Results
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£119.99Landscapes - Bertrand Moren
Landscapes is a work structured around two main ideas. On the one hand, the music freely paints some of the superb landscapes I've seen during several of my trips around the world. Listeners should, however, not be influenced by this programmatic framework and are encouraged to build their own 'mind pictures'.On the other hand, Landscapes constitutes a test piece for each section of the brass band. Indeed, each musical landscape highlights a particular register. A small group of soloists is given the opportunity to fully display its skills in dialogue with the rest of the band (the tutti), hence the name 'concerto grosso'. Landscapes also relies on the band's different soloistmusicians when it comes to express highly complex, musically and technically challenging passages.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£85.00Alchymist's Journal. - Kenneth Hesketh
'The Alchymist's Journal' gets its title from the book of the same name by American author Evan S. Connell. The book fictionalises a number of famous Alchemist's writings, each one developing another's thoughts thuscontinuing one idea but changing it subtly to provide a new view point or way of thinking. This process is, in fact, alchemical as one idea transmutes into another. This idea is parallel to the processes at work within thesevariants. The whole work is constructed from 6 notes (C, A, B flat, E flat, F sharp, E) and is presented in nine different sections, each individual in mood but still based upon the original pitches. This is not a thematic setofvariations, as the themes are developed one at a time from small segments of the six notes. For example, the opening theme is the complete number of pitches, the second theme uses three notes transposed then repeated at theoriginal level, and so on. Harmonically, the six notes can be divided into two triads, A minor and E flat minor - each key beginning and ending the piece respectively. Whilst this is essentially abstract music with noprogramme there is an introduction, menacing scherzo, slow reflective section followed by a recap of the scherzo and final coda. 'The Alchymist's Journal' was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust at the suggestionof Paul Hindmarsh, to whom the work is dedicated.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£35.00Oubliette - Lucy Pankhurst
Lucy Pankhurst has created a highly immersive solo for Tuba/Eb Bass with brass band accompaniment, aiming and succeeding in showing the lyrical and technical diversity of the tuba, demanding virtuoso brilliance and clarity in performance.Dedicated to tuba player Edd Leech, Oubliette raises the bar for tuba repertoire.Set includes score, brass band parts and solo parts for Eb Bass (TC) and Tuba (BC). Solo with piano accompaniment available separately.Programme notes from the composer, Lucy Pankhurst:From the French word oublier, meaning 'to forget', an oubliette was a form of dungeon used in the 14th century. A small, windowless room where someone is locked away to be forgotten and left to go mad.I initially chose this title for the piece as the Tuba is often forgotten as a solo instrument, when its versatility in performance should be celebrated. Oubliette showsThe work begins with desolate and sparse accompaniment with lamenting solo lines. The soloist has already been cast into the oubliette at this point and is beginning to wake from a somnolent state. Reality is blurred through the darkness of the chamber - the only entrance is a hatch in the ceiling, far out of reach.Memories are confused by countless hours of solitude - hallucinations and paranoia tainting reality. Gradually, the soloist remembers images from the past and gains confidence and strength. Long forgotten by the captors, or presumed dead in the chamber, the entrance hatch suddenly opens to allow another prisoner inside. The soloist seizes the opportunity for escape and a short battle ensues. Sword and fist fighting, perilous leaps over the entrances to more dungeons and fierce battle cries are futile, as the soloist suddenly realises they are alone in the oubliette once more and the skirmish was nothing but another dream.The piece concludes with unaccompanied soloist in the low register, sinking deeper into the shadows of the windowless prison; are they accepting their fate, or merely lying in wait for another chance of escape, if one will ever come . . .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£74.95Eden (Score and Parts)
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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£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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£40.00
Shackleton's Cross - Howard Goodall
Shackleton s Cross was inspired by a painting created in 1957 by the English artist Edward Seago (1910 1974). The title refers to a cross which was erected to the memory of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who led a number of explorations to the Antarctic. Shackleton died in 1922 whilst on a Polar expedition, and the cross can be found on a promontory at the entrance to the bay at Grytviken Whaling Station in South Georgia. The painting is owned by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, and was part of an exhibition at Buckingham Palace from October 2011 to April 2012.Originally scored for oboe, trumpet and small orchestra, Daniel Hall s sensitive arrangement for trumpet or cornet and brass band follows the composer s alternative version for solo trumpet and organ, created for Crispian Steele-Perkins (trumpet) and David Goode (organ).
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£70.00
Fire in the Sky - Peter Meechan
Fire in the Sky takes its inspiration from the stunning town of Montreux in Switzerland. I was commissioned to write the work 5 days before I visited this Montreux and was at work forming ideas for the piece as I arrived on the shore of Lake Geneva and its amazing views of the Alps.Whilst the scenery is without doubt some of the most incredible views I have ever witnessed, it was the history of the town that set Fire in the Sky in motion. Whilst there, it occurred to me that many of my musical heroes had lived or performed there, and three of them in particular had a strong connection with the town. Miles Davis, Igor Stravinsky and Freddie Mercury graced Montreux - the large convention centre, where the famous summer jazz festival is held, named its two halls after Davis and Stravinsky, and there is a quite breathtaking statue of Mercury in the town too.Each musician also commemorates an anniversary in 2011, the year of the premiere of Fire in the Sky; it is 40 years since the death of Stravinsky and both Miles Davis and Freddie Mercury died in 1991, making it 20 years since their deaths. So it seemed fitting to write a piece that in some way acknowledges them, and is a kind of personal athanksa for all they have given, and continue to give, me.The title comes from the famous Deep Purple song, Smoke on the Water - whose second line is aFire in the Skya and is a reference to the night the townas casino was set alight by a Frank Zappa fan. The piece tries to recreate the atmosphere of that night, paint a picture of fire in the sky (and smoke on the water) and also uses small anuggetsa of the music of my three greatest musical heroes, Miles Davis, Freddie Mercury and Igor Stravinsky.Fire in the Sky was commissioned by the Tomra Brass Band, Norway, and is dedicated to Stijn BerbeA and Nick Ost - both of whom are connected with the band (teaching and conducting), and both have been close friends - personally and musicaly - for many years. I am indebted to them for the opportunity to write this piece.
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
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£70.00
Smoke Sketches - Daniel Hall
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.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£55.00
New York - Nigel Hess
For anyone who is familiar with this bizarre and wonderful city, this piece needs no explanation. New York is the third movement of East Coast Pictures, originally written for wind band, commissioned in 1985 by the British Youth Wind Orchestra with funds from National Westminster Bank plc. These three short 'pictures' were inspired by several visits by the composer to a small part of the USA's East Coast, an area that provides great extremes in the geography and the people.The bass clef Euphonium parts can be purchased as individual downloads here.Brass Band Grades 4/5: Premier Youth and 2nd SectionDuration: 6 minutes
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£35.00
Alu - Peter Meechan
Alu was commissioned by Pat Herak for his wife Diana, for their 10th wedding anniversary. It was premiered by Diana and the Brass Band of Columbus, USA.It is a simple, reflective piece, which grows from a small idea first heard in the baritone and changes throughout, although the opening material is never far away.The solo part is equally suitable for baritone or euphonium.
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
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