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£29.99Brilliant Bach - Joseph Knight
This is a light concert piece which has been based on the famous BWV 999 prelude in C minor. This is very much a light concert treatment of the piece which includes a lively rock beat from the drums and needs a good xylophone player. It lasts just over three minutes and has been designed to be a rousing, but light moment in the programme. The standard of the piece is fourth section upwards.
Estimated dispatch 5-9 working days
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£30.00Hot Gospel - Various
Tim Paton has creatively arranged for brass band this selection of familiar hymns/religious songs to create a 5-movement, gospel-styled work. With features for soloists across the band and a great mix of styles including swing, traditional jazz, blues, and calypso, this makes for a versatile concert feature either as a complete piece piece (9 minutes); using the alternative optional cuts (4.5 minutes); or simply by cherry-picking the individual movements in order to spotlight the different styles/melodies/soloists of your choice.With solo features in each section, the piece includes:The Church's One Foundation - Swing version with Tenor Horn soloNearer My God To Thee - Traditional jazz style with Cornet soloThe Old Rugged Cross - Bluesy with Flugel soloHow Great Thou Art - Calypso with Euphonium soloJust A Closer Walk With Thee - Finale with jazzy Trombone soloTim comments:The community gospel choir sound has become very popular in recent years. "Hot Gospel" is my attempt to capture this charismatic experience in a medley of well known sacred music. Each of the five songs chosen follows a similar pattern - a verse for full band followed by a solo, and all solos are intended to sound like improvisation.I've included Optional Cuts which would reduce the play length from c. 9 minutes, down to approximately 4.5 mintues, should your concert programming not allow for the full version. The optional cuts simply side-step the solo section of each song.However you wish to perform Hot Gospel, it will definitely bring variety to programme choice.Also available for wind/concert band.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£30.00Roots - Lucy Pankhurst
Commissioned by Katrina Marzella in 2008, this modern 'duet' for Baritone and Euphonium soloists with brass band accompaniment has been inspired by 'nature and environment' as its primary muse. The music takes the listener through 7 stages of environmental atmosphere, in its combination of sounds and effects. It is a very uplifting work and with the back-story in mind (see programme notes below), it makes for an incredibly effective concert feature.Programme notes from the composer, Lucy Pankhurst:There are 7 main sections in the piece :RainGerminationGrowthTransionSunshineRainstormRestThe work begins with Rain, symbolised by the rainstick and 'rain sounds' in the brass , which allows the themes to germinate. The 'roots' of the music themselves, are firmly established in the tonic (root Eb) and 5ths in the low brass, from which the solo lines eventually grow, using triads and 5ths.During Growth, the solo baritone and euphonium begin with separate melodies which begin to twist around each other (much like tree roots), interlocking to produce harmonies and counterpoint, complimenting one another and firmly keeping the music in Eb major. Muted cornets and trombones continue to play overlapping semiquavers, reflecting the raindrops as they fall from the trees and leaves.A brief interlude, featuring brass sextet drives the music back to its Germination stage - here, named Transion, as it grows once more, evolving into something new. The Sunshine section is a dance. Moving rapidly through different keys, the warm sunlight catches on the dewy foliage, creating dazzling moments of clarity and beauty.However, the change in conditions also lead to brief moments of uncertainty, as the various creatures tentatively reappear from their shelter to bask as the earth is warmed. Birdsong can be heard in the solo lines as the entire band join in the celebrations.The jollity does not last long, however, as a Rainstorm, more violent than the last , ensues - stopping the dance in its tracks. The tam-tam and bass drum signify thunder, crashing into the music abruptly. However, the music still survives and re-emerges from the storm, delicately but securely establishing itself into a new key (C major), before softly concluding with the two soloists in rhythmic unison as the rain subsides and the world is at Rest.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£30.00The St Louis Blues - Sandy Coffin, W C Handy
Two-Step MarchCommissioned by John Wallace, this arrangement of The St Louis Blues has been crafted by Sandy Coffin through close listening of the available recordings of the Harlem Hellfighters Band. Sandy had been heavily involved with the Historic Brass Society symposium 2017 held in New York and assisted John with his research on this fascinating band and the style of music it generated.Eye-witness accounts refer to the 369th band 'dancing' rather than 'marching'. Above all, in modern performance, finding a 'dancing beat' is crucial to a successful performance of this Ragtime march in order to do justice to the great pioneering work of James Reese Europe.Note the flutter-tonguing and use of muting, the counter-melody in soprano cornet, and the wilder and yet wilder nature of each repetition of the Chorus.Look and Listen:Background to the Harlem HellfightersThe US Army 369th Regiment, made up largely of African-Americans from New York, became known as the Harlem Hellfighters because of the heroic reputation which accrued to them during the actions they engaged in during the First World War in Europe.James Reese Europe was one of the most active African-American composer/musical directors in the pre-war American music scene. The legendary Harlem Hellfighters Band, which he assembled in 1917 from African-American and Puerto Rican musicians, came at an important transitional point in musical history. A new form of music called jazz was emerging from Ragtime and the performing style of Europe's band was immersed in the flow of this new direction.Europe's Harlem Hellfighters influenced and inspired everyone who heard them, including the welcoming crowd when they disembarked in France, bowled over by their swinging rendition of La Marseillaise. Reese Europe became a war hero, commanding a machine-gun unit as well as the band.On return from War in 1919 the band led a ticker-tape parade along Fifth Avenue in New York and soon made about 30 shellac recordings. These recordings display some of the fingerprints of their performing style: ragging, improvising, muting, wailing, smearing (their word for glissando) - and from the evidence of their recordings they took the printed page as a blueprint for individuality.In May 1919 during the Hellfighters' triumphant coast-to-coast tour after their return, James Reese Europe was tragically murdered, bringing to premature close, at the age of 39, the work of a great musical innovator.
