Results
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£99.99The Divine Right (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Harper, Philip
At the time of composing this piece, the Arab Spring was sweeping through the Middle East. It seemed that almost every week a new country's people had risen up against the regimes and dictatorships which had prevailed for generations, leaving many nations at a defining crossroads in their history. There were so many possible ways ahead: so many hopes, yet so many uncertainties.This music is a depiction of these revolutionary times, and several musical themes are in turn presented, discussed, considered, fought over, altered, rejected or accepted.Most nations have had, or probably will have, their own Arab Spring, including the United Kingdom. Events of 17th Century Britain provide the context for this piece, particularly those following the execution of the tyrant King Charles I on 30 January 1649. The regicide was in part due to Charless steadfast belief in the Divine Right of Kings, and led to a tumultuous interregnum, where England stood at its own defining crossroads. The music begins turbulently, before King Charles appears and is led to the gallows outside Banqueting House in central London where he is brutally decapitated. From the assembled crowd rose, according to one observer,a moan as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again.The music descends to emptiness.The musical argument which follows is not strictly programmatic, but a number of musical themes are all thrown into the melting pot, representing ideas such as: religion; military force; reasoned Parliamentary debate; and the chattering, irrepressible voice of the people. Additionally, there are some quotations from the music of royalist composer Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656), who was often in tune with the feeling of the times.This defining episode in England's history was brought to a close with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and as the exiled King Charles II rode back into London the diarist John Evelyn wrote:Never was so joyful a day seen in this nation. I stood in the Strand and beheld it, and blessed God.At the end of the piece the bells ring out, and the musical appearance of the King has transformed from turbulent to triumphant.Duration: 17.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£106.99Evolution (Five States of Change) (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Sparke, Philip
Evolution was commissioned by Kunstfactor for the 4th section of the Dutch National Brass Band Championships (NBK) 2011. It is dedicated to Jappie Dijkstra and the Music Information Centre (MUI), Arnhem, Holland, in acknowledgement of their outstanding work in developing brass band repertoire.The composer writes:The idea for the piece came when I was reading an article about a branch of Chinese philosophy which is abbreviated as Wu Xing, which has no exact translation but can mean, for example, five elements, five phases or five states of change. It is central to all elements of Chinese thought, including science, philosophy, medicine and astrology, and in simple terms tries to create various cyclic relationships between five elements in all walks of life. An example is: Earth - Metal - Water - Wood - Fire - (Earth) etc. where (in one cycle) earth bears metal, metal changes to liquid (water) when heated, water helps trees grow, wood burns to create fire, fire produces ash (earth) and the cycle continues. I was particularly interested in the cycle of emotions: Meditation - Sorrow - Fear - Anger - Joy - (Meditation) etc. and thought this cyclic principle would provide an effective emotional journey for a piece of music. So Evolution has five equal sections which loosely characterise this emotional cycle. I have tried to make the music grow organically, with minimal repetition, and each movement evolves from the musical elements at the end of the previous one, with the opening material appearing, transformed, at the end of the piece to complete the cycle.- Philip SparkeDuration: 11:15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£74.95Red Priest (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Wilby, Philip
Concerto After VivaldiDuring his lifetime, Antonio Vivaldi was known as 'il Prete Rosso', the Red Priest, thanks to his youthful ordination and his flaming red hair. The son of a violinist at San Marco in Venice, Vivaldi's musical pedigree was impeccable and an excellent start to his career was coupled with astounding energy and productivity. His vast output of concerti grossi, using soloists in groups, inspired this composition and performers may choose appropriate stage positions for the various groupings of cornets and trombones, spaced around the performance area. The score quotes freely from some of Vivaldi's most popular compositions, including 'Winter' from The Four Seasons, the motet Nisi Dominus, the famous Gloria and the fugue from the Concerto grosso in D minor found in L'Estro Armonico.However, it is the musical spirit of Vivaldi, a close contemporary of both Handel and Casanova, that inspired this music, which should be played with a mixture of accuracy and abandoned virtuosity. The musical images in this piece have clear associations in the composer's mind with individual Venetian locations, ranging from bustling street scenes to vaulted interiors, and describing the famous journey down the Grand Canal, past the Doge's Palace, to the Ospedale della Pieta where Vivaldi worked for so many years.Suitable for Championship Section BandsDuration: 14.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£74.95Hungerford Town (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Barry, Darrol
