Categories: 2022 REGIONAL TEST PIECES, TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Gilbert Vinter Difficulty level: Championship
Previously set as a Championship Section Test Piece - Duration 12.04
Set as the First Section test piece for the 2022 Regional Championships of the British Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
Classic descriptive Vinter - his musical depiction of the seven colours in the spectrum, each vividly portrayed in brilliant sound / colours.
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.
Categories: 2022 REGIONAL TEST PIECES, TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Gilbert Vinter Difficulty level: Championship
Previously set as a Championship Section Test Piece - Duration 12.04
Set as the First Section test piece for the 2022 Regional Championships of the British Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Mario Burki
Grade 4
Duration 9:00
This publisher rates grade difficulty as follows:
1 = very easy 2 = easy 3 = easy/medium 4 = medium/difficult 5 = difficult 6 = very difficult
The designation spheres was the geocentric (Earth-centric) idea that describes the firmament of concentric transparent shells at different distances which rotate at different rates and attached to which are the sun, moon and the stars.
The work, "Spheres", in German "cases," tries to describe this in music.
In the beginning the earth (earth's crust) is described with a powerful fanfare.
This is followed, after a tumultuous transition, the description of the emptiness of the individual spheres.
Tempo now rises, according to Pythagoras' theory that rotating spheres produce a "heavenly" music, a pulse and a melody.
The construction ends in a brilliant Allegro, which symbolizes that the although the spheres are independent individuals, from them the whole universe is a unit.
The work was dedicated by the Youth Music Ostermundigen the company Ziswiler Recycling Ltd in gratitude for the extremely generous financial support.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Thomas Doss
Duration 17.00 Previously set as the Test Piece for the 2010 European Brass Band Championships.
Set as the Championship Section Test Piece for the 2015 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championships in the Royal Albert Hall, London onSaturday the 10th October.
A Bach chorale stands at the centre of this work (Für deinen Thron tret´ ich hiermit). Anton Bruckner was one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s great admirers. His work is full of the spirit of that musical genius. For Thomas Doss, it was Bruckner’s spirit that always seemed to be with him while working on Spiriti. Bruckner’s spirit is captured in this composition by a quote from the chorale of his Fifth Symphony at the end of the piece. The introduction, written in the style of a funeral march, already displays the first fragments of the chorale. Like splinters they are strewn throughout the first Allegro, combining and recombining in turbulent, powerful tutti passages. As the music becomes more rambunctious, the Bach-like fragments begin to swirl around each other, only to be scattered once more.
The middle-section is of a more pensive nature. The Religioso character gives the audience time to reflect. The music is meditative and the quarter-note (or crotchet) elements mimic a soul that is yearning and crying out.
The third part of the piece finally leads, by way of minimalist elements and the fragments mentioned earlier, to a magnificent presentation of the Bach chorale. As the church bells ring out, one can almost hear the great masters presiding at the organ.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Thomas Doss
Set as the Test Piece for the 2010 European Brass Band Championships.
Set as the Championship Section Test Piece for the 2015 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championships in the Royal Albert Hall, London on Saturday the 10th October.
A Bach chorale stands at the centre of this work (Für deinen Thron tret´ ich hiermit). Anton Bruckner was one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s great admirers. His work is full of the spirit of that musical genius. For Thomas Doss, it was Bruckner’s spirit that always seemed to be with him while working on Spiriti. Bruckner’s spirit is captured in this composition by a quote from the chorale of his Fifth Symphony at the end of the piece. The introduction, written in the style of a funeral march, already displays the first fragments of the chorale. Like splinters they are strewn throughout the first Allegro, combining and recombining in turbulent, powerful tutti passages. As the music becomes more rambunctious, the Bach-like fragments begin to swirl around each other, only to be scattered once more.
The middle-section is of a more pensive nature. The Religioso character gives the audience time to reflect. The music is meditative and the quarter-note (or crotchet) elements mimic a soul that is yearning and crying out.
The third part of the piece finally leads, by way of minimalist elements and the fragments mentioned earlier, to a magnificent presentation of the Bach chorale. As the church bells ring out, one can almost hear the great masters presiding at the organ.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Kenneth Downie
Set as the Championship Section Test Piece for the 2014 Britsh Brass Band Regional Championships.
If you have enjoyed listening to the audio extract here, and want to hear the entire performance, you can purchase the REGIONS 2014 CD on this site which contains full performances of all 5 testpieces. Simply type REGIONALS 2014 into the QUICK SEARCH to the right of your screen to find it.
Dedicated to Alastair Massey, an inspirational music teacher.
Commissioned by the Scottish Brass Band Association for the 2004 European Brass Band Championships in Glasgow.
This music is a set of variations on the tune known as St Magnus, which is attributed to Jeremiah Clarke. Most people will associate it with Thomas Kelly’s hymn which begins: “The Head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now”.
The tune is very simple, consisting of just two, four-bar phrases. Neither is there much in the way of rhythmic variety, every note being a crotchet with the exception of two quavers, and the last note in each phrase. Within such a simple structure, however, lies considerable strength.
THEME The listener is given the opportunity of hearing it twice, in full, at the beginning, starting with one player but soon taken up by the full ensemble. It returns in the middle of the music and is stated again near the end. This has been done quite deliberately in the hope that there will be an appreciation of what material is being developed, by the listener as well as by those with access to the score, who are able to see the visual connections.
VARIATION 1 This takes the rhythm of the last part of the theme and also uses the shape of the opening as a recurring figure. The mood is whimsical and skittish, with short, teasing rhythmic figures tossed around the band, and quick interplay with percussion, at a fast tempo. An energetic flourish finishes this variation before the Andante espress.
VARIATION 2 This commences with chords related to the opening of Variation 1. The cantabile on solo comets establishes a new, lyrical mood and there is scope for expressive playing in a series of short solo passages. The theme works its way unobtrusively into the texture before a reprise of the solo cornet melody and some more lyrical interchanges between Eb bass, euphonium, flugel horn and comets. The variation ends serenely with clear references to the last phrase of the theme.
VARIATION 3 The first idea to dominate is clearly linked to the shape of the theme’s first phrase. There is a frenetic feel to much of this variation, with considerable energy and instability created by extensive use of cross-rhythms. A thinning-out of the score marks a clear change to development of the start of the second phrase of the theme. This proves to be short-lived however, and the opening material returns leading to a restatement of the theme, “Maestoso,” after which a euphonium cadenza links to Variation 4.
VARIATION 4 Here we have some solos for euphonium, cornet, trombone and Eb bass set against a background of horns and baritones presenting a pensive statement of the theme’s opening.
VARIATION 5 This commences Allegro, with lively work for cornet and euphonium spreading to the whole band before attention focuses on the beginning of the second phrase of the theme which is initially presented in diminution, then in regular rhythm, then in inversion. An increase in tempo coupled with a decrease in volume, requires dexterity and control, with several metrical challenges thrown in for good measure. The same fragment of phrase becomes an ostinato which generates a frenzied climax, punctuated by short, dramatic silence, before the opening figure returns and the music gradually winds down. The tubular bells herald the final return of the theme, in augmentation, marking the start of the Finale.
FINALE This features the running semiquavers of the previous variation sounding in counterpoint. A fast, furious coda speeds the work to a conclusion while references to the opening of the theme are still trying to break into the texture of the music.
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