Results
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£40.00Finale from Symphony No. 1 - Sergei Rachmaninov arr. Phillip Littlemore
Rachmaninov composed his First Symphony in 1895, at the age of just 22 years. It received its first performance on March 27, 1897, at a Russian Symphony Society concert in St. Petersburg with Alexander Glazunov conducting. The premiere was not well-received, and Rachmaninov himself blamed Glazunov for a lacklustre approach for beating time rather than finding the music. Some contemporary reports even suggested that Glazunov was inebriated when he took to the stage!Despite the disappointment of the premiere performance, Rachmaninov never destroyed the score but left it behind when he left Russia to settle in the West, eventually it was given up for lost. After the composer's death, a two-piano transcription of the symphony surfaced in Moscow, followed by a set of orchestral parts at the conservatory in Saint Petersburg. In March 1945, the symphony was performed in Moscow for the first time since its 1897 premiere. It was a grand success, and this led to a new and more enthusiastic evaluation of the symphony. In March 1948 it received a similarly successful American premiere and the work proceeded to establish itself in the general repertory.The final movement (Allegro con fuoco) is colourful and grand but not without its darkly contrasting, menacing episodes that intensifies its malevolence. It is a work overflowing with ideas demonstrating a strong, highly individual, and self-assured young talent.Duration: 5'40"Difficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Finale from Symphony No. 4 - Pyotr Tchaikovsky arr. Phillip Littlemore
Tchaikovsky began work on his Symphony No.4 in F minor in the early part of 1877, about the time he began his relationship with his long-term benefactor Nadezhda von Meck. The bulk of the composition was completed by the May of that year, although Tchaikovsky's hastily arranged marriage in the following July to Antonina Miliukova put further work on hold for a while.He returned to working on the symphony in the latter half of the same year, agonising over the orchestration of the much meatier first movement, yet finding the following movements less taxing. The Finale itself erupts with a fortissimo explosion before giving way to the Russian folk song, The Little Birch Tree , which offers much of the thematic material for the movement, until the return of the 'fate' theme from the opening of the symphony itself, which acts as a disturbing presence amongst the more carnival atmosphere of an otherwise buoyant Finale.Duration: 6'00"Difficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Finale from Symphony No. 5 - Pyotr Tchaikovsky arr. Phillip Littlemore
Tchaikovsky composed his Fifth Symphony in the summer of 1888. He suggested that the opening-and recurrent-theme of the symphony represented "a complete resignation before Fate." The finale begins with a slow introduction of the 'fate' theme which segues into an Allegro Vivace of drive and energy, during which a majestic version of the fate theme periodically emerges. Finally, after a notorious "false" ending, the music courses ahead to a dramatic climax.Duration: c.7'30"Diffculty: 3rd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£55.00Ancient Airs and Dances - Ottorino Respighi arr. Phillip Littlemore
Ancient Airs and Dances is a set of three orchestral suites written in 1917, 1924 and 1932 respectively. In each, Respighi borrows melodic material from the 16th and 17th centuries, and then applies his own distinct voice to create something at once new and old. This arrangement takes four separate movements from two of the three sets. Balletto detto "Il Conte Orlando" by Simone Molinaro, was a popular piece from the beginning of the 17th century. Its noble rhythmic gestures in the opening and closing sections are answered by a more reflective mood in the middle. Gagliarda, by Vincenzo Galilei (father of the famous astronomer) was originally called Polymnia, after one of the muses of song. Arie di Corte (Courtly Airs), is based on a set of songs by Jean-Baptiste Besard, where sprightlier dances are enveloped by a stately dance. The finale is a clever alternation of two anonymous dances of the late 16th century. There are several variations on a passa-mezzo with interjections of a mascherada. The suite arrives at a brilliant finish with the mascherada's fanfare theme.A recording of this work can be found here: Ancient Airs and Dances.Duration: c. 9'30"Grade: 4th Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Carmen Suite - Georges Bizet arr. Phillip Littlemore
