Results
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£35.00Flanders Fields
Commissioned in 2014 by the 2nd Rossendale Scout Band, Flanders Fields was composed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I, also known as the Great War. It is a reflective work which uses a hymn as its basis, infusing the sound of bugle calls and marching drums to convey the impression of a conflict rather than depicting a specific battle. Narration and wordless choir can be included as part of performance. Listen: Duration: 00:07:30 Grade: 3
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£39.50Edward Gregson: Fanfare for a New Era (for Brass Band)
DescriptionComposer's NoteThe Fanfare has been designed to be partly antiphonal, with four separate brass 'choirs' initially playing their own music, and so some spatial separation is desirable. Soprano and solo cornets should be placed centrally, standing behind the rest of the band - or in some venues could even be placed off-stage in a side balcony, but still close to the band. If the Fanfare is played by a contesting size band, one of the solo cornets should play the 1st cornet part together with the usual player ie the number of players on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cornet parts should be equal. Otherwise the number of players in each of the two cornet 'choirs' is at the discretion of the conductor. The Tubular Bells accompanying the cornets 1-3 group should be placed close to that group. See inside back cover for suggested band formation.The style of playing should replicate that of symphonic brass, with a minimum of vibrato and with long notes being sustained without decaying.Programme NoteCommissioned in 2020 by Youth Brass 2000, Fanfare for a New Era was designed to be partly antiphonal - thus the separation of the band into four brass 'choirs', each with their own percussion accompaniment. First, soprano and solo cornets, rather like heraldic trumpeters, announce the main idea, majestic in character. Then horns, baritones, and euphoniums, with timpani, enter with stately figurations. Next, the heraldic trumpeters usher in trombones and tubas, to the accompaniment of tom-toms and snare drum, presenting a faster and rhythmic dance-like theme. Finally, the remaining cornets amplify the pealing of bells. All four elements then come together, surrounding the audience with a 'joyful noise' of festive brass and percussion.The original symphonic brass version of this fanfare can be purchased as part of a set of Three Fanfares HERE.For more information on Edward Gregson's music please visit the composer's website: www.edwardgregson.com
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£25.00Ariel
DescriptionAll hail, great master! Grave sir, hail! I comeTo answer thy best pleasure, be 't to fly,To swim, to dive into the fire, to rideOn the curled cloud. To thy strong bidding, taskAriel and all his quality.- William Shakespeare: The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2Ariel was written for the Hammonds Band to open their programme at the 2019 Brass in Concert Championships at The Sage Concert Hall in Gateshead, where it received its premiere. The title is taken from the character in Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest'. Ariel is an immensely powerful "air spirit" or demon bound to serve Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, after being released by Prospero from imprisonment in a tree. In the play Ariel's magical abilities are used to help Prospero revenge himself on his enemies and reclaim his dukedom, whereupon Ariel finally regains his freedom.You can hear an audio preview and follow the score below:Performance notes:The cornets and horns are split into two "choirs" to be placed left and right of the band. It may be possible for the choirs to play their opening flourish offstage, and the optional repeated sections in the opening are to accommodate stage movement if required. Trombones form a third "choir" which should ideally stand centrally between basses and percussion, and the euphoniums and baritones should sit in front of the basses. The work requires four percussionists, although if four are not available the 2nd part may be omitted.Percussion 1: Kit - bass drum, snare, 3 x toms, hi-hat, suspended cymbal - and 3 x temple blocksPercussion 2: Tam tam and orchestral bass drum.Percussion 3: Glockenspiel and timpaniPercussion 4: Tubular bellsSoprano, solo cornets and 3rd cornets require cup mutes. Solo trombone requires a cup mute, second trombone requires a metal straight mute.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£35.00The Cistercians
DescriptionThe Cistercianswas written during December 2003 and January 2004 as an entry for Morecambe Band's Centenary New Music Competition, which it went on to win. The first two performances were at the final of this competition, part of the band's 100th Anniversary Concert at The Dome in Morecambe on 9 July 2004.The music was inspired by visits to three of Britain's great Cistercian Abbeys; Valle Crucis, Fountains and Rievaulx. The Cistercian Order was founded at Citeaux in France in the 11th Century and was based on the principles of austerity, humility and piety. Cistercian Abbeys were deliberately sited in remote, difficult areas. Despite this many of them, especially Rievaulx, became immense centres of commerce and power, with ever more complex administration and hierarchies.In a way the music reflects this; all the material in the piece is derived from two simple motifs played by flugel and solo horn in the opening bars and becomes more complex and further removed from the original material as the piece develops. After a tranquil opening section a fugal chorale develops over a medieval-style "tenor" - a stretched out version of one of the original motifs. A burst of semiquavers leads into a faster, folk-dance type section - our medieval abbey has become a bustling trade centre - before rhythmic quaver pulses in the horns and cornets accompany powerful chords in the low brass; this is another "tenor" derived from the opening motifs. A short development section, including the folk dance "hocketing" round the band and a slightly disjointed 10/8 section leads to a restatement of the fugal chorale from the beginning before a frenetic coda brings the work to a triumphant conclusion.Performance Notes:Percussion instruments required are Bass Drum, Suspended Crash Cymbal, Glockenspiel, 2 x Tom-toms, Snare Drum, Tambourine, Tam-Tam, 2 x Timpani (G-C, C-F), Triangle, Wood Block. All cornets will require metal stratight mutes and all except soprano require cup mutes. All trombones require cup and metal straight mutes.Playable by 2nd section upwards; to view a sample PDF file of the score click here.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£12.00Edward Gregson: The World Rejoicing
