Results
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£15.00Perseverance
DescriptionPerseverance was commissioned by Middleton Band to mark their 140th anniversary in 2016, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and featured on Middleton Band's CD of the same name.The title is taken from the original name of the 1876 band, the Middleton Perseverance Drum and Fife Band. According to the band's historical records, the Drum and Fife band was formed by six Middleton youngsters eager to learn music but short of funds. Following a whip round, they visited a music shop in Oldham where they purchased a 'one key flute' for six shillings and sixpence, and ('later on') a drum.This determination to make music despite the odds has been a characteristic of the band ever since; at the end of the second world war the band was again down to six players, who rebuilt the 'Middleton Borough Band' back to twenty-six players. After a period of some considerable success throughout the sixties and seventies culminating in winning the National Third Section title in 1983 the band hit hard times again in the late eighties and was down to only four members in 1987 before again being brought back to life. In recent decades the band has built a strong relationship with the East Lancashire Railway, another organisation which has battled sometimes mighty obstacles in its struggle to survive, and has maintained a thriving and successful youth band.The band's will to survive through adversity is reflected in the music, which builds from a sextet of four brass and two percussion players three times, only to fall back to the sextet twice. In the central slow movement the bass drum plays a 'heartbeat' rhythm as the remaining players remember those lost in the war. The relentless pace of the final section culminates in the band triumphing over the adversity which has curtailed the previous two sections. As a former member of Middleton Band (and one of the team that regained the National Third Section title in 2007) it is my pleasure to dedicate this work to the 'Pop and Ale Boys', Middleton Band.You can read more about the piece here.To view the accompanying video by Andy Marshall, designed to precede the piece, clickhereand find out more about the link between the video and the music here.Recording with Score VideoPerformance NotesIn performance the four brass members of the sextet (soprano, solo horn, solo trombone and solo euphonium) should stand at the sides of the band - soprano and horn behind the cornets, trombone and euphonium behind the trombones. Percussion may stand with them at the conductor's discretion, but only if the band has TWO snare drums and TWO concert bass drums available, as these are also needed at the back of the band in the tutti sections. In the second sextet snare drum should be muffled with a heavy cloth OR have the snares turned off (not both).Percussion and mutesPercussion required:snare drum (muffled with a heavy cloth at one point)concert bass drum, kit bass drum, hi-hat, suspended (crash) cymbal2 x tom-tomswood blockclash cymbals3 x timpanitam-tamglockenspielSoprano cornet, repiano and 2nd cornets, flugel and all trombones require metal straight mutes. Soprano, Solo Cornet 3/4, Repiano 2nd and 3rd cornets require cup mutes. Solo Cornet 1/2, Repiano, 2nd and 3rd cornets require harmon mutes.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£86.00
Saturday in the Park - Robert Lamm - Lars Erik Gudim
This is on of the group Chicago's most popular ballads, still doing great after beeing recorded in 1972 on their fifth album. Chicago's main songsriter, Robert lamm, wrote this after a particulary exhilarating 4th of July spen in New York's Central Park, where there were steel drum players, singers, dancers and jugglers. This was originally used as a soundtrack to an unreleased home video. It became the group's first gold single.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£150.00
Fragile Oasis - Peter Meechan