2011 Butlins 3rd SectionHungerford Town was commissioned by Tim Crouter and the Hungerford Town Band.The piece is in four movements played through without a break:The Black Prince: Opens with a short motif on which most of the following music is based. The music settles down into a mysterious mood that builds to the first transformation of the opening theme. The music is solid and rugged.The Coach Road: Hungerford was always a popular resting place for the horse drawn coaches on the way to London. The music is light and cheerful and features the soprano cornet and solo horn as postilions.St. Lawrence's Church: The previous motif from the first baritone becomes the main theme for this section that gives plenty of scope for warm and expressive playing. Music from the start of the suite is heard before it moves into a celebratory march.The Bear: The Bear Is a local inn frequented by travellers. The opening theme is heard again and brings the work to a triumphant close.Suitable for 4th Section Bands and above
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95
Trailblazers (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Mackereth, Andrew
This overture draws its inspiration from the story of the first Household Troops Band. It tells the story of the 1887 band, the subsequent lull of nearly a hundred years and the re-awakening of the Troops phenomenon in 1985. It was originally written in 1995 and featured prominently by the band on its North American tour of 2002. Given the history of the Household Troops Band, it is fitting that this composition is preoccupied with marching. It begins with a marching song played by a solitary muted cornet, symbolic not only of the call to bandsmen to join the evangelical effort but also a muso-dramatic device to indicate the steady increase in members and technical ability! The music quickly develops into stirring versions of 'A robe of white' and 'Storm the forts of darkness' with two early day Salvation Army tunes crucially adding to the narrative; 'Marching on in the light of God' and 'Soldiers of our God, arise!' The second section is a reflective setting of the Herbert Booth song, 'The penitent's plea'. This song serves to represent the many people who were 'saved' during those early day campaigns. The expressive music transports the listener through a period of uncertainty and angst until finally reaching the song, 'There is a message, a simple message, and it's a message for us all'. The final section deals first with the emergence from the annals of history with the muted cornet figure again before, symbolically, the present day band bursts forth with an emphatic statement of 'Would you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the blood'. The stirring climax represents a fitting tribute to those gallant pioneering musicians and their equally impressive and dedicated contemporaries.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£125.00New London Pictures (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Hess, Nigel - Littlemore, Phillip
New London Pictures represents elements of London in the 21st Century. The Millennium Bridge describes the pedestrian's journey across this wonderful new landmark bridge over the Thames, starting at the imposing Tate Modern, crossing the busy river, and onwards to St. Paul's Cathedral with its bells ringing out over the great city. London Eye is an incredibly large ferris wheel situated on the South Bank of the River Thames. This movement depicts a 'flight' on this riverside wheel, at the top of which the panoramic view of London is breath-taking and the expanse of the music is a suitable depiction of the view. As with all modern cities, London is over-crowded with motor vehicles. London is the first major city in Europe to adopt a Congestion Charge, and this piece (with its stop and go traffic lights) is both racy and comical. Here are Londoners attempting to go about their business in the face of overwhelming odds..... Suitable for Premier Youth/2nd Section Bands and above. Duration: 15.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£84.99Pacific Dreams (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - De Haan, Jacob
Pacific Dreams describes the experience of Miguel, a travelling composer from Spain who, feeling somewhat alienated from his homeland, is wandering through an area of Sydney known as The Rocks. At a small outdoor market in a typical street of this old colonial neighbourhood, he discovers a print of William DeShazos painting "Pacific Dreams" Portrayed in the painting is the surf of one of the exotic islands in the Pacific. Next, with the impressive Sydney Harbour Bridge looming over the narrow streets of The Rocks, he envisions sultry Pacific beaches. Suddenly a theme he once composed about the lakes in Japan comes to him. Is it the Asian influences present in cosmopolitan Sydney that bring this theme to mind? Or perhaps the waters around Sydney, over which he could sail to Tahiti? He is uncertain. Could this same theme be used to create a new composition about his feelings for the metropolis Sydney? How then to work his Pacific Dreams into the mix? Miguel is certainly no fan of Hawaiian