Results
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£44.95Of Distant Memories (Music in an Olden Style) (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
Of Distant Memories pays homage to the brass band composers that form the backbone of the brass band repertoire, and their music, and in the process summons up a kind of subconscious memory bank of the musical languages, styles and forms used by them. The music is conceived in the form of a 'traditional' tone poem, reflecting certain aspects (e.g. melodic, harmonic, textural) of those early test pieces. Although fairly traditional concepts have been kept in planning the architecture of the work, certain aspects of the instrumentation, or scoring, are more contemporary in colouristic terms, as befits a composer writing in the 21st century. However, the percussion requirements are fairly modest, similar to those used in the works of that period. The brass band tradition owes much to the composers of that period, for through their music they established a truly homogenous 'British' brass band sound which has spread throughout many parts of the world. That tradition flourishes today and remains important for today's composers, even if their musical language is far removed from that of their predecessors. Of Distant Memories is the composers own way of repaying that gratitude.Duration: 15.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£110.00Diversions after Benjamin Britten (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
Suite by Lucy Pankhurst, Simon Dobson, Paul McGhee and Gavin HigginsHaving devised a collective centenary tribute for Michael Tippett at the 2006 RNCM Festival of Brass (Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett by five eminent composers of brass band music, PHM002), I commissioned this companion piece as a Benjamin Britten tribute for the 2013 festival. In the late 1970s, while researching a book about the English composer, and Britten's first teacher, Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), I came across a copy of the printed score of Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Op.10) for string orchestra, in which Britten had written descriptive titles for each of the variations suggesting appropriate character traits of his much loved mentor and guide. The character variations are cast in march, song and dance forms.Taking inspiration from Britten's youthful tribute, I invited four award-winning composers, who have all made significant contributions to the brass band medium, to create their own personal reflections on four aspects of Britten's character and music, designed to form a suite of Diversions after Benjamin Britten, but which can also be played separately.Lucy Pankhurst's hauntingly lyrical Prelude: His Depth refers to the emotional and symbolic subtexts that underpin Britten's operas, taking its musical cue from Britten's many arrangements of folk songs. The flugel horn takes a prominent role throughout.Simon Dobson's breathless Scherzo: His Vitality reminds us with its rapid passage work and leaping bass 'groove' that Britten loved tennis and fast cars in his younger days.Paul McGhee's evocative interpretation of the March: His Sympathy represents Benjamin Britten's pacifism, as the composer writes: 'We view the music through the eyes of a pacifist. Whilst war and violence surround us, we do not engage in it and though it continues to happen around us. With the use of muted effects in most of the band throughout the piece, the flugel horn is the lone voice of reason, standing firm against the mechanical and destructive society in which it is forced to live. As the machine of war continues around the lone voice, the voice is gradually dismissed and mocked as the war machine rumbles on into the distance.'In an extended finale, entitled Toccata: His Skill, Gavin Higgins celebrates Benjamin Britten's consummate creativity. For the RNCM Festival of Brass premiere, the four contrasting movements were framed and connected by Britten's Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury for three trumpets, with the trumpet soloists spaced round the hall. I am grateful to the Britten Estate and publishers Boosey & Hawkes for giving permission for the elements of Britten's fanfare to be incorporated in the collective work.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 19.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£45.00
Diversions after Benjamin Britten (Brass Band - Score only)
Suite by Lucy Pankhurst, Simon Dobson, Paul McGhee and Gavin HigginsHaving devised a collective centenary tribute for Michael Tippett at the 2006 RNCM Festival of Brass (Variations on a Theme of Michael Tippett by five eminent composers of brass band music, PHM002), I commissioned this companion piece as a Benjamin Britten tribute for the 2013 festival. In the late 1970s, while researching a book about the English composer, and Britten's first teacher, Frank Bridge (1879 - 1941), I came across a copy of the printed score of Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Op.10) for string orchestra, in which Britten had written descriptive titles for each of the variations suggesting appropriate character traits of his much loved mentor and guide. The character variations are cast in march, song and dance forms.Taking inspiration from Britten's youthful tribute, I invited four award-winning composers, who have all made significant contributions to the brass band medium, to create their own personal reflections on four aspects of Britten's character and music, designed to form a suite of Diversions after Benjamin Britten, but which can also be played separately.Lucy Pankhurst's hauntingly lyrical Prelude: His Depth refers to the emotional and symbolic subtexts that underpin Britten's operas, taking its musical cue from Britten's many arrangements of folk songs. The flugel horn takes a prominent role throughout.Simon Dobson's breathless Scherzo: His Vitality reminds us with its rapid passage work and leaping bass 'groove' that Britten loved tennis and fast cars in his younger days.Paul McGhee's evocative interpretation of the March: His Sympathy represents Benjamin Britten's pacifism, as the composer writes: 'We view the music through