Light concert music from Bernaerts, Chandos, DeHaske, Faber, Gramercy, Howard Snell, Kirklees, Lake Music, Novello, Obrasso, R Smith, Salvation Army, Studio Music, Windwood Music, Wright & Round and many, many more.
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer / arranger: Philip Sparke
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1. Champions Fanfare 2. Birthday Fanfare 3. Festival Fanfare 4. Gala Fanfare 1.00 5. Victory Fanfare.
These Fanfares range from 10 seconds to 2 minutes in length.
This collection will provide fanfares for any occasion: concert opener, presentation ceremony or celebrations of all kinds. The variety of styles and durations (from ten seconds to two minutes) will ensure you will always find the right fanfare for the right moment.
You can listen to an extract of this work on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extract(s) for you to sample.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract, you can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site. If you want to perform this work with your band, you can of course purchase the score and parts here right now, by clicking on "BUY NOW".
The CD is called "NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL BRASS Volume 3 2004 - 2005"
Five Little Pieces, realised by Paul Hindmarsh Composed as a Little Suite for recorder and piano, Heaton sketched a version for brass band around 1990. It encapsulates the range of the Heaton style in five short movements, combining brilliant fanfares, energetic dances, humour and lyricism. Grade 5 Duration: 10 mins
THE WILFRED HEATON EDITION
John Wilfred Heaton (1918 — 2000) was a composer of refined sensibility and technical skill, the true extent of whose creative gifts has only emerged since his death in May 2000. As his many admirers suspected, the music currently in print represents just a small part of what he actually composed. The Wilfred Heaton Edition, a joint project between Kirklees Music and the Wilfred Heaton Trust, will make available the remainder of his rich legacy of finished pieces, as well as performing editions of those works lost and/or complete in sketch form. Wilfred’s life in music was underpinned by wide-ranging interests in the arts, in philosophy, and by his strong religious background and faith. Yet at times during his long life, his creative impulse was often tested and questioned .
Born in Sheffield to Salvationist parents, his musical talents were nurtured through the Salvation Army. He began piano lessons at the age of eight. Soon after that he was learning the cornet and writing music of his own. His piano teacher, Salvationist songster Mrs. Bennett, guided him to his first musical milestone, an LRAM in piano, awarded when he was eighteen. He left school to become an apprentice in a small brass instrument manufacture and repair business in Sheffield, Cooking and Pace. Apart from war service in the RAF, he remained there for over twenty years, composing whenever he could. Heaton noted on a page of his last work, the autobiographical Variations, "I got help initially from a crippled SA musician [George Marshall], who had a very sound harmonic instinct, but who stressed contrapunial studies above all; then from a local music master who initiated me into the wider world of chamber and orchestral music; and finally, a lot later [the 1950’s] Matyas Seiber, whose instruction on Bach studies was invaluable. These are three with whom I had personal contact, but along with other inspiring composers — the scores of the 18th century German giants and the 20th century masters. It was expected that Wilfred would dedicate his musical talents to the Salvation Army, and in his own words, he continued to “do a good job” for the Army throughout his life. However, what he offered for publication was not always accepted. The technical and musical complexities of his best work, while placing him firmly in the European classical mainstream, were often thought to be too radical for Salvation Army performance. Those pieces that were published, like the March Praise and the Meditation Just as I am have become Salvation Army favourites, but several more were rejected. Others, like the Toccata, eventually found their way into print many years later. In his 20's and 30's, Wilfred’s musical ambitions extended beyond the brass band. There was a Suite for orchestra, which later became a Piano Sonata and eventually the Partita for band. His Op.1 was a Rhapsody for oboe and strings. Op.2 was a suite of Three Pieces for piano. Both works received performances in London under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. There was also a Little Suite for recorder and piano, composed in 1955 for the Sheffield-based recorder virtuoso, Philip Rogers. He also composed for chamber ensembles and voices.