music. Maybe he could use the vocabularies of islands like Hawaii and Tahiti, their beautiful vowel combinations being sung ad libitum by a mixed choir.With these ideas and his newly purchased print of "Pacific Dreams", he boards the Metro at Circular Quay. He has a final glimpse of the harbour and the Sydney Opera House as the train races into the ground. On to the hotel! To work! He must compose! Maestoso : Miguel is impressed as he gazes upon the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And yet, he wants to go away from this city. Away, to an exotic island in the Pacific.Steady Rock : In the Rocks, musicians are playing at a square. Miguel basks in the atmosphere but at the same time he is fantasising about Hawaii and Tahiti. Andante Lamentoso : In his hotel room, Miguel is feeling sad and lonely in this big city. He takes comfort in his "Pacific Dreams". Allegro : Miguel boards the boat that takes him from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay. In his mind he is travelling on to Hawaii. Or is it home, where the bolero is playing? He is pulled back to reality by the skyline of Sydney.Duration: 9.15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£49.95Of Men and Mountains (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
Of Men and Mountains was commissioned by the Netherlands Brass Band Championships for their 10th Anniversary Contest, held in Drachten in December 1990.The title of the work and its genesis came about as a result of a train journey the composer took in July 1989 across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver. The awe-inspiring journey through the Rocky Mountains, with its high peaks and shafts of sunlight breaking through the clouds, with its canyons and ferocious rapids, made the composer understand a little more about the majesty of nature and the fragility of humanity. The eternal struggle between man and nature was personified in the building of this incredible railway, hence the title (after Blake).The work is dedicated to the memory of Eric Ball, who died shortly before the writing of the work was commenced.Of Men and Mountains is in one continuous movement and lasts about 17 mins. Its form is difficult to describe because of its motivic and accumulative nature, but it is essentially a symphonic tone poem in search of a theme, which eventually comes in its final and complete state in the majestic ending after an ever-increasing paced scherzo.Duration: 17.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£94.95Of Men and Mountains (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
Of Men and Mountains was commissioned by the Netherlands Brass Band Championships for their 10th Anniversary Contest, held in Drachten in December 1990.The title of the work and its genesis came about as a result of a train journey the composer took in July 1989 across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver. The awe-inspiring journey through the Rocky Mountains, with its high peaks and shafts of sunlight breaking through the clouds, with its canyons and ferocious rapids, made the composer understand a little more about the majesty of nature and the fragility of humanity. The eternal struggle between man and nature was personified in the building of this incredible railway, hence the title (after Blake).The work is dedicated to the memory of Eric Ball, who died shortly before the writing of the work was commenced.Of Men and Mountains is in one continuous movement and lasts about 17 mins. Its form is difficult to describe because of its motivic and accumulative nature, but it is essentially a symphonic tone poem in search of a theme, which eventually comes in its final and complete state in the majestic ending after an ever-increasing paced scherzo.Duration: 17.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£90.00Trittico (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Curnow, James
Trittico was commissioned by the Swiss Brass Band Association for their national championships in 1988.A trittico is a triptych or group of three paintings or musical compositions based on a common theme and presented or performed together. The present work is a set of three extended variations on the American shaped-note hymn Consolation.The work opens in grand style with motives based on intervals of the hymn tune. The opening motif, and smaller fragments of it reappear throughout the piece and serve as an underlying element alongside the theme itself.The first variation is essentially a scherzo which echoes the minor mood of the theme. The hemiolic opposition of compound and duple time is used to good effect and, again, the main motif is never far away. This is music with energy and forward movement.The second variation gives the soloists a chance to shine. The mood is tranquil, yet there is always some activity and the musical material pre-echoes the third variation.The third variation is another scherzo-like section, the main theme accompanied by a rhythmic ostinato. Toward the conclusion there is a short aleatoric passage - a variation within a variation allowing half the band to make their own variations in a cacophony of sound. An energetic coda draws together several elements to round off a work brim full of drive, energy, and self-propelled enthusiasm.Recorded on Polyphonic QPRL044D Brass from the ValleysDuration: 13:30
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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