Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works)
Composer: Simon Dobson
Set as the Test Piece for the Scottish Open Brass Band Contest to be held in Perth Concert Hall on 20th. November 2011.
...and when the river told...
And when the river told it forever had long been happening;
It saw in its midst the place arising and there, people gathering,
These people; clansmen, nomads and more decide upon society...
New gods close the doors and make paupers of those old,
Urd no longer knows the future as surely as it had once told.
And when the river told it, it told it in swirls of red,
Told of a performance of many that left a great many dead,
It told it in battle where it saw men slaughtered like cattle...
But as the river told it, its waters once more ran clear,
The river that had run forever had forgotten the fallen that lay here.
And when the river told it, it had nurtured those that stayed,
Whose trinkets had become industrialised and traded far away,
The town now tells the river in a maelstrom of clutter..
And when the town told it the river was already old; older than old
New ways close the door on old gods and rivers no longer know.
Dan Leahy, 2010
PROGRAMME NOTE
The title “...and when the river told...” is taken from a line in my favourite novel, Herman Hesse’s Siddartha, in which Siddartha contemplates his spirituality whilst sitting next to a river. My work takes Perth’s own great River Tay as its inspiration and attempts to portray the eternal nature of the river in both its never-ending flow and its timelessness. In searching for ways to convey the infinite through music, I have drawn musical inspiration from the Danish composer Per Nørgârd (b. 1932). Adapting his ‘infinity series’ (essentially a mathematical integer), I found a way to produce an infinite stream of material from just two notes and this is where my ‘river-music’ started. Of course, musical line must be linear (and must end) as we live in a world defined by time, but I wanted to imprint within the music a sense of duration beyond all measure.
The River Tay becomes the omnipresent narrator of the work and as such flows throughout the piece in various guises. There are three movements in “...and when the river told...”, but they flow without a break from one to the next. Each one begins with the ancient river and shifts into one of three episodes, centred around a different aspect of Perth and its history in the 800 years since it was granted a charter in 1210 by King William the Lion of Scotland confirming it as a Royal Burgh.
[1] ...and so the river flows...
From primaeval times comes a river unchanged by one event or another
Bagpipes can be heard drifting across the landscape.
[2] ...the charter is granted...and a storm rages...
The river swells and pipers proclaim the arrival of the royal party here to confer the charter upon the town. Amidst fanfares and regalia, the river breaks its banks and a storm washes away the only bridge to the town.
[3] ...and still the river flows...
The storm is a distant memory. All is calm. The water flows placidly, but
a sense of sadness and foreboding prevails.
[4] ...the clan baffle of North Inch...
In 1396 a gladiatorial battle took place at North Inch between the two clans of the Chattans and the Kays. Each clan fielded 30 men (one enlisted a local harness maker to even the numbers) and a fight to the death ensued. The writings on this event contain the first literary mentions of Scottish bagpipes ‘screaming their maddening notes’. A chorale for the dead follows.
[5] ...and on the river flows...
Once again the ancient river is party to the restless centuries and its waters are ever in use...
6] . . .from glass and dye to modern times...
The close of the work sees the change in industry surrounding the now mighty Perth from the traditional (whisky, glass and dyeing) to the modern digital age.
Simon Dobson, 2010
Grade equivalents for Brass Band test-pieces where there is considerable overlap at the higher levels, depending on the level of competition (local, regional or national):
| Grades 1 & 2: | Novice and Learner Bands |
| Grade 3: | Youth and 4th Section |
| Grade 4: | Advanced Youth and 3rd Section |
| Grade 4/5: | Premier Youth and 2nd Section |
| Grade 5: | 1st Section |
| Grade 5/6: | Championship and 1st Sections |
| Grade 6: | Championship |
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