Fragile Oasis is the name of a collective who describe themselves as aaa grass-roots participatory initiative that connects the shared perspective of astronauts from different countries and cultures with people on Earth, encouraging all to work together so that our planet is not only visibly beautiful, but beautiful for alla.Many involved in the project are astronauts on the International Space Station (I.S.S.), who post, on their website (http://www.fragileoasis.org) many different details of their experiments, photos from space, and some incredible video footage of our Earth.One such time lapse video (a video made up many still images) was posted on their website by astronaut Ron Garan (http://www.fragileoasis.org/blog/2011/11/coming-back-down-to-our-fragile-oasis-2/) in 2011. It is made up of images taken from the I.S.S. of what Garan described as aaa couple of laps around our Fragile Oasis before coming back down [to Earth]a and features all kinds of amazing views from space.Each of the five sections of this work relate to an aspect of the video - either something literal or something more metaphorical. The opening section, i: The lights from Above, is a musical description of the view of the Aurora Australis from above the lights. The second section, ii: The Storm from Above (part i), is also a musical portrayal of portions of the video clip - in this case the many lightning storms we see from above. The storms that are so powerful on Earth appear as small bolts of electricity dancing through the clouds.The third section, iii: Freya, has its roots in personal family tragedy. The name Freya derives from a Norse goddess who was associated with both beauty and love, and in this central section I wanted to write music that not only acknowledged how fragile life itself is, but that every day of it counts and should be celebrated.iv: The Storm from Above (part ii) is a again a reference to the lightning storms, but also to the huge hurricanes we see in the video. It leads us to the final section, v: The Oasis from Above - a description of the size and grandeur of Earth, our Fragile Oasis.Fragile Oasis was commissioned by Leyland Brass Band and Michael Bach, and partly funded by The John Golland Trust, for their appearance at the 2013 European Brass Band Championships in Oslo, Norway. It is dedicated to Natalie Youson, in friendship
Estimated dispatch 12-14 working days
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£74.99Disney Around the World
If you're a Disney fan, this is your moment! This medley for brass band by James Christensen contains many of the great hits from the rich Disney repertoire: Alice in Wonderland, Colonel Hathi's March, I Wanna Be Like You (Jungle Book), It's A Small World, Let's Go Fly A Kate (Mary Poppins), Night on Bald Mountain, Robin Hood, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Under the Sea and Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£164.99Raveling Unraveling - Philip Sparke
Winning Performance EBBC Lille 2016 Raveling, Unraveling In Search of 'La Valse' was written for the Cory Band as their own-choice test piece for the 2016 European Brass Band Championships in Lille. The piece found its genesis in Sparke's The Unknown Journey (2014) for concert band, and the use of Ravel's La Valse as a structural undercurrent to the original piece is an act of reverence. Sparke's aim was to produce a work that is organic rather than episodic in nature. The composer's view is that little in music does this better than La Valse and for this reason he uses various sections of this masterpiece, both manipulated and quoted verbatim (including much of itsstunningclosing passages) to provide the overall geography of his new work. As the music progresses, more of the Ravel appears, surfacing completely as the piece reaches its climax - a gesture of homage to the French master.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£65.00Four Sketches - Simon Dobson
Simon Dobson wrote his 'Four Sketches' at the request of Peter Bossano, Head of Brass at the Royal College of Music, in recognition of the 25th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's death. The first movement, 'Fanfare',quotes directly from the opening violin melody from Britten's song cycle Les Illuminations. This melodic line is superimposed upon sonorous Lydian mode chords to project a majestic sound. The second movement, 'Prayer', is adefinite contrast, being and much more reflective and pensive in it's mood, and featuring a dream like euphonium cadenza. The third movement, 'Funeral March', builds from a soft chordal opening to a chaotic andconfusedfortississimo climax with flourishes in the cornets and pounding tri-tones across the basses, before plunging into silence for a flugel cadenza to finish. The final Finale movement is much more positive from the off, withits jaunty melodies over a Brittenesque ostinato. The block chordal passages offer a crashing climax, making for an exciting conclusion to an excellent new work for the medium. Simon Dobson's 'Four Sketches' was the winningentry in the European Brass Band Composer Competition held in Brussels in March 2002.
