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Over Christmas I was in New Zealand visiting family and on a day trip we went to an area near Wellington, which had stunning natural beauty. Very late in the afternoon the sun fell behind the mountains in just the right place to produce beautiful shadows of the mountains of the lake contained in the valley. These amazing views inspired me to write Mountain Shadows Stretching Across the Lake.
As I compose for both Wind and Brass ensembles I wanted to amalgamate the two styles together. I wanted to make this piece one of the most harmonically complex pieces I have written and I decided to use one of the most basic ideas and to have a concert Eb continuously playing (not always in the same octave) throughout the piece. This enables different harmonic progressions to come through and this gives the overall emotional’ effect I wanted. The only melodic ideas which come from this piece begin at rehearsal mark A and B. These themes play out over the harmonic changes and create something for the audience to hone in on with all the harmonic change going on underneath. My pieces usually finish with loud dynamics or seem certain to have finished. However, with Mountain Shadows Stretching Across The Lake, it was always my aim to make the ending seem uncertain and leave the audience wondering whether to clap or not. This is also true of the beginning, where it starts very quietly and gradually builds over a couple of minutes before it comes to any louder dynamic. The beginning does not move around very much and almost like setting the scene for the main theme at rehearsal mark A. If this piece is thought of as accompanying imagery, the opening represents the sun slowly falling over the mountains into the angle, which will create the shadows stretching across the lake, which incidentally occurs, musically, at rehearsal mark A. Finally, there is little melodic development and the underlying factors, which create this piece are therefore, harmonic.
Grade C
Duration 5:40
This publisher rates grade difficulty as follows:
A = very easy B = easy C = medium D = difficult E = very difficult
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Philip Sparke
(From a Pittsburgh Symphony)
You can listen to a audio extract and view the Solo Cornet part as a PDF image of this work on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will the PDF image and the audio extract for you to sample.
Commissioned by Bob Bernat and the River City Brass Band (USA), Mountain Song is a programatic piece descriptive of many happy holidays Philip Sparke spent in Mayrhofen in the Austrian Tyrol. (6.22) The piece opens with the sound of the church bell. dying away as the view of the village becomes more distant. As the climber gets higher, the broad panorama of the Ziller Valley is visible through the trees. A fresh breeze catches the climber by surprise, rustling the nearby branches, and a few steps further on we are above the tree line and the full beauty of the surrounding scenery is revealed. Having rested a while and taken in the views, it is time to start the climb down and we eventually reach the village again to the echoes of the church bell.
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Chris Hazell Arranger: Alan Catherall
Superb concert or entertainment contest item - duration 2.50
Click on "MORE DETAILS" button on the right of your screen to either hear an mp3 file audio extract or view the Flugel Horn Part as a PDF file on your computer.
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The recording is Brass in Concert 2004 - Highlights - DOY CD194
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: W. Hogarth Lear
Carnival of Venice for Brass Band - great fun.
Duration 4.42
Elgar Howarth remembers planning this piece, on a train journey; he said, “Philip Jones’ should play the tune, then I should play the first variation and mess it up (deliberately), Ivor James (horn) and John Iveson (trombone) should finish in a similar fashion to me, then John Fletcher (tuba) Will play the final variation perfectly and cheer himself at the end. It was a great hit with audiences everywhere, as is the brass band version.”
A short mp3 audio extract and an image of the Solo Cornet part are provided here to give you a sample of this work.
Access it by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button.
You can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site.
The recording is The LIGHTER SIDE of ELGAR HOWARTH on Doyen DOY CD215
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Emmy Lou Harris Arranger: Klaas van der Woude
This arrangement is perfectly suited to three instrumental soloists in close harmony with band accomp.
Who doesn’t remember this international 70’s hit for Emmylou Harris with it’s special ‘barber shop’ style harmony. The three parts are given to the comets as soloists with subtle band accompaniment featuring a great part for your vibraphone player. Everyone will leave your concert humming this great tune.
Grade: 4+ Performance time: 2:05 Full recording on CD: Soli Time (DHR 03-030-3)
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Pat Ballard Arranger: Leigh Baker
Suggestions for use in Entertainment Contests and Concerts This music was specially arranged for the Brighouse and Rastrick Band by Leigh Baker, their Composer in Residence, for use at the 2007 “Brass in Concert” Championships at the Sage, Gateshead. It was awarded the prize for the best new work that year.
This arrangement incorporates four chime bars. Alternatively small hand bells or any other suitable tuned instruments could be used for this part. Another alternative is bottles of water filled to different levels to create the necessary pitch.
Being quite lightly scored the percusssion parts may be spread around the ensemble at your discretion.
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