Results
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£102.99Lake of the Moon (Brass Band - Score and Parts)
3rd Section Test Piece 2016 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championship.The travels of the Aztec people as they headed south through North America looking for a new home, acted as the inspiration for Lake of the Moon. The composition contains small fragments of Oriental music and South American rhythms and occasionally, Russian Cossacks seem to raise their heads. The journey from North to South is not without danger, which is represented by threatening sounds within the music. In the Adagio divoto the composer takes us along to the Texcoco Lake, which the Aztecs called the lake of the moon. Bring a little bit of South American history to your concert with Lake of the Moon.Duration: 11:15
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£74.95Eden (Score and Parts)
This work was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust as the test piece for the final of the 2005 Besson National Brass Band Championship, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.The score is prefaced by the final lines from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (completed in 1663), in which Adam and Eve, expelled from Paradise, make their uncertain way into the outside world:"...The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and providence their guide:They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way."My work is in three linked sections. In the first, the characters of Adam, Eve and the serpent guarding the Tree of Knowledge are respectively represented by solo euphonium, cornet and trombone. The music opens in an idyllic and tranquil mood and leads into a duet between euphonium and cornet. Throughout this passage the prevailing mood darkens, though the soloists seem to remain oblivious to the increasingly fraught atmosphere. A whip-crack announces the malevolent appearance of the solo trombone who proceeds to engage the solo cornet in a sinister dialogue.The second section interprets the Eden story as a modern metaphor for the havoc mankind has inflicted upon the world, exploiting and abusing its resources in the pursuit of wealth. Though certainly intended here as a comment on the present-day, it is by no means a new idea: Milton himself had an almost prescient awareness of it in Book I of his poem, where men, led on by Mammon:"...Ransacked the centre and with impious handsRifled the bowels of their mother earthFor treasures better hid. Soon had his crewOpened into the hill a spacious woundAnd digged out ribs of gold."So this section is fast and violent, at times almost manic in its destructive energy. At length a furious climax subsides and a tolling bell ushers in the third and final section.This final part is slow, beginning with an intense lament featuring solos for tenor-horn, flgel-horn and repiano cornet and joined later by solo baritone, soprano cornet, Eb-bass and Bb-bass.At one stage in the planning of the work it seemed likely that the music would end here - in despair. Then, mid-way through writing it, I visited the extraordinary Eden Project in Cornwall. Here, in a disused quarry - a huge man-made wound in the earth - immense biomes, containing an abundance of plant species from every region of the globe, together with an inspirational education programme, perhaps offer a small ray of hope for the future. This is the image behind the work's conclusion and the optimism it aims to express is real enough, though it is hard-won and challenged to the last.John Pickard 2005
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£29.50Eden (Score Only)
This work was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust as the test piece for the final of the 2005 Besson National Brass Band Championship, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.The score is prefaced by the final lines from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (completed in 1663), in which Adam and Eve, expelled from Paradise, make their uncertain way into the outside world:"...The world was all before them, where to chooseTheir place of rest, and providence their guide:They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,Through Eden took their solitary way."My work is in three linked sections. In the first, the characters of Adam, Eve and the serpent guarding the Tree of Knowledge are respectively represented by solo euphonium, cornet and trombone. The music opens in an idyllic and tranquil mood and leads into a duet between euphonium and cornet. Throughout this passage the prevailing mood darkens, though the soloists seem to remain oblivious to the increasingly fraught atmosphere. A whip-crack announces the malevolent appearance of the solo trombone who proceeds to engage the solo cornet in a sinister dialogue.The second section interprets the Eden story as a modern metaphor for the havoc mankind has inflicted upon the world, exploiting and abusing its resources in the pursuit of wealth. Though certainly intended here as a comment on the present-day, it is by no means a new idea: Milton himself had an almost prescient awareness of it in Book I of his poem, where men, led on by Mammon:"...Ransacked the centre and with impious handsRifled the bowels of their mother earthFor treasures better hid. Soon had his crewOpened into the hill a spacious woundAnd digged out ribs of gold."So this section is fast and violent, at times almost manic in its destructive energy. At length a furious climax subsides and a tolling bell ushers in the third and final section.This final part is slow, beginning with an intense lament featuring solos for tenor-horn, flgel-horn and repiano cornet and joined later by solo baritone, soprano cornet, Eb-bass and Bb-bass.At one stage in the planning of the work it seemed likely that the music would end here - in despair. Then, mid-way through writing it, I visited the extraordinary Eden Project in Cornwall. Here, in a disused quarry - a huge man-made wound in the earth - immense biomes, containing an abundance of plant species from every region of the globe, together with an inspirational education programme, perhaps offer a small ray of hope for the future. This is the image behind the work's conclusion and the optimism it aims to express is real enough, though it is hard-won and challenged to the last.John Pickard 2005
