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£19.65Adam Zero, Suite from (Brass Band - Study Score)
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
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£18.00Scarborough Fair
DescriptionScarborough Fair is a traditional English ballad about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough. The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.As the versions of the ballad known under the title Scarborough Fair are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the theory that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task.As the song spread, it was adapted, modified, and rewritten to the point that dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century, although only a few are typically sung nowadays. The references to the traditional English fair, "Scarborough Fair" and the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" date to 19th century versions. A number of older versions refer to locations other than Scarborough Fair, including Wittingham Fair, Cape Ann, "twixt Berwik and Lyne", etc.The earliest notable recording of it was by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, a version which heavily influenced Simon and Garfunkel's later more famous version. Amongst many other recordings, the tune was used by the Stone Roses as the basis of their song "Elizabeth my Dear".
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£25.00BRITISH ISLES SUITE FOR BRASS BAND AND PERCUSSION, A (Brass Band Extra Score) - Bates, Jonathan
2012 National Championships Finals - Fourth Section. The four movement work quotes hallowed poets and prose writers. The first movement uses Robert Burns's 'When Chill November's surly blast made field and forest bare' - a musical depiction of a Scottish highland landscape in crisp mid-winter. Movement 2 takes Dylan Thomas's 'Though lovers be lost, love shall not' and showcases soloists performing their individual love stories, finishing with an adaptation of the Welsh national anthem, whilst the third movement quotes the Irish poer, Yeats. The music links the Isle of Man and Ireland, opening with the Manx national anthem and traditional Manz dancing, before leading to a Dublin dance scene. Movement 4 quotes Shakespeare's 'Be not afraid of greatness', opening with a fanfare by percussion, then moving into Holst's In the Bleak Mid Winter and to the seventh variation of Elgar's Enigma Variations, Nimrod.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£64.95
BRITISH ISLES SUITE FOR BRASS BAND AND PERCUSSION, A (Brass Band Set - Score and Parts) - Bates, Jonathan
2012 National Championships Finals - Fourth Section. The four movement work quotes hallowed poets and prose writers. The first movement uses Robert Burns's 'When Chill November's surly blast made field and forest bare' - a musical depiction of a Scottish highland landscape in crisp mid-winter. Movement 2 takes Dylan Thomas's 'Though lovers be lost, love shall not' and showcases soloists performing their individual love stories, finishing with an adaptation of the Welsh national anthem, whilst the third movement quotes the Irish poer, Yeats. The music links the Isle of Man and Ireland, opening with the Manx national anthem and traditional Manz dancing, before leading to a Dublin dance scene. Movement 4 quotes Shakespeare's 'Be not afraid of greatness', opening with a fanfare by percussion, then moving into Holst's In the Bleak Mid Winter and to the seventh variation of Elgar's Enigma Variations, Nimrod.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£38.95Unity Series Band Journal - Numbers 522 - 525, October 2023
522: Festival March - The Rescuers (Andrew Hedley)This exciting and bright festival march comes from a new contributor to the band journals. Andrew Hedley is a bandsman at Chester-le-Street Corps and a member of the Euphonium Section of the International Staff Band. This work contains inventive harmonic and melodic patterns and we hope this will be the first of many works from this composer to be seen in our journals.523: Moses and Pharaoh (Ralph Pearce)This piece owes its creation to the playing of the Montclair Citadel Young Peoples' Band in the Sunday School assembly every weekend. The song Pharaoh, Pharaoh is extremely popular and is sung with gusto and much movement. The presentation of this song derives for an accompaniment written for the band to play along with the singing. To widen its use, the spiritual Go down, Moses (STTL Vol.7, Part 2) was added to make the present composition. This music should have drive throughout and be played with a sense of fun.524: Lord, to thee (Alan Williams)This is a setting of the tune Hendon (T.B. 249). The piece uses the first verse of Frances Ridley Havergal's commonly associated text 'Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee' (S.A.S.B. 623), and from there it takes its title.525: Song Arrangement - This is why (Noel Jones)This music is based on the tune This is why (T.B. 353) by Elisha Albright Hoffman and this two-verse arrangement reflects the great song of testimony Would you know why I love Jesus (S.A.S.B. 912). An associated scripture reference is found in Mark 10:45 'For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many'. The motif 'Would you know' occurs in the opening bars and is repeated throughout the piece, along with fragments of the first verse. The chorus confirms the hoy that Christians experience knowing that Christ's sacrifice has bought forgiveness for our wrongdoings.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days