Results
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£29.95Aberystwyth - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 3'30". DIFFICULTY: 4th+. . A dramatic and dark setting of the well loved Joseph Parry hymn tune 'Aberystwyth'. This arrangement begins with a distant. and chilling horn solo, depicting a misty vision of the rolling coastal hills surrounding the town. The mood gradually warms . as more of the band enter before building to a fearsome and fiery climax in a quasi-battle like musical landscape. .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£29.95Cafe 1719 - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 2'30". DIFFICULTY: 1st Section+. 'Caf 1719' was composed for the Wantage Silver Band as part of their entertainment contest sets based on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in 2019. This particular short, jazz-inspired work is composed in tribute to the great French Pianist Jacques Loussier (1934-2019) who received global acclaim for his jazz interpretations of Bach's music, along with many other classical composers. Despite being born in the same year and living in the same country, Bach and Handel never actually met, but what if they had? Cafe 1917 acts as a musical meeting point - in a fictional Jazz Cafe by the Rhine, with the tenor horn section performing a 'Loussier-esque' version of Bach's 'Prelude No.2 in C Minor' whilst on the other side of the cafe, the trombone section follow suit with their take on Handel's 'Bourree from Music for the Royal Fireworks'. Eventually the two meet, share ideas and incorporate them into each other's melodies. Amongst the 2 main featured works by Bach and Handel, the tutti interludes are constructed on music from Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor'. .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£44.95Christmas Truce, The - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 7'30". DIFFICULTY: 2nd Section+. 'The Christmas Truce' was composed in 2018 for the Strata Brass Band and was used as part of their Christmas programme to mark 100 years since the end of the First World War. On the 24th December 1914, just a few weeks after war broke out, one of the most notable events of the 4-year conflict took place on the front line as the guns from both sides fell silent and soldiers came together on Christmas Eve. This composition for brass band and narrator tells the story of that night, painting a musical picture of the events as they unfolded. Using material from the carols 'In The Bleak Midwinter', 'O Tannenbaum' and 'Silent Night', the music weaves it's way around the events leading upto, during, and directly following the Christmas Truce, before culminating in a grand finale which incorporates the famous "the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God" quote from Eric Ball's 'Resurgam'. . .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£34.95Cloak and Dagger - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 4 minutes. DIFFICULTY: 1st+. Cloak and Dagger was composed for the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band's 'Murder Mystery' set at the 2018 Brass in Concert Championships. The work acts as a feature for Flugel Horn, Baritone and Trombone, each acting as a suspect in a pseudo musical 'who dunnit?'. Each solo is starkly different in charcter revealing the personality traits of the 3 mysterious suspects!.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£29.95Danse Macabre - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 4'00". DIFFICULTY: Championship. 'Danse Macabre' is a showpiece solo for Euphonium, composed for the Reg Vardy Band for the 2019 Brass in Concert Championships, held at The Sage, Gateshead. This work formed part of a set based around the 4 human temperaments; choleric, sanguine, phlegamtic and melancholic - the latter of which is represented by 'Danse Macabre'. . This solo is in 2 contrasting sections, opening with a sombre and mournful melodic passage to showcase the soloist's expressive musical qualities before breaking out into a wild dance (loosely based around fragments from the famous Saint-Saens version) demonstrating a great range of technical wizardy, range and flexibility. .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£69.95Decade - Jonathan Bates
DIFFICULTY: 3rd+. DURATION: 10'00". 'Decade' was composed to mark the 10th anniversary of the Foden's Youth Band in 2022 and was premiered by the band, Foden's Band and Foden's Junior Band at Manchester's Stoller Hall. The work is in 3 clear movements - yet is through-composed, each movement based around the figure 10. Right from the initial 10 bell strikes at the opening of the piece, the musical material is also derived from the number 10 with the main 'motif' in the piece spanning an interval of a 10th - and the piece lasts 10 minutes!. .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£79.95Grieg Variations - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 12'30". DIFFICULTY: 2nd+. . 