DescriptionComposer's NoteIn 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 harmonization 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 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.The World Rejoicing is dedicated 'in loving memory of my brother', Bramwell Logan Gregson, who sadly passed away in the Autumn of 2018.Edward Gregson
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£25.00Ring'd with the Azure World
DescriptionRing'd with the Azure World was commissioned by the Harmonia Brass quintet for their final recital at the University of Huddersfield in 2016.He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.- The Eagle by Alfred, Lord TennysonThe music was inspired by Tennyson's poem reproduced above; it seeks simply to reflect the spirit of the poem. It opens in sparse, lonely mood as the eagle surveys the world beneath. The work quickens in three bursts using metrical modulation to disguise the actual moment of acceleration, reflecting the lazy energy stored in the circling raptor before concluding dramatically in a fall 'like a thunderbolt'. Tennyson's poem, although brief, has inspired much analysis and writing, and is notable for being written in the (then somewhat unfashionable) iambic tetrameter, indicating a foursquare emphasis reflected in the main theme of the music. This is heard first in an octatonic version and later in a purely tonal (if somewhat modal) version. The instrumentation reflects that of Harmonia Brass, a quintet composed of brass band instruments (two B flat cornets, an E flat tenor horn, tenor trombone and E flat tuba). However the music is also available for the more conventional brass quintet of two trumpets, french horn, trombone and tuba.To listen to an audio export preview and follow the music, click play on the video below!Performance Notes1st cornet/trumpet requires a cup mute, ideally with an adjustable cup (the marking "tight" denotes that the cup should be adjusted closer to the bell), and a harmon mute with the tube removed (denoted by "TR" in the score). 2nd cornet/trumpet requires a fibre straight mute and a harmon mute with the tube removed. Tenor horn require a fibre straight mute and a practice mute (any sort) - in the orchestral brass version the french horn requires a stop mute. Trombone requires a cup mute (only). Tuba requires a fibre straight mute and a practice mute (of any sort).Metronome marks should be closely observed - starting either too fast or too slow will have a disproportionate effect on the tempi later in the piece due to the metrically controlled tempo changes.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£45.00isti mirant stella
Descriptionisti mirant stellais based on an extract from the text of the Bayeux Tapestry, which was commissioned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, to commemorate the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. This text relates to the appearance of Halley's Comet in the spring of 1066. King Edward the Confessor died without an heir early on 5 January 1066 and despite his apparent promise of the throne to William, Duke of Normandy, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot appointed Harold Godwinson of Wessex as his successor. Just after Harold's hastily arranged coronation the comet appeared, reaching its perihelion on 20 March 1066. In the Middle Ages comets were regarded as evil omens; the tapestry depicts men gazing at the "star" in wonder and Harold himself apparently lost in nightmarish visions of invasion, with ghostly ships in the margins of the tapestry.The music attempts to reflect the mood of this brief but crucial period of English history - the unsettled matter of the royal succession linked in the superstitious medieval imagination to the haunting, spectral apparition of the comet. Medieval composition techniques are employed in places, including the use of a 'tenor', hocketing and a brief isoryhthmic motet. The music attempts to avoid tonal centres and particularly any form of diatonic 'resolution', instead exploring the issue of unresolved dissonance as a musical device in its own right.Performance Notes:All cornets, flugel and solo horn will require bottles filled with water to varying levels to 'tune' them to the correct pitch for the closing section of the piece. Pitches for the bottles are notated in the same transposition as the player's main instrument, so for example a notated D in the bottle part for flugel would sound as a C.All cornets except soprano require harmon mutes; where these are marked 'TR' these should have the tube removed. 'TI' denotes the tube should be left all the way in. Soprano and solo cornet III require metal straight mutes; flugel, all tenor horns, 2nd baritone and both euphoniums require fibre straight mutes. Soprano, all solo cornets and all trombones require cup mutes.The percussion section will require vibraphone (with a suitable bow, preferably a 'cello bow), glockenspiel, tubular bells (low and high E only), concert bass drum, tam-tam and snare drum - the bass drum and tam-tam will require brushes in addition to the normal beaters. In addition 1st horn and 1st baritone are required to play triangles, which should ideally be different pitches if possible.Approximate duration 7'48"NOTE: This set comes with a B4 score. To view a PDF preview click here.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£34.70Miserere mei, Deus (Brass Band) Gregorio Allegri arr. Espen Haukus