the eyes of a pacifist. Whilst war and violence surround us, we do not engage in it and though it continues to happen around us. With the use of muted effects in most of the band throughout the piece, the flugel horn is the lone voice of reason, standing firm against the mechanical and destructive society in which it is forced to live. As the machine of war continues around the lone voice, the voice is gradually dismissed and mocked as the war machine rumbles on into the distance.'In an extended finale, entitled Toccata: His Skill, Gavin Higgins celebrates Benjamin Britten's consummate creativity. For the RNCM Festival of Brass premiere, the four contrasting movements were framed and connected by Britten's Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury for three trumpets, with the trumpet soloists spaced round the hall. I am grateful to the Britten Estate and publishers Boosey & Hawkes for giving permission for the elements of Britten's fanfare to be incorporated in the collective work.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 19.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£85.00The Alchymist's Journal (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Hesketh, Kenneth
The Alchymist's Journal (Variants for Brass Band) was commissioned by Faber Music Band Consultant Paul Hindmarsh in 2001, with the support of the Brass Band Heritage Trust, as a substantial concert/contest challenge that would be within the compass of the country's most able youth and first section bands. It received its first performance in January 2002, by Black Dyke Band under Nicholas Childs, as part of the Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass.Since its original publication, composer Kenneth Hesketh has made a number of revisions to the work. Most of these were included in the recording made by Foden's Band conducted by Bramwell Tovey. This definitive new edition, including all the composer's revisions, has been specially prepared for the 2015 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain and is the text that all bands performing were required to use.Suitable for 1st Section Bands and aboveDuration: 12 minutes
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£37.95Connotations (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
Connotations was commissioned for the 1977 National Brass Band Championship finals, held in the Royal Albert Hall, London (the winner, incidentally, of that particular competition was the famous Black Dyke Mills Band).At the age of 32 Gregson was the youngest composer to have received the honour of such a commission. It came at the end of a productive five years writing for the brass band publisher R Smith. Some of those works - The Plantagenets, Essay and Patterns for example, with their direct and tuneful style, have remained popular with brass bands the world over.For Gregson, these were the means by which he sharpened the tools of his trade, preparing the ground, as it were, for his finest work to date - Connotations. He thought of calling the piece Variations on a Fourth, but with due deference to Gilbert Vinter perhaps (Variations on a Ninth), he chose a more appropriate one. As Gregson has written, 'Connotations suggests more than one way of looking at something, an idea, and this is exactly what the piece is about'.Writing a competition piece brought its own problems. 'It has to be technically difficult and yet musically satisfying. I didn't like being kept to an eleven-minute maximum. The inclusion of short cadenzas for less usual solo instruments seems to signify a certain test-piece mentality'.Gregson solved the problems admirably by adopting a symphonic approach to variation form: Introduction - fanfares, a call to attention, in effect Variation 1; Theme - a six-note motif, given a lyrical and restrained first statement; Variation 2 - a delicate toccata; Variation 3 - typically robust in melody and rhythm; Variation 4 - lyrical solos; Variation 5 - a scherzo; Variation 6 - cadenzas; Variations 7-9 - an introduction, fugato and resounding restatement of the theme.Duration: 10.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£74.95
Connotations (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
Connotations was commissioned for the 1977 National Brass Band Championship finals, held in the Royal Albert Hall, London (the winner, incidentally, of that particular competition was the famous Black Dyke Mills Band).At the age of 32 Gregson was the youngest composer to have received the honour of such a commission. It came at the end of a productive five years writing for the brass band publisher R Smith. Some of those works - The Plantagenets, Essay and Patterns for example, with their direct and tuneful style, have remained popular with brass bands the world over.For Gregson, these were the means by which he sharpened the tools of his trade, preparing the ground, as it were, for his finest work to date - Connotations. He thought of calling the piece Variations on a Fourth, but with due deference to Gilbert Vinter perhaps (Variations on a Ninth), he chose a more appropriate one. As Gregson has written, 'Connotations suggests more than one way of looking at something, an idea, and this is exactly what the piece is about'.Writing a competition piece brought its own problems. 'It has to be technically difficult and yet musically satisfying. I didn't like being kept to an eleven-minute maximum. The inclusion of short cadenzas for less usual solo instruments seems to signify a certain test-piece mentality'.Gregson solved the problems admirably by adopting a symphonic approach to variation form: Introduction - fanfares, a call to attention, in effect Variation 1; Theme - a six-note motif, given a lyrical and restrained first statement; Variation 2 - a delicate toccata; Variation 3 - typically robust in melody and rhythm; Variation 4 - lyrical solos; Variation 5 - a scherzo; Variation 6 - cadenzas; Variations 7-9 - an introduction, fugato and resounding restatement of the theme.Duration: 10.30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£59.95Essay (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