In Stock: Estimated dispatch 3-5 working days
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£25.00Accolade - Phillip Littlemore
Accolade - meaning an award, an honour or a laudatory notice. This fanfare for brass band literally builds from the bottom up as a battery of percussion leads to the lower band's statement of the theme before passing through the middle of the band that builds with a series of interjections. The theme is then restated in the upper band before the battery of percussion returns to end.The fanfare was written for Regent Brass as the title track for their 1990 recording to celebrate both their 5th anniversary and to being crowned 3rd Section Champion Band of Great Britain in 1988 - an accolade indeed!Duration: c.1'00"Diffiiculty: Suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£25.00Air from the Suite in D - J. S. Bach arr. Phillip Littlemore
Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 3 in D, from a set of four such suites, was recreated from a set of autographed parts from around the 1730s, as no score has survived. The music is believed to date from some years prior to that and is possibly derived from an even earlier work than that.The Air, perhaps the most famous movement from all the Suites, has been arranged as a tenor horn feature, although there is no part for cornets, bass trombone, euphoniums or percussion in this transcription.Duration: c. 3 minutesDifficulty: Suitable for all
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore - Giuseppe Verdi arr. Phillip Littlemore
The Anvil Chorus from Verdi's opera Il Trovatore is from Act II. The original Italian is 'Coro di zingari' (Gypsy chorus), and it depicts the Gypsy men striking their anvils (hence the English name) and singing the praises of hard work, good wine and their women!Duration: c.4'30"Difficulty: 3rd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£35.00Bolero - Maurice Ravel arr. Phillip Littlemore
Ravel's one-movement orchestral piece Bolero was written in 1928. It epitomises Ravel's preoccupation with restyling and reinventing dance movements. It was also one of the last pieces he composed before illness forced him into retirement. The original version has a duration of between 15 and 18 minutes, depending on the tempo set by the conductor. This brass band arrangement is significantly shorter, lasting a mere 4 minutes or so. There is also an 'extra' ending, similar to that used in the musical sensation Blast! which almost guarantees additional applause at a concert!Duration: c.4'30"Dofficulty: 3rd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£35.00By The Beautiful Blue Danube - Johann Strauss II arr. Phillip Littlemore
The Blue Danube or, to be more precise, By The Beautiful Blue Danube was composed by Johann Strauss II in 1866. It has remained one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire although its initial performance was considered only a mild success. Duration: c. 8'00" (5'30" without repeats)Difficulty: Suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00Humming Chorus - Giacomo Puccini arr. Phillip Littlemore
In Puccini's opera, Madam Butterfly, the Coro a bocca chiusa (Humming Chorus) is performed by an off-stage chorus which hums a wordless, melancholy tune, whilst Butterfly, her maid Suzuki, and her child begin the long wait for husband Pinkerton to return after many years away. As night falls, Suzuki and the child are soon asleep, but Butterfly keeps her vigil. This arrangement features four flugel horns, each of which plays into the bell of a bass whilst the bass player moves the valves - creating a unique humming sound.Puccini actually wrote five versions of the opera, Madam Butterfly. After a disastrous premiere in early 1904, Puccini withdrew the opera and substantially rewrote it creating a very successful second version. However, he continued to tinker with the orchestration, not being satisfied until the fifth, and now standard, version dating from 1907.Duration: c.2'40"Difficulty: suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days