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£105.00Danceries. Set II - Kenneth Hesketh
Danceries Set II, arranged for brass band, was first commission by Keith Allen for the Birmingham Symphonic Winds. This second set of Danceries continues the format, established in the popular Danceries (Set I), of using tunesand dances from Playford s Dancing Master (17th century) to form the basis of an extended dancesuite. In this set, the melodies have become more abstracted and project only a distant echo of their original forms. As before, eachmovement is self-contained, colourful and direct, with its own distinct mood.The outer movements Jennie s Bawbee and Peascod s Galliarda share driving percussion with a military air. Tom Tinker s Toye and Heart sEase(movements two and three) are both settings of original melodies. All movements are more extended than in the first set, with a freer use and approach to the material; melodies now occur in various keys and are supported by agreater variety of harmonic colouring. The result is a richer, even more exhilarating set of dances.Brass Band Grade 5
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£74.99Kingdom of Dragons - Philip Harper
The 'Kingdom of Dragons' is Gwent in South Wales, known in ancient times as the Kingdom of Gwent, and more recently home to the Newport Gwent Dragons Rugby Union team. This piece was commissioned by the Gwent Music Service with additionalfunding from Ty Cerdd - Music Centre Wales to celebrate the 50th anniversary in 2010 of the formation of the Gwent Youth Brass Band. Although the music is continuous, it is divided into four distinct sections, each one representing one of theunitary authorities which make up the County of Gwent. I. Monmouthshire, which has a large number of ancient castlesII. Blaenau Gwent, an historic area of iron and coal miningIII. Torfaen, where Pontypool Park is a notablelandmarkIV. Newport, the largest city in the region. The music begins with a two-bar fanfare, which sets out all the thematic material of the piece. The mood of pageantry that follows describes some of the ancient castles inMonmouthshire, with rolling tenor drums and fanfaring cornets. After a majestic climax the music subsides and quite literally descends into the coal mines of Blaenau Gwent. The percussion provides effects that suggest industrial machineryclanking into life, and the music accelerates to become a perilous white-knuckle ride on the underground railroad. There is a brief respite as a miner's work-song is introduced and, after a protracted build-up, this is restated at fortissimo beforethe music comes crashing to an inglorious close, much like the UK's mining industry itself. The middle sonorities of the band portray the tranquillity of Pontypool Park, a place of great natural beauty. Brief cadenzas for cornet and euphoniumlead to a full band reprise of the pastoral mood. At the end of this section we find ourselves at the top of the park's 'Folly Tower' from which the distant castle turrets of Monmouthshire are visible. Pontypool RFC was one of eleven clubs inthe first Welsh league in 1881 and a brief but bruising musical portrayal of the formidable Pontypool front-row, the 'Viet Gwent' leads into the work's final section. This portrays Newport, a symbol for progress and optimism for the future, idealsshared by the Gwent Youth Band itself. The music is a vigorous fugue which advances through various keys and episodes before the final triumphant augmented entry which brings the work to a magnificent conclusion. NOTES ONPERFORMANCEPercussion requirements: (3 players) Timpani, 2 Tenor Drums, 2 Tom toms, Snare Drum (sticks and brushes required), Bass Drum, Clash Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal, Hi-hat, Sizzle Cymbal, Tambourine, Metal block with metalbeater (eg hammer), Rattle (eg football rattle), Glockenspiel, Xylophone
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£154.99REM-scapes - Thomas Doss
Sweet echoes of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in the introduction bring a gentle slumber. Breathing is calm and sleep holds the promise of rest and relaxation.With the onset of the REM sleep phase, however, in which most dreams take place and where the day's events are worked through, we hear other sounds played.With distorted sounds, reminiscent of an old gramophone, the music pulls the listener inevitably ever deeper into the dreamscape, in a very realistic dangerous situation that comes to a dramatic head. It triggers a desperate struggle between theimpulse to awaken and the exhausting urge to flee. For a short moment, it seems as if the wakeful urge has won out, before dream's powerful spell is again cast, and there's no escape...
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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£60.99Antonin's New World - Antonín Dvorák
Antonin's New World is an excellent piece of musical theatre featuring a comedy act for triangle soloist and band. The music itself does not sound comical, being based on Anton Dvorak's Symphony in E Minor (From the New World), but the right mix of seriousness and humour brings a surprising effect. With a bit of acting talent from your triangle soloist, this interpretation of the well known classical melody will be a major hit. Whether you choose Antonin's New World as a "triangle solo" novelty piece or simply as a delightful adaptation of Dvorak's immensely popular Ninth Symphony, both the band and the audience will love it!
Estimated dispatch 5-14 working days
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