Results
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£45.00Diversions 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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£34.95Judd: Salsalvation
In writing this piece I set out to emulate the sound of the Stan Kenton big band and music of that 'golden' era. The piece itself is based around two Salvation Army tunes that are associated with the word, 'salvation'; Steadily forward march! (T.B. 799) and Hark, hark, my soul (T.B.542).The music is intentionally flamboyant and requires a secure grasp of the style and rhythm to be successful. It was featured at the Belfast Temple Music School to great effect.Andrew Mackereth
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.95Carol of the Bells
Christmas time is my favourite time of year. I love the festive spirit and all the Christmas music both traditional and modern.This piece is based on the traditional Ukrainian Bell Carol that was composed by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych. Throughout the piece you hear a four note ostinato that is the backbone to the music. I have taken those ideas and motifs and have mixed them with some of my own to create this piece of Christmas music.For something different I have given this piece two endings for the conductor to choose. The first ending is at bar 189 (page 18 in the score) where there is the repeated four bar ostinato section in the solo cornets and percussion that is marked "Keep repeating and fade to nothing". This is so the piece can either fade to nothing or for a bit of originality the piece can fade into the next piece during a concert programme.For ending number two you need to cut from bar 189 to 193 (bypassing ending one). And continue to the end. The choice of endings should bring some interesting performances of this wonderful traditional Christmas piece.Paul Lovatt-Cooper
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£37.50Brass Monkey's Jazz Workout
This huge release brings together a selection of music composed by Paul H Traves that introduces your learners to the different style of Jazz that is available. Naturally, the rhythmic work required to play such styles means that this publication will push your learners on and will challenge them at a new level. Syncopation and swing are at the heart of the music in this collection and it is the perfect way to get your learners playing in new styles not always covered by training band music. This title offers excellent value for money with seven titles included. This publication features:SNAKES & LADDERS - (teaching dynamics and expressive playing)CHROMATICS - (As the title suggest, ensuring every valve us used!)ROCKIN' GERONIMO - (featuring triplets and accidentals)TRUMPET DRIFT - (introducing crotchet triplets & syncopation)J.B.'s 12 BAR BLUES - (a well-known style that feature sharp key signatures)J.B.'s CALYPSO (unison playing and tight rhythmic playing required)ZIG-ZAG (getting players into a lazy swing style)
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£82.95Vivat! (Score and Parts)
VIVAT! was commissioned by Kapitol for the 2012 National Championship of Great Britain first section final as a celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The work is split into three contrasting sections that run continuously, with music derived from elements of Parry's coronation anthem I Was Glad. In Memoriam evokes the noble but gentle personality of the Queen's father, George VI. Opening with an atmospheric baritone solo (and later featuring solo horn, flugel, euphonium & solo cornet), the music explores themes of grief, sentimentality and hope. Coronation, a fanfare and subsequent theme, is grandiose in style capturing the spirit and excitement of British pomp and ceremony.The closing Jubilate is a celebration of life and family values, Vivat being the Latin for life or long live. The music passes through moments of tension, virtuosity, humour and jubilance before a finale constructed from connected musical fragments drawn from throughout the work, forming (for the first time) Parry's majestic I was Glad theme.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£9.95First Quartet (Brass Quartet - Score and Parts)
My first Brass Quartet was written in 1968, immediately after I finished my studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and was in response to a request from my then publisher, R Smith & Co, to write some chamber music for brass band instruments. It is scored for two cornets, horn and euphonium. In the same year I also wrote another quartet (No. 2) which is scored for the more unusual combination of two horns, baritone, and tuba. The First Quartet is really a miniature in terms of length, lasting less than six minutes. However, it packs a lot of punch in its two connected movements, a Prelude and a Capriccio. The Prelude is lyrical in style and opens with a rising figure (covering a major seventh) on euphonium answered by muted cornets. These ideas form the material for the movement which is arch shape in structure. The opening returns, immediately followed by a transition passage which leads directly into the turbulent Capriccio. This is rather Bartokian in style (I was very influenced by Bartok in my student days and had closely studied his six string quartets), in the manner of a Hungarian dance in 5/8 time. The constantly changing metric patterns give the music a rather disruptive quality, but also an opportunity for the players to show their virtuoso abilities. - Edward Gregson
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£25.00Silver Spirit - Brass Band - LM369
COMPOSER: Franner OtterA Concert Piece for Brass Bandby Franner OtterThis piece was inspired by the resilient spirit that quickly blossomedwithin the brass band movement as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.Despite being unable to meet and play together,bands found freedom of expression through other methodsof making music together such as online group performanceswhich enabled a whole new world of collaborative music-making to flourish.Band members were able to share their musical talentand the joy of performing with a whole new audienceas well as developing and nurturing a new outlet of creative expression.Instead of remaining musically confined during lockdown,brass bands and their members found a new freedomswithin this structure to create and share music with others.This composition is intended to reflect the cheerfuland good-humoured attitude of band membersin the way that they went about coping with the enforced restrictionsand the happiness that was demonstrated in making music together.This piece is dedicated to the positive spirit of theBrass Band movement that has shone through this difficult time.Franner Otter
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£89.95
Of Distant Memories - Edward Gregson
Parts only. 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 musicallanguages, 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 traditionalconcepts 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, thepercussion 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 theirpredecessors. Of Distant Memories is the composers own way of repaying that gratitude.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£74.99Olympus - Philip Harper
Selected as the test-piece for the 3rd Section Regional contests of the National Brass Band Championships 2012The music begins with a depiction of the exciting Opening Ceremony where noisy fanfares and sudden swells add to the cosmopolitan flag-waving clamour. Without a break the music leads to The Chariot Race, a fast compound-time gallop withthundering hooves in the basses and percussion, and a heroic melody introduced by the tenor horns. Chariot racing was the main equestrian event in the Ancient Greek Games, which were founded in memory of King Oenomaus. In the Greek legend he suffereddefeat in a chariot race to his son-in-law and Zeus' grandson, Pelops, but much of the music is bitter-sweet to symbolise the fact that Pelops had to cheat to win drawing parallels with some of the issues still facing modern-day athletics. A slow, mystical passage follows, describing The Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The statue of Zeus, who was honoured throughout the Ancient Games' history, was housed inside the temple and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Themusic depicts this period of the dawn of one of mankind's most ancient civilisations and there is a series of solo passages above a drone. The next section is called The Olympic Flame and a broad and lyrical anthem-like melody develops slowly in the euphoniums, which gradually ascends until the horns can take it over before passing upwards again to the cornets (Higher). The musicbursts into bright life at the lighting of the flame and the regular rhythmic pattern which has been established goes through an accelerando (Faster). The final section is called The Olympic Truce and aims to capture the cooperative spirit of the ancient practice of ending wars for the duration of the games. The anthem-like melody makes an affirmatory return (Stronger) and the work ends asit began with a blaze of colour and a real sense of optimism and global celebration. "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stonger)NOTES ON PERFORMANCEPercussion requirements: 1 to 3 players (3 Timpani, Snare Drum, Tenor Drum, Cymbals, Glockenspiel, Triangle)
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£22.00Journey 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
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