Incredible as it seems today, Bizet's opera Carmen was met with a lukewarm reception at its premiere at the Paris Opera-Comique in 1875; critics condemned its subject matter as lurid and its music overly Wagnerian, and it ran for a mere 37 performances. Bizet died with a few days of it opening at the tragically early age of just thirty-six. Now hailed as the composer's supreme achievement, this colourful, passionate work continues to delight listeners around the world with its emotional, atmospheric music and the originality of its conception. Two orchestral suites were created in the latter part of the 19th Century each containing six pieces.This brass band arrangement brings together three of these pieces, the Aragonaise , the Habanera and Les Toreadors .Duration: c.7'00"Difficulty: 3rd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£55.00First Suite in E flat - Gustav Holst arr. Phillip Littlemore
Although completed in 1909, Gustav Holst's First Suite in E flat received its official premiere 11 years later at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, on 23rd June 1920. There are three movements in the suite: Chaconne, Intermezzo and March. Holst himself said "As each movement is founded on the same phrase, the suite be played right through without a break." The Chaconne begins with a ground bass, repeated throughout the ensemble sixteen times as varying instrumental textures and variations of the theme are layered within it. The Intermezzo is light and brisk and features many soloistic passages. The March consists of two themes, the opening is a light march contrasted with a longer, more lyrical second theme. The movement concludes with both themes superimposed on one an another.This brass band arrangement includes the section omitted from the first movement of the Sydney Herbert transcription. Duration: 10'Difficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£55.00Perfect Fool, The - Gustav Holst arr. Phillip Littlemore
The music for The Perfect Fool is taken from the comic opera by Gustav Holst, written between 1918 and 1922. The opera received its premiere at Covent Garden, London on 14th May 1923. This arrangement consists of the three dances from the ballet which starts the work: Dance of Spirits of Earth, Dance of Spirits of Water and Dance of Spirits of Fire.Duration: 9'30"Difficulty: 1st Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£55.00Second Suite in F - Gustav Holst arr. Phillip Littlemore
Gustav Holst's Second Suite in F was composed in 1911, two years after the first suite, yet like his first suite it didn't receive its premiere until many years later, on 30th June 1922, at Royal Albert Hall in London and performed by band of The Military School of Music.The Suite uses English folk songs and folk dance tunes throughout. The opening march movement uses three tunes: a lively Morris Dance called Glorishears, the folk song Swansea Town and finally Cloudy Banks. The first two tunes are repeated to conclude the first movement. The second movement is a setting of I'll Love My Love, a sad story of a young maiden driven into Bedlam by grief over her lover being sent to sea by his parents to prevent their marriage. The Song of the Blacksmith follows with a lively hammer rhythms and the score actually asks for a blacksmith's anvil. The final movement is a fantasia based on the 16th Century English country-dance, The Dargason, with the Elizabethan love-song Greensleeves intertwined. This is a new brass band arrangement that has a lighter texture to that made by Sydney Herbert, restoring it to the original key of F and including sectioned omitted from the 1923 arrangement.Duration: c. 12 minutesDifficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£119.95The Snowman - Howard Blake arr. Phillip Littlemore
Raymond Briggs' charming Christmas story about the adventures of a boy and the snowman that comes to life is a modern children's classic. The tales popularity has been further enhanced by frequent television broadcasts of the award-winning cartoon film The Snowman. This version is for narrator, boy soprano and brass band. Please note a keyboard is essential with both piano and strings/harp sounds.A video of this arrangement can be found here: The Snowman (excerpt)Duration: 26 minutesDifficulty: Challenging, but suitable for all.
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00Ave Maria - Franz Schubert arr. Phillip Littlemore
Franz Schubert wrote his Ave Maria in 1825. It is the third of three song settings from Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, itself written in 1810. It's proper title is Ellen's Song, named after the heroine of Scott's poem, Ellen Douglas.It has been suggested that the opening two words of the original song may have led to the idea of it being arranged for the full text of the Roman Catholic Prayer. It is now most often performed in this latter adaptation, thus leading to the misconception that it was originally set with the prayer in mind.Even in Schubert's own brief lifetime, he was only thirty-one when he died, this song was considered a masterpiece. It acquired greater popularity when it was used in the 1940 Walt Disney film Fantasia where its beauty and simplicity offered calm and respite following the tempestuous strains of Mussorgsky's A Night on Bare Mountain .Duration: 3'40"Difficulty: Suitable for all
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days