Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Philip Wilby
Set as the CHAMPIONSHIP SECTION Test Piece for the 2011 British Brass Band Regionals.
Click on MORE DETAILS to view the Solo Cornet part and listen to the SEVEN audio extracts.
Written as Championship Section testpiece - and one of the best, a real bandsmans favourite. Duration - performances we have on CD vary between 15.00 and 16.52
Theme and set of 16 variations - we have picked out the THEME, and six sample variations to give you a taste of this masterwork - click on MORE DETAILS to listen to the audio extracts.
Composer’s Note: My Paganini Variations were commissioned by the BBC for their “Band of the Year 1991”, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and first performed in a recording on 10 May 1991 at the BBC’s Manchester Studios.
The intention was to compose a piece that would use more of Paganini than his time-honoured melody, but would also attempt to recreate, in modem terms, something of the wild and romantic spirit of his times. Thus the piece exists on two complementary levels. I have taken the celebrated melody from his 24th Caprice and provided it with a set of fourteen variations aimed to exploit the fill potential of modem brass band playing. The full flavour of Paganini’s romantic heritage finds its expression in a mixture of extravagantly virtuosic display, and serene and passionate melody. In short, I have tried to combine two strands within my piece, one historical and one contemporary. As with all arranged marriages the risks seem great, but my hope is that this maybe a marriage of two laudable elements which devalues neither but celebrates both. Philip Wilby.
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