Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: G. Verdi Arranger: Frank Wright
The Force of Destiny - Overture
duration 7.28
Set as the 1st. Section Test Piece for the 2011 National Finals.
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.
Previously set as a Championship section testpiece.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Malcolm Arnold Material: Ray Farr
Ray Farr’s arrangement of Malcolm Arnold’s suite Four Cornish Dances brilliantly retains the atmosphere of the orchestral original with its evocation of Cornish sea-farers, of deserted tin mines, of marching bands, Methodism, May Days and Moody and Sankey hymns.
Brass Band Grade 5: 1st Section.
Duration 10 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):
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Malcolm Arnold Arranger: Ray Farr
Ray Farr’s arrangement of Malcolm Arnold’s suite Four Cornish Dances brilliantly retains the atmosphere of the orchestral original with its evocation of Cornish sea-farers, of deserted tin mines, of marching bands, Methodism, May Days and Moody and Sankey hymns.
Brass Band Grade 5: Suitable for 1st Section Bands and above
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Sir Arthur Bliss Arranger: Eric Ball Difficulty level: Championship
Written in 1937
Duration 15.00 Minutes
Bliss made major contributions to almost every musical genre, but these days he is remembered especially for his music for the film Things to Come (1935), cinema’s first great film score, and for his ballets.
Checkmate (1937) was one of the most successful productions mounted by the Vic-Wells Ballet either side of the Second World War. The scenario is based on a game of chess between Love and Death.
The Black Queen plays the role of ‘femme fatale’ and at the end is left in possession of the board. Love has been conquered by Death. Constant Lambert, who conducted most of the early performances, described the music as being full of “gaiety, vigour and abandon”.
Eric Ball made his superb transcription of four of the dances for the National Brass Band Championships of 1978: Dance of the Four Knights; The Red Knight’s Mazurka; Ceremony of the Red Bishops; and the finale – Checkmate
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer / arranger: Philip Sparke
Written for the 4th.Section of the National Finals in Harrogate, September 2004.
Also selected for the 4th. Section of the 2009 Butlins Mineworks Open Brass Band Festival.
The Four Noble Truths was commissioned by the Dutch National Brass Band Championships for their 2003 competition.
The Four Noble Truths are the most basic expression of the teaching of Buddha and therefore still form the guidelines for Buddhists to this day. They concern themselves with Dukkha, which has no exact translation but can mean suffering, stress or sadness etc.
Dukkha — The Noble Truth of Dukkha The First Noble Truth describes the different types of stress we all experience — birth, aging, desire, change and death all bring us different type of stress.
Samudaya — The Noble Truth of the Origins of Dukkha The Second Noble Truth describes those parts of our lives that induce stress — feeling craving, desire, ignorance and a wish to achieve short-term rather than long-term pleasure are all self-inflicted origins of stress.
Nirodha — The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Dukkha. The Third Noble Truth tells us how we can eliminate stress from our lives by eliminating those aspects of our lives which induce stress.
Magga — The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Dukkha. The Fourth Noble truth gives us a description of eight disciplines which can help us eliminate the origins of stress from our lives.
It can be seen from these over-simplified definitions, that the Four Noble Truths fall into two pairs, the first two describing the origins of stress and the second two describing how we can reduce stress. To reflect this,the four movements of this work are also combined into two pairs — two quick movements and two slow movements.
To view 
