story is told in terms of a Company creating a ballet and calling on the resources of the theatre to do so. Lighting, stage mechanism, dance conventions, musical forms and costumes and scenery of all periods are used to symbolize the world of 'Adam Zero'.Apart from Adam, as the Principal Dancer, other main roles included the Stage Director (representing Omnipotence), and Adam's Fates (Designer, Wardrobe Mistress, and Dresser). 'The Woman in this allegory', wrote Bliss, 'under the symbol of the Choreographer, was both the creator and destroyer of Adam: his first love, his wife, his mistress, and finally the figure of beneficent Death.' When the curtain rose, the 'audience saw the Covent Garden stage right back to the wall, completely empty except for the protagonists, 'the Company poised, still and expectant, as they await the birth of... Adam Zero.'Unfortunately, soon after the premire, Helpmann injured himself and had to withdraw from the remaining performances. Despite generally positive reviews, the ballet did not capture the imagination of audiences and, to Bliss's considerable disappointment, was not revived. Seventy years would elapse before its first major return to the stage, in 2016, performed by the ballet company of Stadttheater Bremerhaven with choreography by Sergei Vanaev.Bliss extracted a concert suite from the ballet, conducting its first performance with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 28 October 1948. For his own suite, arranged for brass band in 2023, Dr Robert Childs chose three dances linked to the seasons, book-ending them with the ebullient 'Fanfare Overture' and 'Fanfare Coda'. After Adam has grown to manhood, his Fates clothe him in a costume synonymous with confident youth, appropriate for the virile, ardent 'Dance of Spring'. In the 'Approach of Autumn', Adam, now wearing a sombre costume, has grown older: his Fates have streaked grey in his hair and put lines on his face. But they had earlier raised Adam to the zenith of his power, and the 'Dance of Summer' depicts him in the prime of life, in music of sweeping grandeur. The 'Fanfare Coda' signals that the next cycle of life is about to begin.Duration: 10.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£112.50The World Rejoicing (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
The World Rejoicing was commissioned by the National Brass Band Associations of Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the British Open, as the test piece for their competitions in 2020/21. Although the work was completed in 2019, the pandemic of 2020 meant that these competitions were postponed until 2021/22. The premiere took place in September 2021 at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK.In searching for a common link between the brass band traditions of the various European countries that commissioned this work, I considered the fact that hymns have always played an important role in the relationship that brass bands have with their particular communities; and thus I turned to a well- known Lutheran chorale, Nun danket alle Gott (Now thank we all our God), written around 1636 by Martin Rinkart, with the melody attributed to Johann Cruger. A number of composers have incorporated this chorale into their music, most famously J.S. Bach in his Cantatas no. 79 and 192, and Mendelssohn in the Lobsegang movement of his 2nd Symphony (the harmonisation of which is usually used when this hymn is sung).It seemed fitting therefore for me to return to a compositional form I have used many times before (Variations) and to write a work based on this hymn. I have used it in a similar way to that which I employed in my Variations on Laudate Dominum of 1976 - that is, rather than writing a set of variations using elaborations of the complete tune, I have taken various phrases from the chorale and used them within the context of other musical material, applying an overall symphonic process of continuous variation and development. The structure, or sub-divisions of the work, which is through composed and plays without a break, is as follows:Prelude, Capriccio, La Danza 1, Processional, La Danza 2, Arias and Duets, Fuga Burlesca, Chorale, and Postlude.The work, which is around 16 minutes in length, is also partly autobiographical - in the manner say of Strauss's Ein Heldenleben - in that I have incorporated into the score brief quotations from many of my other major works for brass band. In that respect, The World Rejoicing sums up a particular facet of my life as a composer, and reflects the admiration I have always had for what is surely one of the great amateur music-making traditions in the world.Duration: 16.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£104.99The Baltic Way (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - De Haan, Jan
In 1989, the demonstration named the Baltic Way also known as the Baltic Chain-- was held in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by its citizens in a call for independence from the Soviet Union. On 23rd August 1989, some two million participants formed a human chain, hand-in-hand all the way from the Estonian capital of Tallinn its Latvian counterpart, Riga, through to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius - six hundred kilometres long. It became the longest human chain ever created and turned out to be the final push needed for much sought-after independence. This historic event became the source of inspiration for this composition. The introduction of thefirst movement, 'Struggle for Independence', is based on a nocturne for piano by the renowned Lithuanian composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas iurlionis (1875-1911), thematic material from which has been incorporated throughout the whole composition. The melancholic beginning is followed by a powerful theme which reflects the resolve of the Baltic people. The sudden aggressive, dissonant chords and a dominant and--in rhythmic terms--contrary bass drum announce that the resistance is not going smoothly. Just for a moment, we hear the anthem of the Soviet Union in the lower brass, but this is relentlessly pushed to the background by the rest of the band playing the Lithuanian national anthem, 'Tautika giesm ' (Lithuania, our homeland). The second movement, 'Decades of Suffering', echoes life under the Soviet Union's thumb. In the pursuit of independence, a peaceful protest is planned in which a human chain is formed across the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This 'Chain of Freedom' is depicted in the final movement of the work. Duration: 10.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£89.95Four Etudes (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
