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£35.00strange geometry
Descriptionstrange geometrywas commissioned by Morgan Griffiths and the Hammonds Saltaire Band for their performance at the Brass in Concert Championships of 2015.As a bit of a space/sci-fi geek, as well as a musician, two events during the summer of 2015 had a particular effect on me. The first was the tragic early death in a plane crash of the famous film composer James Horner. Horner's music, particularly in films like 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan', 'Avatar', 'Apollo 13' and even his debut in Roger Corman's 1980 budget film 'Battle Beyond the Stars', defined for a generation the sound of sci-fi at the cinema. Along with John Williams he created the vocabulary for those who wish to express other-worldly wonder in music and his inventive talent will be much missed in an industry where originality has become something of a dirty word in recent years.The second event was the epic flyby of Pluto by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft. There are many reasons to find this mission inspiring - for example, the scientists and engineers behind it created a craft that has travelled at 37,000 mph for nine years and three billion miles to arrive within seventy-two seconds of the predicted time for the flyby. That they achieved this with such accuracy is an outstanding tribute to humanity's ingenuity and insatiable curiosity. However, the most exciting aspect of the mission was the clear, high resolution pictures of this unthinkably remote and inhospitable world beamed back to mission control. The best previous image of Pluto was an indistinct fuzzy blob - suddenly we could see mountains made of ice, glaciers of methane and carbon monoxide and nitrogen fog - features previously unimagined on a world thought to be a slightly dull ball of cold rock. The BBC's venerable astronomy programme 'The Sky at Night' waxed lyrical about these newly discovered features, referring to "the surprising discoveries of mountains and strange geometry on the surface of this cold distant world".I like to think that Horner would have been as inspired as I have been by this real-life science story, and this piece uses some of the vocabulary of the sci-fi movie soundtrack in a tribute to the memory of a great musician and to the inspirational geeks at NASA who have boldly taken us where no-one has gone before.Note: This work comes with a B4 portrait score. Listen to a preview and follow the music below!
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£84.95In League with Extraordinary Gentlemen (Euphonium Solo with Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Graham, Peter
Concerto for EuphoniumIn League with Extraordinary Gentlemen combines two of composer Peter Graham's life interests - composition and 19th century popular fiction. Each of the concerto's three movements takes its musical inspiration from extraordinary characters who have transcended the original genre and have subsequently found mass audiences through film, television and comic book adaptations.The first movement follows a traditional sonata form outline with one slight modification. The order of themes in the recapitulation is reversed, mirroring a plot climax in the H.G. Wells novella The Time Machine (where the protagonist, known only as The Time Traveller, puts his machine into reverse bringing the story back full circle).The Adventure of the Final Problem is the title of a short story published in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. This is an account of the great detective's final struggle with his long-time adversary Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. The music takes the form of a slowed down lndler (a Swiss/Austrian folk dance) and various acoustic and electronic echo effects call to mind the alpine landscape. The final bars pose a question paralleling that of Conan Doyle in the story - have we really seen the last of Sherlock Holmes?The final movement, The Great Race, (available separately) follows Phileas Fogg on the last stage of his epic journey "Around the World in Eighty Days" (from the novel by Jules Verne). The moto perpetuo nature of the music gives full rein to the soloist's technical virtuosity. As the work draws to a conclusion, the frantic scramble by Fogg to meet his deadline at the Reform Club in Pall Mall, London, is echoed by the soloist's increasingly demanding ascending figuration, set against the background of Big Ben clock chimes.In League with Extraordinary Gentlemen was first performed in the brass band version by David Thornton and the Black Dyke Band, conductor Nicholas Childs, at the RNCM Concert Hall Manchester on January 30, 2009.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£74.95Radio City (Trombone Solo with Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Graham, Peter
