Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works)
Composer: Edward Gregson
Difficulty level: Championship
Set as the testpiece for the 2008 British Open Brass Band Contest - duration 16.44
Click on MORE DETAILS to hear the assocaited audio extracts provided for this work.
If you enjoyed listening to the excerpts and want to hear the full performance, you can purchase the CD recording on this site - "WITHIN BLUE EMPIRES" with the Black Dyke Band conducted by Dr. Nicholas Childs.
PERFORMANCE NOTES
The 1st Cornet is required to double on Flugel Horn in the Lament.
Percussion requirements are as follows (four players required):
Timpani
Percussion 1: Snare Drum; 4 Temple Blocks; Triangle; Suspended Cymbal; Clashed Cymbals
Percussion 2: Vibraslap; Whip; Suspended Cymbal; Glockenspiel
Percussion 3: Bass Drum; Tam-Tam; Marimba; Tubular Bells
STYLE AND INTERPRETATION
Rococo Variations is based on a quasi-Baroque theme which, although original, nevertheless conforms to earlier models in its character, both melodically and rhythmically. To this end, the dotted rhythms, which are an important component of the theme, should follow customary contemporary performance practice in veering towards being double-dotted. Although I have not written them in double dotted notation (that would have been far too fussy!), the aim should be to produce a feeling of ‘sprung-rhythm’, somewhere between dotted and double-dotted. This only applies to the opening (until fig. 1) and from fig. 46 onwards, although the dotted rhythms in the Lament could also be treated in the same way. The style of playing of the theme should also match the Baroque ‘mood’ in being played without much rubato and with a minimum of vibrato.
Although there must always be some flexibility in the interpretation of a composer’s metronome markings, there should be an expectation to keep within the boundaries of such markings. In the theme and the slower variations (i.e. the Siciliana and Lament ) it is important to keep the music flowing, with a strong sense of the tempo being ‘alive’. Any distortion of this, with the result that the music might get ‘bogged down’, would be against my intentions. In this regard it might be beneficial for conductors to note how much the interpretation of tempi and the articulation of rhythms in Baroque music have changed over the past 30 years or so (i.e. tempi have speeded up and rhythms have become more ‘pronounced’).
PROGRAMME NOTE
Rococo Variations was commissioned by the British Open Championships for their 2008 contest in
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and co-commissioned by the Norwegian Band Federation, for their
National Championship in Bergen in 2009.
The title of the work has been used before, of course, most notably by Tchaikovsky in his work for cello and orchestra. My set of variations follows the Tchaikovskian model in that it is based on a quasi- Baroque original theme, and has certain ‘dance-like’ characteristics in the variations, but beyond that all comparisons end.
There are six variations: Toccata, Siciliana, Waltz, Moto Perpetuo, Lament, and Fugal Scherzo, followed by a triumphant re-statement of the theme. Throughout, there is considerable contrast in the music, with the fast variations being rather virtuoso in character, sometimes with constantly changing time patterns, whilst the two slow variations (Siciliana and Lament) are in turn lyrical and pensive in mood with prominent solos and duets for a number of instruments.
Although the work overall is dedicated by my brother, each of the six variations pays tribute to a different composer whose contribution to the brass band repertoire during the second half of the twentieth century has been of great significance. To this end, all six composers have their own ‘musical signature’ embraced within the particular variation, a process which reaches its zenith, contrapuntally speaking, during the final variation and reprise of the theme.
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