In the late-1950’s, Wilfred’s life began to take a different course. He had taken up the french horn and was working as a peripatetic brass teacher, a move which in 1962 took the Heaton family to Harrogate. Much of the day-to-day work of instrument repair was left in the hands of Herbert Cooking, son of the former owner, who had worked under Wilfred’s enlightened guidance for thirteen years. When Herbert Cooking moved to the United States in 1964, the Sheffield business was closed. Wilfred played in a number of teachers’ orchestras and ensembles. He was a founding conductor of the Dales Sinfonia. He formed and conducted the local schools youth orchestra. Between 1962 and 1969 he was Musical Director of the Leeds Symphony Orchestra. In 1970 he spent some months as resident Musical Director of the Black Dyke Mills Band. However, as his professional activities increased, Heaton’s own creativity went into decline. He continued to arrange music for all the performing groups with which he was involved, but he composed very little. Another note on the score of Variations offers the explanation: ". . .all compositional ambitions were brought to a halt through my contact with Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposphical Movement. Involvement in this seemed to dry me up at a tempo. I lost the impulse to compose. Such an activity seemed unimportant compared with the spiritual impulses provided by Steiner." Most of his spare time was now dedicated to a systematic exploration of the worlds of philosophy, of letters and of spirituality. From time to time, though, he was persuaded out of this creative semi-retirement, most notably in 1973, when he completed Contest Music - the only wholly original work to be published in his life-time. In his later years Wilfred was pleased, but always appeared surprised, at the appreciative reception his music was by then receiving. He never re-gained his old fluency but he was encouraged by family and friends - notably the conductor Howard Snell - to take up his composing pen once again. After the death of his wife and his own retirement from teaching, there was a welcome "Indian summer" - two substantial concertos, two marches and his final Variations. A few weeks before he died, Heaton remarked that as a young man all he wanted to be was a composer. "And I suppose that urge never really leaves you" he added. Wilfred Heaton once said to a colleague there would be some surprise at what would emerge from his "unregarded corner". He was quite right.
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Edward Greig Arranger: Mark Freeh
Mark Freeh’s arrangement of five of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces are taken from the orchestral adaptations from the composer himself. Grieg wrote 66 piano miniatures, all referred to as lyric pieces.
Brass Band Grade 5: 1st Section
Duration: 12 minutes
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):
Given as a gift to the United States of America from the people of France, The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States world-wide, and is also a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
Dedicated on October 28, 1886, The Statue of Liberty commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and is a gesture of friendship from France to the United States.
Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbour, the 305 feet tall, copper-clad statue is that of a robed woman holding a torch. It is made from sheet copper (which gives it, its distinctive colour) over a framework of steel, with the exception of the torch flame which is coated in gold leaf. It stands on top of a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star.
The figure is derived from Libertas, ancient Rome's goddess of freedom from slavery, oppression, and tyranny. Her left foot, fitted in Roman sandals, tramples broken shackles, symbolizing freedom from oppression and tyranny, while her raised right foot symbolizes Liberty and Freedom refusing to stand still. Her torch signifies enlightenment. The tablet in her hand represents knowledge and shows the date of the Declaration of Independence--July 4, 1776. The seven spikes on the crown represent the seven seas and seven continents. Visually, 'Liberty' appears to draw inspiration from Greek Sun-god Helios, and I have drawn my inspiration from 'Liberty'.
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Stephen Deazley
Duration: 4:00 Minutes.
“I was asked by Music for Youth to write a flexibly scored fanfare for the School Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the National Festival in Birmingham in 2013. At its first performance, over 200 young brass players performed “Flanfayre” in Birmingham Town Hall, directed by Roger Argente, members of Superbrass and myself. The score is a progressive romp through some increasingly dance-like grooves, borrowing some of its swing from South America, from marches and big band, moving from a really quite straight opening to a “let-go” moment at the end. It is more like a flan full of different flavours, than a fanfare, hence the title. I set myself a challenge to write 100 bars but ended up with 102, which, after the introduction, can be broken down into 10 easily discernible sections each with their own mini-musical narrative. Feel free to teach the audience the clapping groove and perform only under the strict instruction that you have fun !” - Stephen Deazley.
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Jan De Haan
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A flashback is an interesting psychological phenomenon: a seemingly random trigger can bring back long-forgotten memories from the subconscious mind. The composer underwent a similar experience before writing this piece. He was asked to write a piece for The National Youth Fanfare Band in the Netherlands, one which he heard perform many years ago. All of a sudden he remembered Deep Harmony, a piece frequently programmed back then. He used his own flashback-experience as an inspiration to weave an old English hymn into his new composition, much like a musical flashback. The right idea at the right moment, as this piece will prove!
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