Results
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£34.95Elixir of Youth - Christopher Bond
Elixir of Youth (2013) was written for the 2013 Brass for Heroes charity event where it was premiered on 19th October 2013 at St Paul's Hall in Huddersfield under the baton of Philip Harper. The title of the work reflects the nature of the band that was put together for that premiere performance; an all-star youth band comprising a selection of the country's young brass banding talent, with the term Elixir referring here to the everlasting talent seen in young brass players throughout the United Kingdom's brass bands and bands' and teachers abilities to keep producing such high quality musicians for the banding movement.The work, structured in three sections, is a showcase for band with a heroic opening where fanfare-like gestures in the cornets and trombones juxtapose rapid euphonium and baritone runs, alongside sweeping horns and percussion effects. As the piece progresses, a grove is introduced - just in the tubas at first, accompanied by a hi-hat - before spreading through the band, definitely stuff to tap your toes to! The middle, slower section of the work sees both flugel and cornet solos, with additional inputs from the euphonium and solo horn before a climax and return to the tempo and music of the opening section. A rousing close concludes the work where all of the work's themes are interweaved to create a sense of power, unity and grandeur; an Elixir of Youth.
Publisher Closed for Holidays. Estimated Dispatch 22nd August
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£29.95Prayer to St Michael - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 4'00". DIFFICULTY: Moderate. 'Prayer to Saint Michael' is a solo for Euphonium, composed for the Wantage Band and inspired by the life of a young Johann Sebastian Bach, who following the death of both parents by the age of only 10 moved to live with his older brother - Johann Christoph Bach - who was the church organist at St Michael's Church in Ohrdruf. It was in this church where Bach spent many hours studying and performing, being instructed by Johann Christoff on the clavichord. Within 6 years, the young Bach had been enrolled in the prestigious St Michael's School in Luneberg. . "St. Michael the Archangel, illustrious leader of the heavenly army, . defend us in the battle against principalities and powers, . against the rulers of the world of darkness and the spirit of wickedness in high places. Come to the rescue of mankind, . whom God has made in His own image and likeness, . and purchased from Satan's tyranny at so great a price. The Holy Church venerates you as her patron and guardian. The Lord has entrusted to you the task of leading the souls of the redeemed to heavenly blessedness. Entreat the Lord of peace to cast Satan down under our feet, . so as to keep him from further holding man captive and doing harm to the Church. Carry our prayers up to God's throne, . that the mercy of the Lord may quickly come and lay hold of the beast, . the serpent of old, Satan . and his demons, casting him in chains into the abyss, . so that he can no longer seduce the nations. Amen.". .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£120.00
Rhapsody in Black (Bra) - Andi Cook
The primary inspiration for this work comes from the composer's first encounter with the genre of Symphonic Metal - the opening track of the 2004 Nightwish album 'Once', entitled Dark chest of Wonders. The combination of full orchestra, operatically trained female vocals and the raw power of a Scandinavian metal band was a potent mix that instantly had me hooked.That same dark and powerful sound is one that a brass band can generate, and I've tried to capture that in this composition. Heavy Rock/Metal as a genre is arguably fifty years old now, but symphonic metal is a newer concept, and I feel possibly the one that can bridge the gap between two musical styles very dear to me.Composer Gilbert Vinter had explored through music the connotations that different colours held for him, and his movement Purple from 'Spectrum' gave me an idea for the structure of 'Rhapsody in Black'. Andi Cook explored the different connotations of one colour within his own life, black being an easy choice due to the personal dichotomy of the black leather jacket he wore to the rock club on Friday night and the black suit jacket and tie he wore to the concert hall the next day.To avoid repetition the word 'black' is omitted from the five movement titles, each of which is a different episode. '...as Thunder' is a furious argument between two people - the top and bottom of the band - set against the backdrop of a storm, with lightning flashing outside while barbs, insults, sarcasm, tears and even violence is traded inside. Following that '...Satin and Pearls' is an old black-and-white movie with a wistful character to it as if we're looking back a screen icon with fondness long after their career or even their life has ended. '...as the Raven's Wing.' is deliberately gothic and funereal, hinting at Edgar Allen Poe's similarly named poem, with undertones of death and afterlife. The shift into F/C Minor (band pitch) represents the descent - alive - into the grave that Poe had a paranoid fear of his entire life. Family and friends standing around grieving, oblivious as we're lowered into the earth despite frantic attempts to make ourselves heard. '...and Chrome' is an unashamed motorcycle reference with all its born-to-be-wild, open air, high speed and freedom overtones. In a deliberate contrast to what went before it continues several of the same motifs though this time in the major key. Lastly, we reprise the second movement with '...as the Night Sky' which is simply the feeling of walking home under the summer stars, with someone important - who that is, is left to the listener, but a walk under the stars is always that bit special.There's an old saying that very few things are black and white. I hope this work will prove that even black alone isn't quite as simple as it's often made out....'Rhapsody in Black' is dedicated to the composer's friend and mentor John Roberts, who shares his love of both brass and rock.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£90.00Impressions of Seurat (Chris Cobon) - Brass Band Full Score and Parts - LM482 - Chris Cobon
