Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Gilbert Vinter
The 1st. Section Testpiece for the 2008 Regionals.
Some of Gilbert Vinter's best tunes, brass band voicings and as always his very unique fingerprint - his use of harmony.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract from this work, you can buy the full CD recording by clicking on the "BROWSE" valve at the top of your screen, then click on the "BRASS BAND CD's" section.
The CD recording is REGIONALS 2008, recorded on DOY CD238.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer / arranger: Philip Wilby
Championship section.
Click on "MORE DETAILS" to view the Solo Cornet part and to hear an audio extract of the work.
Commissioned by Philip Biggs and Richard Franklin of All England Masters Brass Band Championships Ltd., with funds provided by the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, for the 1997 AU England Masters Brass Band Championship held at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge on May 25th.
Philip Wilby writes : In June 1996, I had the opportunity to visit New York for the first time. Ostensibly we were visiting America for a Carnegie Hall concert given by Professor Larry Sutherland and the CSUF Wind Orchestra, but as it turned out the concert was rivalled in my mind by some vibrant impressions of the city itself Like so many before me, I was captivated by the ceaseless energy of the metropolis, with its short active history, and its intense but heartless glamour. In many ways, New York was born in the Jazz Age, and the sound of Big Band Jazz is like its musical alter ego. Where the Lincoln Center now stands were once the original apartment blocks that inspired West Side Story, and those other Symphonic Dances; my composition cannot help but take inspiration from the sound and style of Bernstein’s masterpiece.
There are four dances, separated in the manner of 1930’s dance band medleys by solo links. The four dances represent to some degree the four movements of a classical symphony, and the links make extensive use of half-valve glissandi used as punctuation marks between the various sections. The first dance is a formalised Sonata movement making use of contrasts of dynamic and instrumental groupings, and exploring two principal melodic cells. The first is characterised by frequent changes of meter, and an energetic Moto-Perpetuo style.
By contrast, the second theme is both more lyrical and melodic and appears principally in solo lines. After a turbulent boiling-up of the musical argument, the Second Dance follows without a break Here the artificial ballroom glamour of the city’s past is heard in a slow strict-tempo piece. Interestingly the telephone number of our hotel was still the same as it had been in 1940 . . . Pennsylvania 65000. At the end of this section is a solo in which I imagined the band leaders of the past not only conducting, but also playing (as certain of our brass band conductors still do). Hence, I have added a slightly mischievous footnote “In appropriate circumstances this solo may be played by the conductor.”
Dances Three and Four are linked by a single extended acceleration. The third dance starts with Bebop style unisons, first for comets and later for horns, interwoven with more traditional big-band swing style. This “Scherzo and Trio” coupling eventually makes way for a concluding fugue on the opening melody of the first dance, now played at a much quicker tempo, and marked “Breathless”. At the frenetically haunted ballroom climax of this section, the music is interrupted by the most characteristic of all New York sounds. . . gunfire, police whistles and empty laughter. The composition may be thought to end more with sardonic ruin than with a finely crafted peroration. Some listeners will argue that this composition relies for its effect on the style of playing that was common currency forty years ago, and it is true that there is a sense in which the music is ‘New wine in old bottles’. However, like all my test-pieces of recent years, it is aimed at listeners as much as at players. Unlike the pieces which I have provided for some larger halls, this composition uses chamber music ensembles much more to suit the acoustic niceties of the Cambridge Guildhall. In length it lasts some 12 minutes, and uses a variety of orchestral, jazz and ethnic percussion instruments. For those that found ‘Revelation’ heavy-going, there are some reassurances here. For those that enjoyed that “Symphony for Double Brass” I hope that you will find something in this new essay which engages the interest and grows with the many repeated hearings of a finely competitive contest.
PERCUSSION REQUIREMENTS: Drum Kit, Timpani, Large Bass Drum, Tam Tam, Tom Toms, Tambourine, Xylophone, Vibraphone, Bongos, Maraccas, Congas, Surdo (or similar), Flexatone, Chick Shake, Polyblocs, Wind Chimes, Chinese Cymbal, Gun Shot, Police Whistle.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer / arranger: Gilbert Vinter
Previously used a a Championship Section testpiece.
Duration: about 10 minutes.
Concert Overture for Brass Band
Click on "MORE DETAILS" to view the Solo Cornet part.
In the year 1340 in the town of Ghent a son was born to Edward lB King of England and his Queen Phillipa. The boy, afterwards known as JOl-IN O’GAUNT (Ghent) grew up to be a warrior and before he was 20 he was fighting in France beside his brother , The Black Prince. For many years he was occupied with the wars in France and Spain and was seldom in England. His first two marriages brought him great riches and position, but the love of his life was Catherine Swynford, who bore him four children. Whilst he was away, his Palace of Savoy was burnt to the ground by the mob during the Peasant’s Revolt. Finally in 1394 he returned home and married his Catherine, for whom he had felt a strong affection since her first marriage in St. Clement Danes Church in the Strand, many years before. The Beaufort children were thus legitimised and from them sprang a long Line of English Kings and Queens.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Peter Graham
Set as the FOURTH SECTION TEST PIECE for the 2016 Brass Band Regional Championships of Great Britain.
The novels by Jules Verne have been a rich source of inspiration for composers over the years. Graham has taken elements of the epic work Around the World in Eighty Days as the outline for a series of adventures recorded in an imaginary diary by the hero of the story, Phileas Fogg.
Commencing with London bells in the background, the ensuing journey takes our hero by boat train to Paris (passing the Moulin Rouge en route), Russia (where he is chased by Cossacks), Vienna at night, Spain (where he is a spectator at a bull fight) before a final circumnavigation by sea (where we hear hints of foreign lands) brings him back to London with rich memories of his trip.
The Journal of Phileas Fogg was commissioned by Dr Nicholas Childs for the National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain and was first performed by them in July 2012, conducted by Dr Robert Childs.
(The Journal of Phileas Fogg is suitable as a 3rd or 4th section own choice test piece.)
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Peter Graham
Set as the FOURTH SECTION REST PIECE for the 2016 Brass Band Regional Championships of Great Britain.
The novels by Jules Verne have been a rich source of inspiration for composers over the years. Graham has taken elements of the epic work Around the World in Eighty Days as the outline for a series of adventures recorded in an imaginary diary by the hero of the story, Phileas Fogg.
Commencing with London bells in the background, the ensuing journey takes our hero by boat train to Paris (passing the Moulin Rouge en route), Russia (where he is chased by Cossacks), Vienna at night, Spain (where he is a spectator at a bull fight) before a final circumnavigation by sea (where we hear hints of foreign lands) brings him back to London with rich memories of his trip.
The Journal of Phileas Fogg was commissioned by Dr Nicholas Childs for the National Children’s Brass Band of Great Britain and was first performed by them in July 2012, conducted by Dr Robert Childs.
(The Journal of Phileas Fogg is suitable as a 3rd or 4th section own choice test piece.)
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