This work was written during August and September 2016. In it, I wanted primarily to explore the elements of timbre, rhythm, texture and colour. The first three tudes (or studies) are based on a set of piano pieces I composed in 1982, whilst the last, the longest of the set, was composed specially. My reference point was the Four tudes for orchestra of 1928 by Stravinsky, a work I have always admired, and of which the first three also happen to be based on a set of earlier pieces, in his case for string quartet, with the last being a re-arrangement of a work for pianola. I have also borrowed the titles he gave to the individual studies as they seemed to fit the mood of my pieces.However, the exception is the final study, where instead of the exuberant mood of his colourful portrayal of Madrid, mine was influenced by the terrible human tragedy that was unfolding in Aleppo at the time I was writing it, and thus reflects the violence and barbarism of those events; yet towards the end it does offer a glimmer of hope for humanity with a return to the Canticle (Song) of the first study, and concludes quietly with the chords and bells that began the work. The titles of the tudes are Canticle, Dance, Excentrique, and Aleppo. Like Stravinsky's, the set is relatively short, lasting around 8 minutes.The Four tudes were commissioned by Black Dyke Band and were written specially for the recording marking the conclusion of my year as Composer-in-Residence. The concert premiere will be given by Black Dyke Band, conducted by the composer, at the RNCM Festival of Brass in January 2017.- Edward GregsonDuration: 8.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£37.95Four Etudes (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
This work was written during August and September 2016. In it, I wanted primarily to explore the elements of timbre, rhythm, texture and colour. The first three tudes (or studies) are based on a set of piano pieces I composed in 1982, whilst the last, the longest of the set, was composed specially. My reference point was the Four tudes for orchestra of 1928 by Stravinsky, a work I have always admired, and of which the first three also happen to be based on a set of earlier pieces, in his case for string quartet, with the last being a re-arrangement of a work for pianola. I have also borrowed the titles he gave to the individual studies as they seemed to fit the mood of my pieces.However, the exception is the final study, where instead of the exuberant mood of his colourful portrayal of Madrid, mine was influenced by the terrible human tragedy that was unfolding in Aleppo at the time I was writing it, and thus reflects the violence and barbarism of those events; yet towards the end it does offer a glimmer of hope for humanity with a return to the Canticle (Song) of the first study, and concludes quietly with the chords and bells that began the work. The titles of the tudes are Canticle, Dance, Excentrique, and Aleppo. Like Stravinsky's, the set is relatively short, lasting around 8 minutes.The Four tudes were commissioned by Black Dyke Band and were written specially for the recording marking the conclusion of my year as Composer-in-Residence. The concert premiere will be given by Black Dyke Band, conducted by the composer, at the RNCM Festival of Brass in January 2017.- Edward GregsonDuration: 8.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£91.99In Memoriam: For the Fallen (Narrator with Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Sparke, Philip
In Memoriam: For the Fallen was commissioned by Bolsover District Council for the Bolsover Brass Summer School 2014. It is a setting for narrator and band of Laurence Binyon's (1869-1943) poem, For the Fallen, which was first published in The Times in September 1914. The poem is known world-wide as the famous fourth stanza (They shall grow not old...) has become a regular part of Remembrance Day and ANZAC Day services. In Memoriam: For the Fallen is a musical accompaniment to the poem, shadowing the mood of each stanza.Duration: 7.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£62.00Set To (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Turnage, Mark-Anthony - Houlding, Christopher
Set To is dedicated to London Brass and arranged for brass band by Christopher Houlding. It was commissioned by the Aldeburgh Foundation and received its first performance on August 24th 1993 at the Maltings, Snape. Originally divided into two movements, a pensive and richly harmonic Blues and an aptly named Bacchanale, sometimes slow but mostly fast and furious. "I remember playing the original brass ensemble version of "Set To" numerous times in the early nineties with London Brass and always wondered if the composer would consider writing something for Brass Band. As Director of The Guildhall Brass Band, a possible performance opportunity arose in 2010 and I successfully approached Mark and gained his permission to scale it up for brass band with added percussion parts. I conducted the premier of this new Brass Band version at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in February 2011 with the composer present and he liked it. Although very contemporary compared to most brass music, I feel that Mark's easily accessible style makes this rhythmically quirky and harmonically 'bluesy' work a really interesting concert piece, suitable for any occasion" - Chris Houlding. Duration: 7.30. Suitable for Championship Section Bands
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£110.00To Every Thing There is a Season (Cornet Solo with Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Rutter, John - Noble, Paul
Upon first hearing this beautiful composition by John Rutter, it seemed obvious that it would not only be a great piece for combined Band and Chorus, but also would be a perfect solo for trumpet. Therefore, in addition to the arrangement for either combined band and chorus, or trumpet solo and band, this arrangement for Brass Band is now available as well. The beauty and simplicity of the piece should certainly allow it to become a mainstay in the repertoire of trumpet solos at any level.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£80.00Concertino For Brass Band (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Downie, Kenneth
This music, in its original four movement form called 'Concerto for Brass Band', was commissioned by Brass Band Treize Etoiles from Switzerland as an own-choice test piece. For its use as the test piece for the Championship Section of the 2008 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain it was specially published without the second movement Scherzo (available separately) as 'Concertino for Brass Band'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£39.95
Concertino For Brass Band (Brass Band - Score Only) - Downie, Kenneth
This music, in its original four movement form called 'Concerto for Brass Band', was commissioned by Brass Band Treize Etoiles from Switzerland as an own-choice test piece. For its use as the test piece for the Championship Section of the 2008 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain it was specially published without the second movement Scherzo (available separately) as 'Concertino for Brass Band'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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