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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£104.99Brass Dynamics (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Cesarini, Franco
Composed for the 2nd section of the Swiss Brass Band Championships Brass Dynamics is perfect as a major work for any concert. It is centred on the form of an (A-B-A) overture with the initial dynamic theme setting the tone for the entire work and reoccurring in each movement. Composer Franco Cesarini has a masterful feel for brass band orchestration and brings out the best of all instruments and instrument combinations. Enrich your concert repertoire with this fascinating work.Duration: 8:45
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.95AL SHARQ (An Arabic-Jazz Fusion) (Brass Band) - Hall, Daniel
Al Sharq (pronounced al-sha-rak) was commissioned by Tredegar Town Band as part of their programme for the 2014 Brass in Concert Championships at the Sage, Gateshead.The piece is an exciting and exotic concert work for brass band, which is heavily influenced by the genres 'Third Stream' and 'Arabic'. The composition is highly rhythmical and percussion heavy, which makes use of 'Tam-tam vibrato' - a technique which was invented by the composer especially for this composition.There are plenty of opportunities for the musicians to try something different, such as the aleatoric harmonic framework at the opening of the composition, shouting, 'hi-fiving', special choreography and even playing a didgeridoo!Al Sharq is a technically demanding piece which exploits the talents of all sections of the ensemble, especially the principal solo cornet, who starts the piece with an atmospheric cadenza. All of this makes Al Sharq a powerful and entertaining experience for both performer and listener.Grade: Advanced Duration:4:17
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£64.95ESPRIT (Brass Band) - Barry, Darrol
Esprit is a rhapsodic adventure for brass band and percussion.During its twelve minutes, features all soloists and sections of the band. After a vibrant opening the main melodic work is in the lower band accompanied by swirling cornets.The next section is a scherzo like section opened by the horns and closed by the timpani, and in between there are solo's for all.The following adagio is an expressive solo for euphonium accompanied by cup muted cornets and trombones, followed by a section for the flugel which builds up to the full band. A cornet cadenza follows after which a timpani solo takes us to a con brio section in 6/8 which features a round and fugato section which is followed by a slower section for trombones which in turn leads to a musical climax.A short allegro motto section develops an idea from earlier in the piece and leads us into a reprise of the opening section. A vibrant coda concludes the work.Duration: 12:00 Grade: Moderately Difficult
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£107.95
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Clarke, Nigel
Subtitled: Little Green Men in Intergalactic Spaceships with Ray-Guns and Phasers, A Space Symphony for Brass band. Written for the free choice test piece for Brass Band Buizingen for the Flemish Open Brass Band Championships. When Worlds Collide seeks to recreate the atmosphere and sentiment of the American cult Sci-Fi movies of the 1950's such as Robert Wise's 1951 film 'The day the Earth Stood Still' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatches' directed by Don Siegel in 1956, as well as Rudolph Mate's 1951 film 'When Worlds Collide'. It is programmatic with subtitled sub-sections as follows: Crop Circles; Lights in the Sky; Strange Happenings; Sightings; "We Come in Peace"; Alien Abduction; Analysis of the Earthlings; Teleportation; New Understandings; Visions of Far Off Worlds; Colonisation. Duration: approx. 19 mins.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£49.95
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (Brass Band - Score only) - Clarke, Nigel
Subtitled: Little Green Men in Intergalactic Spaceships with Ray-Guns and Phasers, A Space Symphony for Brass band. Written for the free choice test piece for Brass Band Buizingen for the Flemish Open Brass Band Championships. When Worlds Collide seeks to recreate the atmosphere and sentiment of the American cult Sci-Fi movies of the 1950's such as Robert Wise's 1951 film 'The day the Earth Stood Still' and 'Invasion of the Body Snatches' directed by Don Siegel in 1956, as well as Rudolph Mate's 1951 film 'When Worlds Collide'. It is programmatic with subtitled sub-sections as follows: Crop Circles; Lights in the Sky; Strange Happenings; Sightings; "We Come in Peace"; Alien Abduction; Analysis of the Earthlings; Teleportation; New Understandings; Visions of Far Off Worlds; Colonisation. Duration: approx. 19 mins.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.95A Swedish March and Fanfare (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
A Swedish March:This little march was written in 1975 and was commissioned for the Jnkping Summer School, Sweden, where Edward Gregson was guest composer and conductor. It incorporates the old Swedish folksong Britta at its heart, but otherwise is quite conventional in every aspect.Duration: 3.00Fanfare:This fanfare was originally written for brass ensemble, organ and percussion, under the title Fanfare for Europe, and was commissioned for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, to celebrate Great Britain's entry into Europe. The composer then created this version for brass band which was published in 1976.Duration: 1.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Prelude for an Occasion (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
Prelude for an Occasion was one of Gregson's first works for brass band and was written in 1968 for the Black Dyke Mills Band for a recording on the Decca label. Since then it has become a popular concert opener.After a short fanfare introduction it moves into a quasi-march with a somewhat rhythmic and dissonant middle section before returning to a triumphant restatement of the opening fanfare.Duration: 4.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£12.00The World Rejoicing (Brass Band - Study Score)
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 Crger. 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 harmonization 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 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.The World Rejoicing is dedicated 'in loving memory of my brother', Bramwell Logan Gregson, who sadly passed away in the Autumn of 2018.Edward Gregson
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£36.83World War III (Brass Band) Joe Galuszka
This descriptive work for brass band by Joe Galuszka depicts the horrors of war. War is all around us. Every day, another life is lost. Myanmar, Sudan, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Colombia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. As time goes on, more and more countries are brought to the end of what is a diplomatic struggle - in where war seems to be the only option. 'War! Terror! Panic! captures the tumultuous and relentless nature of war. With driving rhythms, aggressive brass fanfares, and thundering percussion, the listener is immersed in the chaos of battle. Dissonance and clashing harmonies depict the discord that pervades war and takes us on a journey through the terror and panic that comes with the brutality of conflict. Remembrance (For Those That We Have Lost) provides a poignant and reflective interlude, allowing the audience to contemplate the human cost of war. Mournful melodies and expressive solos for trombone, euphonium and glockenspiel, convey the depth of sorrow and loss, serving as a powerful reminder of the toll war takes on individuals and communities. The final movement, Hymn for Peace and Hope is a testament to the enduring human spirit and the yearning for harmony - dissonance and conflict gradually give way to consonance and resolution. We celebrate the human capacity for unity and the triumph of peace over strife, as we imagine a world at piece. To listen to an audio demo of the work please visit https://on.soundcloud.com/Udt1AWRThgwuWnQv5 Duration: Approx. 5.00 mins Difficulty Level: 2nd Section + PDF download includes parts and score. Sheet music available from www.brassband.co.uk (UK) or www.cimarronmusic.com (USA) Instrumentation: Soprano Cornet Eb Solo Cornet Bb Repiano Cornet Bb 2nd Cornet Bb 3rd Cornet Bb Flugel Horn Bb Solo Horn Eb 1st Horn Eb 2nd Horn Eb 1st Baritone Bb 2nd Baritone Bb 1st Trombone Bb 2nd Trombone Bb Bass Trombone Euphonium Bb Bass Eb Bass Bb Timpani Percussion 1-3
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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