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£76.99Bread and Games - William Vean
'Panem et Circenses', Bread and Games were essential for keeping the citizens of ancient Rome in check. While the bread was meant for the poorest among the Romans, the Games were Popular Pastime Number One for everybody.There were different kinds of games, such as chariot races (especially popular with female spectators), or wild-beast fights, where lions, tigers, bulls or bears were set on one another or even on human beings. Most popular, however, were the Gladiator fights. In 'Bread and Games' William Vean depicts one of the many fights in the antique Colosseum. 1. Entrance of the Gladiators: By powerful bugle-calls the attention of the peoplewas asked for, after which the Gladiators entered the Arena at the sound of heroic marching-music.2.Swordfight: We can hear that the fights were not mere child's play in this part.On the contrary, they were a matter of life and death and were fought accordingly.3.Mercy of the Emperor: Sometimes a wounded gladiator could be fortunate, depending on the mercy of the audience. Waving one's handkerchief meant mercy, a turned-down thumb meant no pardon. The Emperor had the right to take the final decision, but he usually complied with the wish of the majority of the public. 4.Lap of Honour: Gladiators were mainly selected among slaves, convicted criminals, or prisoners of war. Consequently, winning was very important, as it would mean fame, honour and sometimes even wealth. A lap of honour, therefore, was the winner's due reward.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£59.99Marchissimo - Philip Sparke
Marchissimo will make a fantastic opening piece for any concert. It does however come with a twist! It can be played simply as written, but is really designed to be 'staged' with players coming on the concert platform one by one as they begin to play. The piece actually consists of three marches in one, each of which highlights a section of the band. The piece culminates in a final climax where all three march themes are played simultaneously.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£74.99Olympus - Philip Harper
Selected as the test-piece for the 3rd Section Regional contests of the National Brass Band Championships 2012The music begins with a depiction of the exciting Opening Ceremony where noisy fanfares and sudden swells add to the cosmopolitan flag-waving clamour. Without a break the music leads to The Chariot Race, a fast compound-time gallop withthundering hooves in the basses and percussion, and a heroic melody introduced by the tenor horns. Chariot racing was the main equestrian event in the Ancient Greek Games, which were founded in memory of King Oenomaus. In the Greek legend he suffereddefeat in a chariot race to his son-in-law and Zeus' grandson, Pelops, but much of the music is bitter-sweet to symbolise the fact that Pelops had to cheat to win drawing parallels with some of the issues still facing modern-day athletics. A slow, mystical passage follows, describing The Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The statue of Zeus, who was honoured throughout the Ancient Games' history, was housed inside the temple and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Themusic depicts this period of the dawn of one of mankind's most ancient civilisations and there is a series of solo passages above a drone. The next section is called The Olympic Flame and a broad and lyrical anthem-like melody develops slowly in the euphoniums, which gradually ascends until the horns can take it over before passing upwards again to the cornets (Higher). The musicbursts into bright life at the lighting of the flame and the regular rhythmic pattern which has been established goes through an accelerando (Faster). The final section is called The Olympic Truce and aims to capture the cooperative spirit of the ancient practice of ending wars for the duration of the games. The anthem-like melody makes an affirmatory return (Stronger) and the work ends asit began with a blaze of colour and a real sense of optimism and global celebration. "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stonger)NOTES ON PERFORMANCEPercussion requirements: 1 to 3 players (3 Timpani, Snare Drum, Tenor Drum, Cymbals, Glockenspiel, Triangle)
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£115.60Mil etter mil - Kai Eide - Øystein S. Heimdal
This song performed by Jahn Teigen represented Norway at the Eurovision final in 1978. The result was zero points, but after that, the song soon became very popular in Norway and is one of the biggest hits of his career.This arrangement may easily be a hit on your next concert and will for sure receive more than zero points from you audience. Feel free to invite the audience on a sing-along!
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£45.99L-O-V-E - Christopher Bond
L-O-V-E was written by Milt Gabler and Bert Kaempfert for the final album of the same name by the American singer and pianist Nat King Cole. This album, released in 1965, is largely regarded as a classic. Over the years, many cover versions have been made, including one by Michael Buble. In 2007, the English soul singer and songwriter Joss Stone recorded the song for the promotion campaign around the Coco Mademoiselle perfume by Chanel. Christopher Bond arranged this catchy music for brass band.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£115.60Sjakkmatt! - Hans Offerdal
How do you experience the final thrilling minutes of a chess game when your opponent has taken the upper hand? And how does it actually feel being beaten checkmate? This piece gives you the answers! There are challenges in use of dynamics, articulation, intensity and gradually increasing tempo. Dissonances are present several places, but the voice leading is diatonic and often in repeating patterns. The whole piece is based on one single scale: Bb major scale with augmented fourth and minor seventh. It is notated as a concert Bb major scale with two accidentals. Feel free to use it during warm-up!