COMPOSER: Chris Cobon1 - Stone breakersThe Suite opens with the only picture, of the five, which is not in the pointillist style. Several pictures were produced on the Stone Breaker theme, painted in oil on small panels called croquetons. The subjects in the art are breaking stones for use in road building. Musically the piece starts canonically alluding to the repetitive nature of the labour. A more direct, rhythmic link of three hammer blows, are first heard in the opening passages in the percussion. These hammer blows are also built into each third bar of the cannon and, therefore, become embedded into the opening section. Arising from the flurry of activity are two, three bar legato phrases in a majestic style until it falls to a more dramatic sounding of the legato phrase over a resounding of the cannon in a new textural order. This leads to a short, new section, featuring a trombone trio underneath rising scales in the cornet section.2: Bathers at AsnieresBathers at Asnieres was Seurat's first major painting...The canvas is of a suburban, Parisian riverside scene. Isolated figures, with their clothes, piled sculpturally on the riverbank, together with trees, austere boundary walls and buildings, and the River Seine are presented in a formal layout. This moment aims to capture the tranquillity of a summer's day in the park. This painting led the development of the pointillist technique whereby the colours were applied as small dots that combine to form a picture when viewed at a distance. The trombones capture this idea in the opening bars with their carillon-style entries. The 2nd/3rd cornets make a more direct link by individual picking out single notes of a melody being sounded on Baritones and trombones at C. The use of mutes adds a subtle darker side to this movement which nods to the industrial working-class aspects of the painting.3: White DogWhite Dog features a few characters relaxing in the sun, and a white dog with its tail held high. Having two dogs myself, I've taken the idea of an excited dog with a waggy tail as the basis for this short, middle, movement.4: Sunday Afternoonon the Island of La Grande Jatte Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is arguably Seurat's most famous work.5: Parade de CirqueCircus Sideshow Parade de Cirque encompasses a circus scene's boisterousness, vitality and chaos. However, the painting, constructed with the new pointillist technique, also portrays stillness, calmness and precision. As expected from looking at the picture, the trombone takes centre stage in various locations on either side of the calming circus waltz and pointillist section (I).LM482ISMN : 9790570004829
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£35.00strange geometry
Descriptionstrange geometrywas commissioned by Morgan Griffiths and the Hammonds Saltaire Band for their performance at the Brass in Concert Championships of 2015.As a bit of a space/sci-fi geek, as well as a musician, two events during the summer of 2015 had a particular effect on me. The first was the tragic early death in a plane crash of the famous film composer James Horner. Horner's music, particularly in films like 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan', 'Avatar', 'Apollo 13' and even his debut in Roger Corman's 1980 budget film 'Battle Beyond the Stars', defined for a generation the sound of sci-fi at the cinema. Along with John Williams he created the vocabulary for those who wish to express other-worldly wonder in music and his inventive talent will be much missed in an industry where originality has become something of a dirty word in recent years.The second event was the epic flyby of Pluto by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft. There are many reasons to find this mission inspiring - for example, the scientists and engineers behind it created a craft that has travelled at 37,000 mph for nine years and three billion miles to arrive within seventy-two seconds of the predicted time for the flyby. That they achieved this with such accuracy is an outstanding tribute to humanity's ingenuity and insatiable curiosity. However, the most exciting aspect of the mission was the clear, high resolution pictures of this unthinkably remote and inhospitable world beamed back to mission control. The best previous image of Pluto was an indistinct fuzzy blob - suddenly we could see mountains made of ice, glaciers of methane and carbon monoxide and nitrogen fog - features previously unimagined on a world thought to be a slightly dull ball of cold rock. The BBC's venerable astronomy programme 'The Sky at Night' waxed lyrical about these newly discovered features, referring to "the surprising discoveries of mountains and strange geometry on the surface of this cold distant world".I like to think that Horner would have been as inspired as I have been by this real-life science story, and this piece uses some of the vocabulary of the sci-fi movie soundtrack in a tribute to the memory of a great musician and to the inspirational geeks at NASA who have boldly taken us where no-one has gone before.Note: This work comes with a B4 portrait score. Listen to a preview and follow the music below!
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£120.00
Apophenia - Peter Meechan
aApophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.aApophenia is a trumpet concerto in three movements written for American trumpet virtuoso Rex Richardson. Each of the three movements features a different instrument; Movement 1 is for the Bb trumpet, the second is for flugel horn and trumpet, and the third is for trumpet and piccolo trumpet.Each of the three movements of Apophenia relate to the phenomenon of viewing Dark Side of the Rainbow - a name used to refer to the act of listening to the 1973 Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon whilst watching the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where moments where the film and the album appear to correspond with each other.Movement 1 is a fast a furious movement. Solo and ensemble interact at high tempo, swapping and creating new ideas, leading each other in new directions. Aside from the trumpet soloist, the kit player also acts as a quasi soloist.The second movement takes its musical inspiration from the Pink Floyd song Us and Them. It is during this segment of the film that some of the most amazing moments of connection happen.The final movement is a dance - and a tour de force for the soloist who begins on the Bb trumpet, before switching to the piccolo trumpet (or Eb trumpet) for the fast and furious finale. Many of the coincidences from Dark Side of the Rainbow relate to dancing, however, as long as a piece of music is the same tempo as the original, and the time signature is a regular one, this could be the case across most films. So the composer chose to write a dance that wouldn't synchronise to too many existing dance scenes!The soloist is free to improvise their own cadenza.Apophenia is dedicated to Rex Richardson.