As youngsters growing up on the west coast of Scotland, my brother and I fell heir to an old valved radiogram which provided us with our first experiences of radio broadcasts. On the short wave signal, and through the static, we could pick up a whole range of programmes from across the Atlantic. I particularly recall the baseball games, the American accents of the announcers providing a window to a evocative world far removed from our small Ayrshire town. These memories form the basis of Radio City.The work is set in three movements, each introduced by a pastiche radio announcer narrative written by Philip Coutts. The first, City Noir, is a nod towards Raymond Chandler's eponymous private eye Philip Marlow and the dark cityscape of 1940s California.Movement two, Cafe Rouge, takes its title from the main restaurant in New York's famous Hotel Pennsylvania. Two of the most famous band leaders of the 1940s, trombonists Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, broadcast live from the cafe on numerous occasions and the movement echoes with a collage of imagined sounds from the period.The finale, Two-Minute Mile, derives from an event dubbed in the USA as "the most exciting two minutes in sport", namely the Kentucky Derby. The virtuoso soloist figurations have their roots in Kentucky bluegrass fiddle music, with the galloping bluegrass clog-dancing rhythms providing the backdrop.- Peter Graham, Cheshire, January 2013
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£59.95Essay (Brass Band - Score and Parts) - Gregson, Edward
This work was specially commissioned as the test piece for a new brass band competition in 1971, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It is in three movements, the titles of which all have literary connotations. The first movement, Dialogue takes the form of 'conversations' between the instruments, based on the opening melody announced in unison on cornets and euphoniums. A second theme is introduced on the flugel horn and developed alongside this, creating a sonata form shell.The second movement, Soliloquy is dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Vinter - a composer who did so much in the 1960s to bring the brass band into the modern world. The movement is poignant in mood, which is depicted by a cornet solo announced after a brief introduction. The middle section builds to a powerful climax, at which point the opening theme of the first movement is heard again. Tranquillity returns however, with a solo trombone now playing the original theme with other instruments adding decorative accompanying patterns.The final movement, Epigram, creates strong rhythmic contrasts and exploits the more virtuoso character of the brass band. The middle section, with its changing time patterns and open expansive melody, suggests a 'big-country' style. A rhythmically charged coda concludes the work in exciting fashion.Duration: 12.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.95
Essay (Brass Band - Score only) - Gregson, Edward
This work was specially commissioned as the test piece for a new brass band competition in 1971, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It is in three movements, the titles of which all have literary connotations. The first movement, Dialogue takes the form of 'conversations' between the instruments, based on the opening melody announced in unison on cornets and euphoniums. A second theme is introduced on the flugel horn and developed alongside this, creating a sonata form shell.The second movement, Soliloquy is dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Vinter - a composer who did so much in the 1960s to bring the brass band into the modern world. The movement is poignant in mood, which is depicted by a cornet solo announced after a brief introduction. The middle section builds to a powerful climax, at which point the opening theme of the first movement is heard again. Tranquillity returns however, with a solo trombone now playing the original theme with other instruments adding decorative accompanying patterns.The final movement, Epigram, creates strong rhythmic contrasts and exploits the more virtuoso character of the brass band. The middle section, with its changing time patterns and open expansive melody, suggests a 'big-country' style. A rhythmically charged coda concludes the work in exciting fashion.Duration: 12.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£25.00Christmas Concerto
DescriptionThis arrangement of Corelli's famous "Christmas Concerto" features soprano cornet, two solo cornets and solo euphonium. Arcangelo Corelli was one of the first masters of the baroque period, a skilled violinist much admired by fellow composers like Bach and Handel. He was born in Fusignano, near Ferrara in Northern Italy in 1653. He studied in nearby Bologna where he became an extremely competent violinist. By the 1670s he was working in Rome and building a reputation as a composer at the important and powerful Papal court. By the late 1600s he was widely famous all over Europe, regularly invited to important courts and palaces. Although he had a huge influence on the virtuoso writing of later composers, his writing for string instruments was designed to be playable by average, often amateur players.His set of Concerti Grossi known as Opus 6 was not published in his lifetime. We think they were written around 1690, and they were first published in Amsterdam in 1714, a year after Corelli's death. A 'Concerto Grosso' is a concerto for a group of soloists (the "concertino" group) accompanied by an ensemble (the "ripieno" group) and was an important form in the Baroque era. Handel's very successful examples were modelled on Corelli's example. Number 8 from the Opus 6 set was commissioned by the Venetian Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and bears the inscriptionFatto per la notte di Natale('made for the night of Christmas'). It was used as part of the soundtrack for the 2003 film 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World".Performance Notes.In this arrangement the 'Concertino' group are the soprano cornet, solo cornets 1 & 2 and the solo euphonium. If logistics allow they should stand either at the front of or some distance away from the band. There is no percussion in this arrangement. All tutti cornets will require cup mutes.Duration approximately 3'15".You can listen to a preview while following the score below:
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£30.00Black Bottom Stomp - Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, professionally known as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer who started his career in New Orleans, Louisiana. Widely recognised as a pivotal figure in early jazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spirit and characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition in 1915. Morton is also notable for writing such standards as "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say". Notorious for his arrogance and self-promotion, Morton claimed to have invented jazz outright in 1902, much to the derision of fellow musicians and the critics. At the age of fourteen, Morton began working as a piano player in a brothel (or, as it was referred to back then, a sporting house). In that atmosphere, he often sang smutty lyrics and took the nickname "Jelly Roll". While working there, he was living with his religious, church-going great-grandmother; who he convinced that he worked as a night watchman in a barrel factory. After Morton's grandmother found out that he was playing jazz in a local brothel, she kicked him out of her house and told him that "devil music" would surely bring about his downfall. Born in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, his exact birth date differs depending to whichever source you want to believe; his half-sisters claimed he was born in September 1885, but his World War 1 draft card showed September 1884 and his California death certificate listed his birth as September 1889. He died in 1941 in Los Angeles.
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£30.00Red Hot Pepper Stomp - Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, professionally known asJelly Roll Morton, was an Americanragtimeandearly jazzpianist, band leader andcomposer who started his career inNew Orleans,Louisiana. Widely recognised as a pivotal figure in earlyjazz, Morton is perhaps most notable as jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential spiritand characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition in 1915. Morton is also notable for writing suchstandardsas "KingPorter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I HeardBuddy BoldenSay". Notorious for his arrogance and self-promotion, Morton claimed to have invented jazz outright in 1902, much to the derisionof fellow musicians and the critics. At the age of fourteen, Morton began working as a piano player in a brothel (or, as it was referred to back then, a sporting house). In that atmosphere,he often sang smutty lyrics and took the nickname "Jelly Roll". While working there,he was living with his religious, church-going great-grandmother; who he convinced that he worked as a night watchman in a barrel factory. After Morton's grandmother found out that he was playing jazz in a local brothel, she kicked him out of her house and told him that "devil music" would surely bring about his downfall. Born in downtown New Orleans,Louisiana, his exact birth date differs depending to whichever source you want to believe; his half-sisters claimed he was born in September 1885 but his World War 1 draft card showed September 1884 and his California death certificate listed his birth as September 1889. He died in 1941 in Los Angeles.
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£59.99Bofors To The Fore Joseph Knight
This piece was a commission to commemorate the memory of Gunner A. E. Collins who during the second world war was engaged in an action where during an advance through Belgium heavy resistance was met and he and an officer had to cover a retreat using Bofors guns. In the final report the title of this piece was actually used by the commanding officer.The piece its self is in three movements and follows the flow of the battle. The first movement called "Advance" is cautious and has the hint of battle. It starts quietly and then builds up slowly and finishes unresolved. Movement two "Engagement" starts suddenly in 7/8 and uses cyclical rhythms and clustered chords to show the horror and chaos of battle and also the firing the Bofors guns. The third movement "Safe Return" brings all of the themes from the first two movements and finishes with "The End Of The Day". The commission stated that bugle calls and "The End Of The Day" should be included.The piece is suitable for a concert work or indeed the contest stage.J Knight 2022.
Estimated dispatch 5-9 working days
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£115.60Valdresmarsj - Johannes Hanssen
Valdres is a mountain region that lies between Oslo and Bergen. Johannes Hanssen (1874-1967) composed the march for the Valdres Battalion between 1901 and 1904, using the Battalions horn-signal combined with a traditional style folk-tune. The march has been named "one of the greatest marches in the world" on many occasions, and it is a firm favourite with it's national flavor and unusual style. This version is similar to Johannes Hanssens revised version for Wind Band from 1954. However, it is interesting to notice that in Hanssens very first version of the march half a century earlier, the first theme was played by the Eb-Cornet, just like in this arrangement for brassband.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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