'Grieg Variations' is a through-composed work in the traditional style of a 'theme & variations'. The work opens with the main melodic fragment featured throughout Grieg Variations which comes from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.2; the final movement - 'Solveig's Song'. . This theme is followed by a set of 9 variations, each taking inspiration from various melodies and styles found within the Peer Gynt Suite. The first variation, a light-footed scherzo based upon the tonal line of Solveig's Song is followed by an 'Alla marcia' variation - in which the music is inspired by the 2nd movement - 'Arab Dance' - of the original suite. The 3rd variation takes a far darker and more aggressive turn in a variation set around the music of the 1st movement of the Peer Gynt Suite before a relaxation into a solemne revisiting of the original theme. Opening with a sombre and longing solo for Flugel horn, the focal point of this 4th variation is an extended solo for the Solo Euphonium, marked 'molto espressivo'. The new material here is used as a theme throughout this variation, being reprised by the full band immediately after as the music builds to a climax point at the top of the musical line. . Following this, there are 2 cadenzas for the Solo Horn and Solo Cornet respectively; the former inspired by the thematic material of Solveig's Song, and the latter from the Oboe cadenza at the beginning of Grieg's '2 Lyric Pieces, Op.68'. These cadenzas lead swiftly into the 7th variation, a bustling rhyhm-driven movement set in complex time. The 3rd movement of the Peer Gynt Suite No.2 - 'Peer Gynt's Homecoming' - makes it's first appearance in variation 8 in a triumphant battle-like setting before a combination of both this material and the Solveig's Song combine to bring Grieg Variations to it's close -not without a little nod to potentially Grieg's most famous work - In The Hall of the Mountain King. . .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£34.95Real Northern Powerhouse, The - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 4'00". DIFFICULTY: Championship. Commissioned by the NASUWT Riverside Band for their 2019 appearance at the Brass in Concert Championships, held at The Sage in Gateshead, 'The Real Northern Powerhouse' is a musical representation of the huge impact various forms of industrial life had on the history, and indeed future of the North East of England. Defined into 3 clear sections - By Sea, By Land, and By Rail, the music paints a picture of the various scenes in the dockyards, coalfields and rail stations as the industrial revolution boomed. .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£89.95Songs of Ascent - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 14 minutes. DIFFICULTY: Championship. 'Songs of Ascent' was composed for the Royal Northern College of Music Brass Band, as part of their programme for the 2019 RNCM Festival of Brass. In my view, the festival itself is the leading showcase for original contemporary music for the medium (in a concert setting) in the world and therefore an ideal place to explore new ideas and sounds, which was a notion fundamental to the construction of this work. The piece is subtitled 'Out of the Depths, I cry to you, O Lord'; the opening line of Psalm 130 (which forms part of a set of 15 psalsm, 120-134 known as the Songs of Ascent") which forms the main inspiration for much of the musical material. Following an extended opening for four individual tuba lines, there are a number of solos for members of the band off stage, with bleak and deep accompaniment lines, reflecting the words of Psalm 130. Amongst these 'songs of ascents', the most common and strong themes are repentance and redemption; with the central core of this work emerging 'from the depths' to reveal one of very few calming and reflective passages of the work utilising the tune of 'Guide Me O Thy Great Redeemer' in a new setting, featuring the Solo Horn and Bass Trombone, before returning to the ethereal and dark timbres that form much of the music up to this point. In terms of compositional technique, this work is solely based on a set of 4 9-note scales in their various unique transpositions (below). Each of these scales provide a set of 2 whole tone scales, 6 minor triads, 6 major triads and is built on 9 augmented triads. Whilst most of the music in this work is based melodically on the set of notes (heard right at the outset in the motif in the tuba line), the central section delves into the harmonic capabilities of these 'modes', using a number of the 7 'keys' which can be derived from the minor & major chords derived in each scale. All 4 scales are used independantly to each other, with whole sections of the work focussing on each mode. 'Songs of Ascent' was selected as the set work for the Championship Section at the Butlin's Mineworker's Championships in 2020.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days
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£34.95War Dance of the Red Cossacks - Jonathan Bates
DURATION: 2 minutes. DIFFICULTY: 1st+. 2018 marked the centenary of the Red Cossack's declaring independence from the Russian state following the revolutions of 1917. The music combines more contemporary musical elements with that of the melodies, rhythms and modes traditionally used in early soviet music. This piece was composed for Jaren Hornmusikkforening as part of their programme for the 2018 SIDDIS Championships held in Stavanger, Norway. .
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 1-3 working days