Results
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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
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£30.00I 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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£30.00Jerusalem - C. Hubert H. Parry arr. Phillip Littlemore
Sir Hubert Parry wrote the music to the hymn Jerusalem in 1916, during the gloom of World War I. It uses William Blake's poem And Did Those Feet In Ancient Times which itself was written around 1804, and first published in 1808.Parry's hymn was originally written for the 'Fight for Right' movement, formed to sustain the resolve of Britain during the Great War. The hymn received its premiere on the 28th March 1916 in the Queen's Hall, London at a 'Fight for Right' meeting. In 1917, Parry conducted it for the ladies of the Albert Hall choir as part of a call in favour of National Service for Women. This signalled a closer relationship with the women's suffrage movement which Parry and his wife, Maude, supported. A year later, Jerusalem was sung at a suffrage demonstration concert and was adopted by the Women's' Institute as their anthem in 1924.There are regular calls for the hymn to be adopted as the official National Anthem of England, but this is not new. The first such call can be traced back to the centenary of Blake's death in 1927 and the call continues undimmed to this present day. This brass band arrangement is based on Parry's original orchestration from 1916.Duration: 2'20"Difficulty: Suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£45.00Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst arr. Phillip Littlemore
Holst first became interested in astrology around 1912/13 and so began the gestation for a series of pieces that would ultimately become the suite The Planets.The suite itself was written between 1914 and 1916 and with the exception of Mercury, which was written last, Holst wrote the music in the sequence we now know them, and thus did not present the inner planets of Mercury, Venus and Mars in their planetary order. Holst portrays Jupiter's characteristic "abundance of life and vitality" with music that is both buoyant and exuberant in equal measure. Driven by big tunes throughout, not least the solemn hymn-like (and later a patriotic song) I Vow to Thee, My Country. this piece is a magical tour de force.Duration: 8'20"Difficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Light Cavalry Overture - Franz von SuppAª arr. Phillip Littlemore
Francesco Cavalieri di Suppe-Demelli was born in Split, then in the Austrian empire, and began composing as a boy. On moving to Vienna he changed his name to the more Germanic and less ostentatious Franz von Suppe and began conducting opera as well as writing over three hundred works of his own. Most are unperformed today though the overtures, such as Poet and Peasant and Pique Dame, are still very popular. The operetta Light Cavalry was written in 1866 with a plot concerning a love intrigue which is resolved by the Hungarian Hussars (Light Cavalry).The Light Cavalry Overture consists of a fanfare, a faster section, and an Hungarian-styled slow section which are interspersed with the famous galop with its short, short long rhythm representing the beat of the horses' hooves. This music has been much copied, parodied and often used for cartoons.Duration: 6'00"Difficulty: Suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£35.00March to the Scaffold - Hector Berlioz arr. Phillip Littlemore
The March to the Scaffold is the fourth of five movements from Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The symphony tells the story of a troubled young man and his quest to find his true love. This true love is depicted in the music by a melody known as a idee fixe (fixed idea) and appears in every movement.The fourth movement takes on a nightmarish character as having taken opium, the young man dreams that he has killed his true love and is about to be executed for his crime. The music is an unrelenting forced march to the scaffold. The idee fixe appears only once in this movement, as a sudden reminiscence just before the guillotine strikes the young man's head before the movement comes to an end with a perversely joyous conclusion.Duration: 4'30"Difficulty: 3rd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Mars, The Bringer of War - Gustav Holst arr. Phillip Littlemore
Holst first became interested in astrology around 1912/13 and so began the gestation for a series of pieces that would ultimately become the suite The Planets.The suite itself was written between 1914 and 1916 and with the exception of Mercury, which was written last, Holst wrote the music in the sequence we now know them, and thus did not present the inner planets of Mercury, Venus and Mars in their planetary order. So, in 1914, came the insistent rhythmic tread of Mars, The Bringer of War. It is widely known that the sketches were completed prior to the outbreak of the First World War, so the music is less a reaction the the declaration of war itself, but more an impending sense of inevitability of a war to unfold. Even though Holst would not have known whether war would be declared as he wrote the music, it is almost certain that the news at the time would have had some influence on the music itself. Its insistent 5/4 rhythm, coupled with the winding melody line, the juxtaposition of keys such as D flat and C major all point to a sense of foreboding.Duration: 7'20"Difficulty: 2nd Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£40.00Night On Bare Mountain - Modeste Mussorgsky arr. Phillip Littlemore
Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky claimed to have been inspired by the confession of a witch who was burned at the stake in the 1660s. Bare Mountain is in fact Mount Triglav near Kiev, and the music depicts the legendary Sabbath celebrations of Russian witches held on the eve of St. John's Feast. Preliminary sketches for the piece date back as early 1858 when he was planning an opera on Gogel's tale. However, in 1867 he completed a work he called St. John's Eve of St. John's Night on Bare Mountain.Following Mussorgsky's death in 1881, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov reimagined the work and gave it the name we know today as Night on Bare Mountain. Duration: 10'00"Difficulty: First Section and above
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00Nimrod - Edward Elgar arr. Phillip Littlemore
Elgar wrote his Enigma Variations between 1898 and 1899. It is without a doubt Elgar's best-known large scale composition, and is dedicated to 'my friends within', as each variation is an affectionate portrayal of one of his circle of close acquaintances. The ninth variation, Nimrod, is dedicated to Augustus J. Jaeger, Elgar's publisher at Novello & Co. and also his editor and close friend.The name of the variation refers to 'the mighty hunter before the Lord' and can be found in the Book of Genesis. The name Jager is German for hunter. Often used for solemn occasions, it is the most poignant and beautiful pieces of British music.A video of this arrangement can be found here: NimrodDuration: c.3'00"Dofficulty: Suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days
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£30.00Os Justi - Anton Bruckner arr. Phillip Littlemore
Bruckner's four-part setting Os Justi was completed in 1879, the same year that he began work on the sixth symphony. He created an extraordinary motet in the Lydian mode, which achieves striking harmonic effects without using either a sharp or a flat. It concludes with a plainchant Alleluia.Duration: c.3'40"Difficulty: Suitable for all grades
Estimated dispatch 5-7 working days