This work was specially commissioned as the test piece for a new brass band competition in 1971, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It is in three movements, the titles of which all have literary connotations. The first movement, Dialogue takes the form of 'conversations' between the instruments, based on the opening melody announced in unison on cornets and euphoniums. A second theme is introduced on the flugel horn and developed alongside this, creating a sonata form shell.The second movement, Soliloquy is dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Vinter - a composer who did so much in the 1960s to bring the brass band into the modern world. The movement is poignant in mood, which is depicted by a cornet solo announced after a brief introduction. The middle section builds to a powerful climax, at which point the opening theme of the first movement is heard again. Tranquillity returns however, with a solo trombone now playing the original theme with other instruments adding decorative accompanying patterns.The final movement, Epigram, creates strong rhythmic contrasts and exploits the more virtuoso character of the brass band. The middle section, with its changing time patterns and open expansive melody, suggests a 'big-country' style. A rhythmically charged coda concludes the work in exciting fashion.Duration: 12.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.95
Essay (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
This work was specially commissioned as the test piece for a new brass band competition in 1971, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It is in three movements, the titles of which all have literary connotations. The first movement, Dialogue takes the form of 'conversations' between the instruments, based on the opening melody announced in unison on cornets and euphoniums. A second theme is introduced on the flugel horn and developed alongside this, creating a sonata form shell.The second movement, Soliloquy is dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Vinter - a composer who did so much in the 1960s to bring the brass band into the modern world. The movement is poignant in mood, which is depicted by a cornet solo announced after a brief introduction. The middle section builds to a powerful climax, at which point the opening theme of the first movement is heard again. Tranquillity returns however, with a solo trombone now playing the original theme with other instruments adding decorative accompanying patterns.The final movement, Epigram, creates strong rhythmic contrasts and exploits the more virtuoso character of the brass band. The middle section, with its changing time patterns and open expansive melody, suggests a 'big-country' style. A rhythmically charged coda concludes the work in exciting fashion.Duration: 12.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£76.99Tango for Joe (Trombone Solo with Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Sparke, Philip
Tango for Joe was written for Joe Alessi, principal trombone of the New York Philharmonic. He gave the official premiere with the Brass Band of Battle Creek on 3rd December 2022 at the W K Kellogg Auditorium in Battle Creek, Michigan.Opening with an (optional) unaccompanied recitative for the soloist, Tango for Joe then develops into a slow and sensuous tango, exploring the lyrical properties of the trombone. The opening of this theme is then taken up by the full band but is soon interrupted by a highly decorated version of the melody by the soloist. A further cadenza-like passage then leads to a faster 'tango nuevo' which makes up the majority of the work.A long introduction by the band builds to the first entry of the soloist, who plays the main tango melody over a rhythmic accompaniment. This is taken up briefly by the band but the soloist enters again with his own variation on the theme. After a bridge passage featuring a brief 'question and answer' exchange between the instruments, the soloist then plays a new version of the opening slow tango theme over rhythmic interpolations. After a climax, the soloist presents a long and elaborate cadenza accompanied only by a solo cajon or drum kit. This eventually leads to a repeat of the main theme and , after a short second cadenza, the piece ends with a flourish for band and soloist.Duration: 8.45
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£45.00Two Herefordshire Carols (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Vaughan Williams, Ralph - Hindmarsh, Paul
The two traditional tunes that comprise this straightforward setting were sung to Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) by Mrs. Esther Smith of Dilwyn, near Hereford, during one of the great composer's folk song collecting tours of England in the early years of the twentieth century. They were included in Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire, edited by E.M. Leather and Vaughan Williams. The words to which Mrs. Smith sung the first tune were probably drawn from eighteenth century evangelical sources. The editors replaced these with six of the 16 verses of a traditional seventeenth century carol text, Joseph and Mary.The second melody, which appears as the centre piece of this arrangement, was sung to a carol that tells of a farmer who ploughed on Christmas Day. It is in fact a translation of a German traditional carol Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ that was published in Goodly Psalmes and Spiritualle Songes (1546) translated by Miles Coverdale. Vaughan Williams used the title Coverdale's Carol.The brass band settings follow the settings made by Vaughan Williams in 1920 for the Oxford Book of Carols. Since his simple harmonic approach is similar in both settings, three verses of his haunting version of Coverdale's Carol have been folded inside four verses of the slightly more animated treatment of Joseph and Mary. The harmonisations of Vaughan Williams have been given some brass band colour, with some verses taken by soloists from the ensemble. The accompaniment figuration that embellishes the second verse of Joseph and Mary has been used to open and close this arrangement and to bind the verses together.- Paul HindmarshDuration: 5.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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