Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Richard Grantham
Selected for the 1st. Section of the 2009 Butlins Mineworkers Open Brass Band Festival.
'Hostile Skies' began its gestation after the composer, Richard Grantham read an article in a national newspaper about an RAF aircraft being shot down over Iraq. This led to thoughts about military flight both in technical terms and in terms of the brave pilots who have experienced not only the exhilaration of flight, but also the danger and indeed fear of aerial combat.
The work opens dramatically with a short statement of the main thematic material before it quickly develops into a heroic theme. A more subdued melodic interlude treated canonically, reflects on the underlying danger of military flight but this is soon pushed aside as the main theme asserts itself once more.
A slow mournful section follows which reflects on absent comrades lost in action. However, a sense of hope is never far from the minds of those involved in conflict and a solo trombone issues a ”call to arms” which begins a build up of excitement as we once more take to the skies. The main theme defiantly returns in a blaze of colour.
A busy fugue-like passage, based on elements of the main theme is interspersed with hymn-like fragments signifying the tension between stoic resolve and danger which as at the heart of the work. The material goes through a number of metamorphoses before a triumphant and joyful finale resolves many of the melodic and rhythmic tensions. Hope is fully restored and the work ends with a truly ecstatic victory fly-past.
Hostile Skies pays tribute to the countless number of men and women pilots who have risked their lives to protect others. It is also a celebration of flight itself which like music, is a result of mankind’s unlimited imagination and desire.
The full recording of this work is on the CD entitled "HOSTILE SKIES" - Brass Band De Waldsang - conductor Rieks van der Velde with Guest solist: David Daws, cornet. CD LMP2007.01 You can purchase this CD on this site.
Duration: 11:20
Difficulty: E
This publisher grades difficulties as follows:
A = very easy B = easy C = medium D = difficult E = very difficult
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer / arranger: Elgar Howarth
Duration 15.00
A flourish: a crowd assembles at the gate of Heaven, saints and sinners. As in a film (bars 15—16) the immensity of the crowd is illustrated, and the camera zooms (bars 17—18) to focus on particular groups and individuals.
Letter A: monks sing a ‘medieval’ hymn, interrupted by the fanfares of mischievous seraphim; gradually the whole crowd join in. At bar 72 the fanfares grow wilder. The camera zooms to letter C. ‘Excited, grubby, naughty children enter, singing mock fanfares (bar 94 etc.), making jazzy gestures and, at letter D, trying to sing the children’s hymn All things bright and beautiful which they cannot remember correctly. They dance (bar 11 2) and continue, accompanied by roughnecks (bar 11 7 etc.) who take up the fanfare idea. They all dance together, but suddenly the camera zooms again at the entrance of Jesus (bar 138). A commanding flourish causes consternation. Separate groups react, interrupted by mysterious percussion effects. Then, as the whole panorama explodes in sound, William Booth (founder of the Salvation Army) approaches (bar 154) awestruck. Letter I sets words from Vachel Lindsay’s poem William Booth enters into Heaven which is referred to in my piece The Bandsman’s Tale: ‘He saw King Jesus, they were face to face, and fell a-weeping in that holy place.’ A triple Alleluia follows, and then the third hymn — a version of the tune from my piece Ascendit in Coeli, first on a solo cornet and eventually tutti. The words are ‘Praise to the holiest in the height’ etc. A further triple Alleluia is heard.
At letter M a dance finale begins using material from the whole piece. At letter Q a tumultuous climax precedes sudden quiet Alleluias, and the crowd exits into Heaven to the music of the monks, reharmonised and transformed. At letter T the camera shots extend to the heavens and to the stars.
Hymns at Heaven’s Gate is dedicated to Harry Mortimer, the greatest band personality of modern times, the most famous cornet player and conductor. In my imagination I hear him playing the solo from Ascendit in Coeli. Elgar Howarth
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Oliver Waespi
Duration 18.09 Grade 6.0
Hypercube is a musical narrative partly inspired by the architecture of the Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris whose shape has been compared to a hypercube. With this landmark building as a starting point, the piece explores the poetry and reality of urban landscapes.
In the course of the piece, these contrasting elements are being torn into a dramatic and virtuosic development in extended sections named "Le Vertige" (Vertigo). The Clouds theme returns later in a series of lyrical solos. In the final part of the piece, both the Vertigo and the Hypercube themes become the background for an ongoing acceleration, which conveys the impression of some sort of musical Penrose stairs.
Hypercube was commissioned by the Paris Brass Band and the association ADIAM 94 in 2015.
This work was commissioned by Besses o' th' Barn Band, with the aid of funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain, and was later rewritten for concert band (the two versions actually overlapped in the composition).
It is in one movement falling into several contrasted sections, the characters of which are to some extent indicated by the tempo markings.
The opening section, Lively, introduces the main ideas of the work, including the very opening pulsating chord which recurs at various points during the music (especially just before the end).
The main theme of the piece is heard in its fullest form in the first slow section, initially on euphonium accompanied by cornets and glockenspiel and then restated with more complex counterpoint above it. To some degree, the work is a set of free variations on this tune, and this in itself is derived from the idea heard in the bass right at the start, beneath the fluctuating chord.
The title was originally going to be Reflections, with the notion of suggest Reflections on a theme, but as I worked on the music it seemed more appropriate to call it Images, because not only does the music present the basic material in different character-images, but during the composition I also felt a kinship between the music I was writing and some visual images that passed through my mind. Some of these were works of art, others purely abstract impressions of patterns and colours. I have no intention of revealing what these images were, however - I only hope the music will encourage listeners, if so inclined, to invoke images in response to it themselves.
Categories: TEST PIECES (Major Works), Howard Snell Music Composer / arranger: Howard Snell
for Speaker and two Brass Bands - one Championship and one good youth section band required. Seven movements. 1. Fanfare 2. Toccata : Contest Day 3. Pastorale 4. Music for a Silent Film 5. Scherzo 6. Dream - Nocturne 7. Odyssey
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Stephen Bulla
Set as the SECOND SECTION test piece for the 2016 Finals of the British Brass Band Championships.
Four movements :
(i) Prologue - 2.12 (ii) Approach by Sea - 2.09 (iii) Chorale Prayer - 3.00 (iv) Engagement - 2.03
Stephen Bullas highly descriptive work was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, which took place between the 19th February and 26th March 1945.
Casualties on both the American and Japanese sides were horrendously high before the famous image of the raising of the flag on top of Mount Suribachi signalled the end of one of the most significant and terrifying Pacific conflicts of the Second World War.
The work received its first performance by the brass choir of the U.S. Marine Band at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and is divided into four programmatic sections.
The first portrays the sense of anticipation before conflict (Prologue), before the arduous journey to the scene of the battle (Approach by Sea) is followed by introspection and prayer featuring the hymn tune Melita (Chorale Prayer), and finally, the hostile confrontation itself (Engagement).
There are frequent references to the Marines Hymn and the US National Anthem, particularly in the closing bars, depicting the ultimate raising of the American flag.
If you enjoyed listening to these extracts, you can buy the full CD recording on this Website - it is "IMAGES FOR BRASS" the Williams Fairey Band conducted by Philip McCann
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