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£19.99Journey of the Lone Wolf (Brass Band - Score Only)
Championship Section Test Piece for the 2016 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championship.The Lone Wolf of the title is the great Hungarian composer and folklorist Bla Bartok. Bartok's journey took him from the hills of the Balkans to the heart of the new world. His singular vision may have meant a life out in the cold, a life without warmth and love, a life without true happiness, a death mourned by a few in a strange land.The first of the three linked movements is capturing the Peasants' Song and follows the young Bartok and fellow composer Zoltan Kolday as they embark on Summertime adventures through the Hungarian countryside to collect and catalogue the astonishing variety of Gypsy and folk music heard in the Balkan hills. The arrival of WW1 plunges Bartok's beloved Hungary into chaos.Bartok was at times a cold man, aloof and lonely. The occasional moments of tenderness he showed are portrayed in Night Music. His brief but intense affairs speak of a love he could only long for. Jazz is my night music and here there are hints of what Bartok may have heard in the USA later in his life.Having been forced by the world's evils to leave his homeland of Hungary for America Bartok, the anti-fascist, felt isolated and angry. In the finale, Flight and Fight, we hear his longing for a simpler time of Gypsy folk dances as well as his maturity and depth as a composer finally exploring deeper colours and darker themes.Duration: 15.00
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£79.99Journey of the Lone Wolf (Score and Parts)
Championship Section Finals Test Piece for National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2016Journey of the Lone Wolf tells the story of the hungarian composer Bla Bartk. It was commissioned by Dr. Nicholas Childs for Black Dyke Band, who gave the first performance on Sunday 26 January 2014 at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester as part of the Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass.The composer's programme notes for each movement:1. Capturing the Peasants' SongAfter the upheaval of moving to Budapest the young Bla Bartk meets Zoltn Kodly and the pair embark on summertime adventures throughout the Hungarian countryside to collect and catalogue the astonishing variety (both harmonically and rhythmically) of gypsy and folk music heard in the Balkans. The arrival of WW1 plunges Bartk's beloved Hungary into chaos.2. Night MusicBartk was at times a cold man, aloof and lonely. The odd moments of tenderness he showed are portrayed here in a series of evocative solos. His brief but intense affairs speak of a love he could only long for. Jazz is my night music and here there are hints of what Bartk may have heard in the USA later in his life.3. Flight and FightHaving been forced by the world's evils to leave his homeland of Hungary for America, Bartk, the anti-fascist, felt isolated and angry. In this movement we hear his longing for a simpler time of gypsy folk dances as well as his maturity and depth as a composer finally exploring deeper colours and darker themes.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£144.00
Banderole - Hakon Berge
Hakon Berge (born 22 April 1954 in Stavanger) is a Norwegian composer, conductor, arranger and music administrator, resident in Oslo. He studied at the Rogaland Conservatoire and at the Norwegian State Academy of Music.Berge has composed music for theatrical productions in venues such as the Rogaland Theatre, The National Theater in Bergen and the National Theatre in Oslo. He is also experienced in television production and was responsible for televised opera Gagarin - A Space Travel Opera(1991). He has composed a considerable number of commissions, including the music for the opening of the Alexandria Library, music for the opening of the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, and the test piece Brass Blot (for the European Brass Band Championships in Stavanger in 2008, in which Cory Band from South Wales won the first prize.Berge has also written the music to the documentary musical Byterminalen, also described as a rock opera, which was premiered in May 2008 in connection with the celebration of Stavanger as European City of Culture.Hakon Berge has held a number of offices in the musical life of Norway: he has been chairman both of the Norwegian Society of Composers and of TONO, the Norwegian performing rights organization.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£44.95Wall of Sound
This piece was commissioned by Dr Nicholas Childs and Philip Biggs for the National Children's Band of Great Britain.As the commission was for a youth band, I wanted to compose a piece of music that alluded to the styles and genres of music that are abundant in the current popular music market. However, the National Children's Band isn't just any old youth band; they are some of the finest young musicians in Great Britain. So the challenge was to compose a piece that included many popular music styles whilst providing enough of a test to keep the music technically interesting to work on and perform.The driving force behind the whole piece is the percussion section and in particular, the drum kit which is constant throughout. From the start the music is rhythmic and repetitive, similar to many dance tracks. The music begins to slowly unfold and build in texture and at bar 24 the syncopated main theme appears. This theme reappears throughout the piece along with various other motifs and solo lines. The music uses the styles, rock, pop, latin, funk and dance within the score and has a real fun factor about it.There are lots of opportunities for soloists to play and it is marked in the score where to stand and soloists can come out to the front of the stage. I really enjoyed working on this piece and I'm sure performers and audience members will enjoy it too.Paul Lovatt-Cooper
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days