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1. Andrews’s Fanfare
Thomas Andrews Jnr. was born 7th February 1873 in Belfast, Ireland. He was managing director and head of the draughting department of Harland & Wolff shipbuilders. He was in charge of building the RMS Titanic. Whilst his great creation sank, he worked until bathed in sweat to assist passengers to lifeboats before going down with the ship.
[Mr Andrews met his fate like a true hero, realising the great danger, he gave up his life to save the women and children on the Titanic. They will find it hard to replace him.—Mary Sloan, Titanic Stewardess.]
2. Strangford Reflections
Strangford Lough is the largest sea inlet in the British Isles. It is Northern Ireland’s first Marine Nature Reserve and is renowned as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Special Scientific Interest, with six national nature reserves within its reaches. Over 2,000 species of marine animals have been found in the Lough and internationally important flocks of wildfowl and wading birds conver gethere in winter.The Lough I also the most important site in Ireland for breeding common seals.
3. Scrcrbo Jig
Scrabo Tower, standing on the hill above the town of Ards, was built in 1857 as a memorial to the third Marquis of Londonderry for his kindness to the people during the great potato famine. The Tower stands tall in the country park with its woodland walks and parkland through Killynether wood. The views from the hill and the summit of the tower are breath taking, across Strangford Lough, scattered with its many islands, to the Mountains of Mourne and the Scottish coast.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer / arranger: John Ireland
Previously set as a Championship or 1st. section testpiece, this piece has been set as the 1st. section testpiece for the 2005 Regional Championships.
Short mp3 audio extracts are provided here to give you a sample of each section of the work. You can also view a sample of the Solo Cornet Part.
Access them by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button. You can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site.
Composed in 1934 during the so called golden era of 1928 - 1936 when a number of leading British composers wrote works for the National Championships at Crystal Palace.
The eerie introduction ( mp3 extract #1 ) is a pre-dawn glimpse of the streets of the capitol in an age when they would be much quieter at that time of day than they are these days. Classed as a Concert Overture, Comedy is in sonata form, with much of its material derived from the first few notes. The first subject - "Allegro moderato brilliante" ( mp3 extract #2 )opens with the familiar "dilly - Piccadilly" motif, said to have been shouted by a bus conductor.
The contrasting second subject - "Tranqullio" opens with a serene cornet solo. Much of the development section refers to the Introduction, but also includes a profound elegiac section ( mp3 extract #3 ), said to be a lament of the death of a close friend of the composer's. The recapitulation follows traditional lines and as the tempo increases a brief coda brings the work to an exciting close.
The recording is REGIONALS 2005 on Doyen DOY CD181
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Bryan Kelly
This work was commissioned by the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, and was published for the National Brass Band Chamionship Final, Third Section, October 1980
Previously set as 2nd & 3rd. section testpieces.
Duration 11.00
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Kenneth Downie
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.
This music, in its original four-movement form, entitled “Concerto for Brass Band”, was commissioned by Geo-Pierre Moren and the Swiss Brass Band, Treize Etoiles. For its use as the test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain in 2008, it has been specially published without the second movement scherzo.
This is not programme music, but a piece of absolute music. The first movement, Allegro spiritoso, introduces a series of short, thematic ideas in the course of the opening bars. They provide the material from which the whole movement is developed, much of it in contrapuntal style. There is nothing impromptu or improvisatory about the approach. The aim is for the musical argument to be held together in a highly organised, organic fashion. There is a conscious acknowledgement of Wilfred Heaton’ s wonderful, creative methods in this movement.
If the first movement is cerebral in approach, then the second is unashamedly romantic. The restless, nervous, mood of the opening movement gives way to calm lyricism, although it is occasionally tinged with a bittersweet quality. Here there is scope for sensitive solo work and artistic accompaniments.
The finale is a relentless, agitated Vivace, with a near-continuous stream of semiquavers from start to finish. Strongly articulated rhythms frequently make venomous interjections, before a slightly whimsical theme arrives on soprano comet. The prevailing mood is still agitated however, with metrical changes and displaced accents adding to the frenzy. A reprise of earlier material leads to a closing section which reintroduces the opening theme from the first movement. The tempo finally slows down and the work finishes with an epic coda.
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