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£54.95Sonata - Derek Bourgeois
This work, composed in 1998, was commissioned by the American trombonist Don Lucas as a work for trombone and piano and first performed by him in Birmingham on 19th May 2000. Subsequently, I arranged the music for both solo trombone and brass band and solo trombone and wind band so that it now exists in three formats. The first movement, in B flat major, is brisk and energetic, and is cast in sonata form. The second subject is gentler and more lyrical. The second movement, a scherzo in C major, is the most complex of the four. Basically the structure is a rond. For a long time the music remains in the opening 5/8 time until a new theme introduces more broken rhythms in a more jazzy idiom. After a return of the opening theme the following episode is more tonally ambiguous. Finally, the main theme returns to round off the movement. The third movement, a lyrical adagio, is really one long extended melodic flow. The harmonies are lush and the textures simple and direct. The tonal center is A minor, but the music meanders through so many keys, that this key centre is heavily disguised. The finale is a fiery affair. G minor is really its home key, but throughout the movement the music moves about a lot and the second subject is first heard in A flat minor. The movement's underlying sonata structure is masked not only by its loose tonality but also by its frequently changing time signatures. Like the first movement the second subject is more lyrical in nature and for a while it seems that the music will end peacefully, but a final flurry heralds a triple forte unison on the home note of the first movement - B flat. Derek Bourgeois
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£66.00Ballet for Band - Joseph Horovitz
Composer Joseph Horovitz will celebrate his 90th birthday in May, with 2016 already seeing a welcome retrospective of some his finest works at the RNCM Brass Band Festival in Manchester in January.It included Ballet for Band, written in 1983 at the set-work for the National Final at the Royal Albert Hall, and which has since become one his most popular major test-pieces - played on numerous occasions throughout the banding world. It is a wonderfully elegant, mischievous composition - a brass band ballet, not of programmatic intent but of fertile imagination; beautifully crafted with a delicacy of touch as light on its feet as any arabesque.The composer has admitted that he had a clear vision of the characters that inhabit his score, yet has never divulged any details - leaving the bands and listeners, as he says, "...to exercise their own imaginations rather than being influenced bymine!"
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£80.00St. Magnus - Kenneth Downie
Dedicated to Alastair Massey, an inspirational music teacher. Commissioned by the Scottish Brass Band Association for the 2004 European Brass Band Championships in Glasgow. This music is a set of variations on the tune known as St Magnus, which is attributed to Jeremiah Clarke. Most people will associate it with Thomas Kelly's hymn which begins: "The Head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now". The tune is very simple, consisting of just two, four-bar phrases. Neither is there much in the way of rhythmic variety, every note being a crotchet with the exception of two quavers, and the last note in each phrase. Within such a simple structure, however, lies considerable strength. THEME The listener is given the opportunity of hearing it twice, in full, at the beginning, starting with one player but soon taken up by the full ensemble. It returns in the middle of the music and is stated again near the end. This has been done quite deliberately in the hope that there will be an appreciation of what material is being developed, by the listener as well as by those with access to the score, who are able to see the visual connections. VARIATION 1 This takes the rhythm of the last part of the theme and also uses the shape of the opening as a recurring figure. The mood is whimsical and skittish, with short, teasing rhythmic figures tossed around the band, and quick interplay with percussion, at a fast tempo. An energetic flourish finishes this variation before the Andante espress. VARIATION 2 This commences with chords related to the opening of Variation 1. The cantabile on solo comets establishes a new, lyrical mood and there is scope for expressive playing in a series of short solo passages. The theme works its way unobtrusively into the texture before a reprise of the solo cornet melody and some more lyrical interchanges between Eb bass, euphonium, flugel horn and comets. The variation ends serenely with clear references to the last phrase of the theme. VARIATION 3 The first idea to dominate is clearly linked to the shape of the theme's first phrase. There is a frenetic feel to much of this variation, with considerable energy and instability created by extensive use of cross-rhythms. A thinning-out of the score marks a clear change to development of the start of the second phrase of the theme. This proves to be short-lived however, and the opening material returns leading to a restatement of the theme, "Maestoso," after which a euphonium cadenza links to Variation 4. VARIATION 4 Here we have some solos for euphonium, cornet, trombone and Eb bass set against a background of horns and baritones presenting a pensive statement of the theme's opening. VARIATION 5 This commences Allegro, with lively work for cornet and euphonium spreading to the whole band before attention focuses on the beginning of the second phrase of the theme which is initially presented in diminution, then in regular rhythm, then in inversion. An increase in tempo coupled with a decrease in volume, requires dexterity and control, with several metrical challenges thrown in for good measure. The same fragment of phrase becomes an ostinato which generates a frenzied climax, punctuated by short, dramatic silence, before the opening figure returns and the music gradually winds down. The tubular bells herald the final return of the theme, in augmentation, marking the start of the Finale. FINALE This features the running semiquavers of the previous variation sounding in counterpoint. A fast, furious coda speeds the work to a conclusion while references to the opening of the theme are still trying to break into the texture of the music. Kenneth Downie
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£152.99Between the Two Rivers - Philip Sparke
Between the Two Rivers was commissioned by Fanfare 'Prins Hendrik', from Aalst in the Netherlands. The title derives from the fact that the town of Aalst lies between two tributaries of the River Dommel. The community is a highly religious one, so the famous Luther chorale, Ein' Feste Burg, was an obvious choice for Philip Sparke to use as the theme for this new work. It takes the form of a theme with four contrasting variations. Variation 1 is a moto perpetuo, variation 2 has a slower march like feel, variation 3 is a sinister slow movement and the final variation is in the form of a lyrical fugue. Between The Two Rivers is sure to become a major work inmodern brass band repertoire.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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