Results
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£40.00The World Rejoicing (Brass Band - Score only)
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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£44.95Follow the Flame (from the Torchbearer) (Flugel Horn or Cornet Solo with Brass Band)
The Torchbearer was commissioned as the test piece for the 2009 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain and the FABB Open Contest respectively and pays musical tribute to Eric Ball, considered by many to be the 20th century's most influential composer of brass band music. The thematic material is derived from the first phrase of the trio from Eric Ball's Salvation Army march, Torchbearers.Follow the Flame is a main theme from the larger work, now fully metamorphosised and mirroring in music a concept at the centre of Ball's broader philosophy, that of transformation.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£107.95When Worlds Collide (Score and Parts)
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.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£49.95When Worlds Collide (Score Only)
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.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days