Results
-
£32.50Partita (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
Selected as the Section 4 test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2025Partita dates from 1971, when it was commissioned by the Redbridge Youth Band. The musical thread that runs through the work is the 13th century plainsong Dies Irae from the Requiem Mass. This gives the work a rather sombre tone which is audible right from the start of its first movement Intrada. The initial hammer-like chords of the opening and conclusion are only interrupted momentarily by a more lyrical modal tune. Even here, on its repetition, it is surrounded by more insistent textural patterns.The second movement, Chorale and Variations, uses the Dies Irae as the basis for an extended melody in the manner of a baroque sarabande. The five variations that follow are varied in texture, tempi, and dynamics. The final March is more optimistic in mood and presents as its main idea a rather jaunty theme which gets developed throughout the movement. However, the ominous presence of the Dies Irae has the last say with a final statement to round off the work.Duration: 11.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£29.95Adam Zero, Suite from (Brass Band - Score only)
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
-
£14.95Pandemic 1342 (Score Only)
'Pandemic 1349' was written during September and October 2016 and received its premiere on Sunday 20 th November at the 40 th Brass in Concert Championships at the Sage, Gateshead where it received the best new composition/arrangement award.'Pandemic 1349' is a concert work that aims to capture the atmosphere of fear and terror as the plague spreads throughout the city. The cries and screams get louder and reach a chaotic climax, before a calmer and reflective passage takes over - although the chaos and fear never totally leaves as the melodic material is played against the backdrop of what has gone before.London lost almost half of its population during the Black Death, making this one of the single most devastating events in the city's dark history. The outbreak not only shaped the number of inhabitants in London but also changed their mind-sets with many turning to religion - even the English language was to be forever altered.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
.jpg)
£32.50Partita (Brass Band - Score only)
Selected as the Section 4 test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2025Partita dates from 1971, when it was commissioned by the Redbridge Youth Band. The musical thread that runs through the work is the 13th century plainsong Dies Irae from the Requiem Mass. This gives the work a rather sombre tone which is audible right from the start of its first movement Intrada. The initial hammer-like chords of the opening and conclusion are only interrupted momentarily by a more lyrical modal tune. Even here, on its repetition, it is surrounded by more insistent textural patterns.The second movement, Chorale and Variations, uses the Dies Irae as the basis for an extended melody in the manner of a baroque sarabande. The five variations that follow are varied in texture, tempi, and dynamics. The final March is more optimistic in mood and presents as its main idea a rather jaunty theme which gets developed throughout the movement. However, the ominous presence of the Dies Irae has the last say with a final statement to round off the work.Duration: 11.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£19.99Journey of the Lone Wolf (Brass Band - Score Only)
Championship Section Test Piece for the 2016 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championship.The Lone Wolf of the title is the great Hungarian composer and folklorist Bla Bartok. Bartok's journey took him from the hills of the Balkans to the heart of the new world. His singular vision may have meant a life out in the cold, a life without warmth and love, a life without true happiness, a death mourned by a few in a strange land.The first of the three linked movements is capturing the Peasants' Song and follows the young Bartok and fellow composer Zoltan Kolday as they embark on Summertime adventures through the Hungarian countryside to collect and catalogue the astonishing variety of Gypsy and folk music heard in the Balkan hills. The arrival of WW1 plunges Bartok's beloved Hungary into chaos.Bartok was at times a cold man, aloof and lonely. The occasional moments of tenderness he showed are portrayed in Night Music. His brief but intense affairs speak of a love he could only long for. Jazz is my night music and here there are hints of what Bartok may have heard in the USA later in his life.Having been forced by the world's evils to leave his homeland of Hungary for America Bartok, the anti-fascist, felt isolated and angry. In the finale, Flight and Fight, we hear his longing for a simpler time of Gypsy folk dances as well as his maturity and depth as a composer finally exploring deeper colours and darker themes.Duration: 15.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£37.95
Orion (Dramatic Overture) (Score Only)
Bantock's wide-ranging interests embraced not only celtic, oriental and middle-eastern cultures, but a passion for classical Greece which drew from him some of his most distinguished works. In 1934 he relinquished his Birmingham appointment to become C
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£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
-
£22.50Petite Suite de Ballet (Score Only)
This composition consists of four 'miniatures', simple in construction, yet not without technical demands upon the players.The music is for a ballet which so far exists only in the imagination! Like most ballet, it has a touch of the fantastic, and must be interpreted with a light, deft touch.The first movement, Parade, brings many characteristics on to the stage, marching perkily, leggily, with almost puppet-like movements.In the next movement, Pas Seul (Solo Dance), one lone figure holds the stage, with a mixture of grace and sauciness. At the end he (or she) runs off with a snap of the fingers.The third movement is a Minuet. A chosen few, richly garbed, perform this stately, courtly dance, while the rest of the company look on at some ritual in which they are not allowed to join.The final Ensemble commencing with the return of the lone figure, gradually brings the whole company to the stage. Various groups come forward for a few moments, and then rejoin the general pattern of the dancing. Towards the end a stately procession is formed, but this finally breaks up in a sudden flurry of leaping and capering, and in a moment, as though at some magic call, the dances have disappeared, whilst the sonorous tones of the final bars of music follow them with a rather disapproving air.Our little fantasy in over.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£17.50
Only in Sleep (Score Only)
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
-
£23.50A Brussels Requiem - SCORE ONLY - Bert Appermont
The attacks in Brussels on 22 March 2016 created a shockwave throughout Belgium and the rest of the world. Equally, the attacks in Paris and Nice led to great public indignation, fear and disbelief. What has happened to the western world? Have our cultures grown apart to such an extent that we do not understand each other anymore? Bert Appermont's intention was to voice certain emotions that these acts of terror have caused: particularly fear, grief, anger, and helplessness. He uses the French children's song Au Claire de la Lune as a connecting thread throughout the work. This piece is also about hope and faith in another world, and is meant to pay homage to all victims, resulting in a dignified remembrance. The musical development is presented in four through-composed parts, titled Innocence, In Cold Blood, In Memoriam - We Shall Rise Again and A New Day. This work was commissioned by the Brassband Oberosterreich (Brass Band Upper Austria) to be played at the European Brass Band Championships 2017.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
View Music