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£68.99
African Symphony - Van McCoy
American music producer, songwriter and musician Van McCoy became famous for his instrumental hit The Hustle. His African Symphony was released in the 1970's and was soon arranged for Brass Band by Naohiro Iwai whose brilliant arrangement helped to establish his excellent reputation as an arranger of band music.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£104.99
Arkansas - Jacob de Haan
This concert work, the latest of Jacob de Haan works based on American states, is a suite in three movements, based on a well-known folk tune from Arkansas. In the course of this varied work the folk song appears in its complete form and in fragments, in major and in minor, as a ballad in a lyrical orchestration, as a blues, accompanied by a jazzy rhythm and at the end again in its pure form. In the process, all instrumental groups of the brass band get their chance to shine!
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£40.00
FAtes - Claude Debussy arr. Phillip Littlemore
Debussy's Nocturnes are a set of three orchestral pieces inspired by three paintings by the American James McNeill Whistler from the 1870s. These three paintings, also entitled Nocturnes, were studies in light and shade offering an impression of landscapes and objects. The second movement, Fetes (Festivals) offers a dancing, vibrating rhythm with sudden flashes of ight. There is also a procession, described by Debussy as a dazzling fantastic vision, which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it (letter J in the score). However the background remains the same driving dance-like work.Debussy wrote the Nocturnes between 1897 and 1899 and the first two movements, the first being Clouds, received their premiere in Paris in 1900. The first performance met with a cool critical reception and Debussy made many revisions thereafter to all three movements.Duration: 6'00"Difficulty: 2nd section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00
I Vow To The, My Country - Gustav Holst/Geoff Knorr arr. Phillip Littlemore
Gustav Holst wrote his suite The Planets during the early years of the first world war. The expansive movement, Jupiter, contained a tune that Holst later used to set the poem by Cecil Spring-Rice, I Vow To Thee, My Country. Originally set for unison voices with orchestra, Holst adapted it as a hymn tune and called it Thaxted, named after the village where he lived for many years.The American composer, Geoff Knorr, incorporated Holst's music into his score for the strategy-based video game Civilisation V, where it is used to depict the England of Elizabeth I. It is from this music that this transcription is made.Although originally written in 1908 and entitled Urbs Dei, Spring-Rice revisited the text of his poem in January 1918 and significantly altered both the first and second verses to reflect his feelings about the war, and those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. He also renamed the poem with the title we know today. Because of its sentiment, it has now become a staple of Remembrance services.A video of this arrangement can be found here: I Vow To Thee, My CountryDuration: 5'40"Difficulty: Suitable for all
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00
Stars and Stripes Forever, The - John Philip Sousa arr. Phillip Littlemore
The patriotic American march The Stars and Stripes Forever is the official National March of the United States of America, as decreed by a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress. It is probably Sousa's most famous composition.While on vacation in Europe with his wife, Sousa received word that his good friend and band manager, David Blakely, had died. Sousa quickly returned to the States aboard the S.S. Teutonic, and whilst aboard he began to form the music that was to become his most famous march. According to his Sousa's autobiography, Marching On, he composed the majority of the work on Christmas Day 1896: "I did not transfer a note of that music to paper while I was on the steamer, but when we reached shore, I set down the measures that my brain had been playing for me, and not a note of it has ever changed." For twenty-five years Sousa's Band played the march at almost every concert it held.Duration: 3'50"Difficulty: Suitable for all
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00
Finale 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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£30.00
Skin Deep - Louis Bellson arr. Phillip Littlemore
Louie Bellson was an American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator. He was credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums and worked with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Duke Ellington. Skin Deep was the title track of his 1954 solo album, and is a great swing number. There are several drum solo passages, with the last one being as long as the drummer likes, although band directors might want to consider curtailing the more exuberant kit players!Duration: 4'00"Difficulty: 2nd Section and above (band accompaniment)
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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Play a Simple Melody - Irving Berlin - Len Jenkins
"Play a Simple Melody" is a song from the 1914 musical, "Watch Your Step"; the first stage musical that Berlin wrote. It is one of the few true examples of counterpoint in American popular music. First a "simple melody" plays alone; this is then followed by a jaunty contrasting melody, and finally, the two melodies play together, each with independent lyrics. Another example of this genre is "(I wonder why) You're Just in Love", also available for Brass Band from Wobbleco Music.
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Game Of Thrones - Ramin Djawadi - Len Jenkins
"Game of Thrones" is an American fantasy drama television series based on George Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" and has received widespread acclaim by critics, although its use of nudity and violence has caused controversy. Filmed in Belfast and on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Iceland, and Morocco, it premiered in 2011 and continues into a fourth season in 2014. The series interweaves several plot lines and through its morally ambiguous characters, explores the issues of social hierarchy, religion, loyalty, corruption, sexuality, civil war, crime, and punishment. It is set in a period that contains elements from the dark ages through to the medieval. The music for the series was composed by Ramin Djawadi and is noted for its popular main theme which is presented here as an arrangement for Brass Band. In keeping with the period depicted, the piece contains a significant contribution from the percussion section and care has been taken to achieve the desired effect with the normal resources of the average band.
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Bernie's Song - Miller/Leiber/Stoller ver.Mulligan, arr.John Dankworth - Len Jenkins
Bernie's Tune is a 1953 jazz standard with music written by Bernie Miller and lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was popularised through a recording by the quartet of the American saxophonist and composer Gerry Mulligan, and the tune was a popular choice for musicians jamming at the time. Information about the composer is scarce. All that people really know of him is that he was a piano player from Washington DC. Gerry Mulligan's version was subsequently arranged by the late, legendary John Dankworth and this arrangement for brass band has been faithfully based on it to evoke the atmosphere of that golden era.