Miserere mei, Deus was composed by the Italian composer Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) during the 1630s for use in the Sistine Chapel during matins, as part of the exclusive Tenebrae service on Wednesday and Friday of the Holy Week. The Miserere is written for two choirs, one of five and one of four voices, and is generally accepted to be one of the finest examples of Renaissance polyphony to survive to the present day. Tutti choirs sing a simple version of the original Miserere chant; one voice then, spatially separated, sings an ornamented "commentary" on this. The comment-part is left out in this arrangement due to its meaning with text, though monotonous in tune. The introduction is added by the arranger to set the right atmosphere before the original chant is played. The brass choirs are meant to be placed opposite each other in a church or large hall. To view a video of Norges Nasjonale Brassband performing the piece please visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrJU3lwYD9U PDF download includes score and parts. Sheet music available from: UK - www.brassband.co.uk USA - www.solidbrassmusic.com Difficulty Level: 4th Section + Instrumentation: Brass Choir 1: Solo Cornets (incl. Repiano) Horn in Eb Tenor Trombones in Bb Euphoniums Basses in Bb Timpani Brass Choir 2: Soprano Cornet in Eb 2nd Cornets in Bb 3rd Cornets in Bb Flugelhorn Horns in Eb Baritones Bass Trombone Basses in Eb
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£61.64We Seven (Brass Band) Derek Jenkins
We Seven, the title of this work, comes from a book by the same name written by the United States's first astronauts. The composer writes: 'In 1959, the United States entered the space race by starting a programme whose main aims included sending a solo astronaut into space and recovering him safely. Project Mercury, as this programme was so called, recruited the first seven American astronauts and successfully sent six of them into space. These men were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton, and collectively they became known as the 'Mercury Seven.' Through their efforts and those of countless others, the United States Space Program accomplished much with these six flights, including successfully sending an astronaut into space, putting a man in orbit, and keeping him up there for more than 24 hours. In 1962, shortly after Glenn and Carpenter's orbital flights, the 'Mercury Seven' co-wrote the book We Seven and throughout it, the astronauts discuss the events leading from their selection into the programme up through Carpenter's flight in May of 1962. The primary material for the work comes from two sources: the use of musical cryptograms to encode the astronauts names and initials into pitches and the aria 'Un bel di vedremo' from Giacomo Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly. The inclusion of the latter comes directly from one of Glenn's chapters in the book. Together with a couple of the other astronauts, he would often listen to the opera to unwind from a long day of training. I would like to think that as he was orbiting the Earth that this opera, particularly this aria, would be running through his mind.' This work commemorates the Project Mercury on the 50th anniversary of its conclusion and was written for Joseph Parisi and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Wind Ensemble. This version for brass band has been prepared by the composer for the Fountain City Brass Band. To view a video of Fountain City Brass Band performing the work please visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3sBWhGkOo Sheet music available from: UK - www.brassband.co.uk USA - www.solidbrassmusic.com Difficulty Level: 1st Section + Instrumentation: 1 Soprano Cornet (Eb) 9 Cornets (Bb) [Both 3rd Cornets double Crystal Glasses] 1 Flugelhorn 3 Tenor Horns (Eb) [2nd Horn doubles Crystal Glasses] 2 Baritones (Bb) 2 Trombones (Bb) 1 Bass Trombone 2 Euphoniums (Bb) 2 Basses (Eb) 2 Basses (Bb) 4 Percussion
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£46.28Boreas: The North Wind (Brass Band) Derek Jenkins
Boreas was an ancient Greek deity personifying the north wind. He was a winged god of ruthless disposition, which was rivaled only by the harsh wintry winds at his command. Boreas fell in love with Orithyia, the King's daughter. Contrary to his genuine nature, he attempted to woo her with sweet words of devotion. His efforts were in vain, and Orithyia failed to yield to his advances. With this rejection, Boreas's temper flared and he, once again, was overcome by his icy and merciless nature. Like Boreas, this work begins with slow, lyrical lines that quickly fade into an unrelenting fury of anger. Moments reminiscent of Boreas's words of affection appear, but they are quickly washed away as the piece escalates. This arrangement was written for Joseph Parisi and the Fountain City Brass Band as a small token of thanks. The original version for wind ensemble was commissioned by and written for Timothy Shade and the Bethel College Wind Ensemble. To view a video of Diamond Brass Band performing the work please visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co4oreV7Hm4 Sheet music available from: UK - www.brassband.co.uk USA - www.solidbrassmusic.com Difficulty Level: 2nd Section + Instrumentation: 1 Soprano Cornet (Eb) 9 Cornets (Bb) 1 Flugelhorn 3 Tenor Horns (Eb) 2 Baritones (Bb) 2 Trombones (Bb) 1 Bass Trombone 2 Euphoniums (Bb) 2 Basses (Eb) 2 Basses (Bb) 4 Percussion
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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