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
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£54.99Images for Brass - Stephen Bulla
Stephen Bullas highly descriptive work was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, which took place between the 19th February and 26th March 1945.Casualties on both the American and Japanese sides were horrendously high before the famous image of the raising of the flag on top of Mount Suribachi signalled the end of one of the most significant and terrifying Pacific conflicts of the SecondWorld War.The work received its first performance by the brass choir of the U.S. Marine Band at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and is divided into four programmatic sections.The first portrays the sense of anticipation before conflict (Prologue), before the arduous journey to the scene of the battle (Approach by Sea) is followed by introspection and prayer featuring the hymn tune Melita (Chorale Prayer), andfinally, the hostile confrontation itself (Engagement).There are frequent references to the Marines Hymn and the US National Anthem, particularly in the closing bars, depicting the ultimate raising of the American flag.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£59.95Sinfonietta - Saints and Devils (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Wiffin, Rob
Saints and Devils is a challenging three movement work:Dance with the Devil (4.30)A Glimpse of Paradise (4.45)Reyes Magos (3.45)I wrote it when I was living in Spain where the Catholic culture is still much more prevalent than in the UK. The first two movements are a transition from dark to light; Dance with the Devil is aggressive and occasionally macabre whereas A Glimpse of Paradise is serene.The first and final parts of the second movement were originally written for a sequence in the Royal Military Tattoo 2000, played under the John Magee poem High Flight - 'Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth ............ Put out my hand, and touched the face of God'- with videos of eagle owls in flight dramatically projected onto the buildings of Horse Guards in Whitehall, London.The last movement, Reyes Magos, is the joyous fiesta of the Three Kings. In Spain, January 6th, rather than Christmas Day, is the main day of present-giving, marking the Epiphany, the arrival of the Kings from the Orient at the Nativity. Saints and Devils is technically and expressively demanding but is written within the realms of tonal language.- Rob WiffinDuration: 13.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£38.95Unity Series Band Journal - Numbers 534 - 537, October 2024
534: Boldly Going (Wycliffe Kortin)This arrangement is derived from a Kenyan Swahili gospel melody Simama Imara, which means 'to stand firm'. The song is an encouragement to Christians to stay strong in the Lord, even in times of difficulty. The piece has a lively rock feel which requires precision in articulation and a sense of drive throughout.535: Fill me anew (Mark Feltwell)The melody Fill me anew (T.B. 611) has always been a favourite of the composer and this composition was used at the Worchester Corps in their Pentecost services. It is a simple melody with a simple purpose and associated prayer that is the focus of the piece, 536: There's something about that name (William Gaither arr. Kingsley Layton)The chorus (S.A.S.B. 80) from which this piece takes its title was composed by Bill and Gloria Gaither. They wrote it in 1970, having watched their grandparents near the end of their lives and pass away. At the same time, they were, as a couple, embracing parenthood. It resonated with them how the young loved to say the name of Jesus as well as those that were nearing the end of their lives. The chorus reflects the peace and comfort which comes to us when we call on that name during both the good and challenging times in life. The Gaithers are a performing and songwriting couple who have become well-known within the Southern Gospel music genre.537: Selection - Singing Praises! (Noel Jones)A motif, based on the phrase 'Praise him!, Praise him!, Ever in joyful song', appears throughout the selection. Songs also featured include I love to sing of the Saviour (S.A.S.B. 845) and Singing glory, glory, Glory be to God on high (S.A.S.B. 840)
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Road to Run
The piece starts with a simple rhythmic pulse which is the basis of the entire work. This cell provides a platform for the piece to grow and develop starting with the first theme played by the euphoniums, all the way through to the conclusion performed in full gusto by the whole ensemble. The various motifs introduced throughout the opening of the piece are passed between the ensemble before the introduction of the three soloists.The central section of the piece features the Solo Trombone, Cornet and Euphonium as they take turns to play a jazz fusion solo whilst having some musical interplay with each other at the front of the stage. After this solo passage, the music then features the various sections within the ensemble, which pays homage to Weather Reports' famous "Birdland". In a jazz fused cannon, each new independent musical phrase is performed by the various sections standing. Starting with the Horns then Solo Cornets, Back Row and Flugal and finally the Baritones and Trombones.Once the different sections of the ensemble are featured, the piece then moves into the final stages. This section sees a reprieve of the opening material heard at the beginning, but further developed with the various melodic motifs passed around the ensemble. The ending builds on this material towards a rousing conclusion."Road to Run" is an up tempo, high energy concert work that has that 'feel-good factor' from start to finish. The idea behind the title is based on the feel and structure of the piece which takes the listener on a musical journey. And at 150 beats per minute - you could put it in your headphones and find your own 'Road to Run'.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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