Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Mario Burki
Grade 3
Duration 9:00
This publisher rates grade difficulty as follows:
1 = very easy 2 = easy 3 = easy/medium 4 = medium/difficult 5 = difficult 6 = very difficult
Odilia was born into a ducal family. She founded and confined herself to a convent (Odilienberg, named after her) and encouraged women and girls to join. Under her guidance, these women led a life dedicated to God. Her life was filled with prayer and caring for her fellow sisters. She was especially devoted to St. John the Baptist to whom she dedicated the convent chapel. She allowed a shelter to be built in which the poor could sleep at night and be fed. Legend has it that Odilia was born blind and thus cast out by her father. When she was baptised at fifteen she was suddenly able to see. This saint is always prayed to for good eyesight and is known as the patron saint of the Alsace. Mont Saint-Odile, where she was buried, is a holy place for the Alsatians. Nobody may pass the spring there without moistening their eyes. The piece was commissioned in 2012 by the CDMC in France, the largest European library for wind orchestra music.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Percy Flecther
Set as the 3rd. Section testpiece for the 2010 British Brass Band Championships Regional events.
This is a NEW EDITION of this great work for Brass bands. It has been completely reset in Sibelius with beautifully CLEAR parts and FULL SCORE.
Unlike the previous first edition, the percussion parts now appear in the score, and the 1st. and 2nd. trombone parts are now in Treble Clef as opposed to Tenor Clef.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Percy Fletcher
Following its selection as test-piece for the 3rd Section of the Regional Brass Band Championships of Great Britain 2010, the publishers have made the following amendments to the original publication; Tenor Trombone parts are now in treble clef, percussion parts are now included in the full score.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Kevin Houben
Grade 4.0 Duration 11.15
Set as the THIRD SECTION test piece for the 2016 Finals of the British Brass Band Championships.
The travels of the Aztec people as they headed south through North America looking for a new home, acted as Kevin Houben’s inspiration for Lake of the Moon. The composition contains small fragments of Oriental music and South American rhythms and occasionally, Russian Cossacks seem to raise their heads. The journey from North to South is not without danger, which is represented by threatening sounds within the music. The composer takes us along to the Texcoco Lake, which the Aztecs called the lake of the moon. Bring a little bit of South American history to your concert with Lake of the Moon.
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Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Philip Sparke
(AOTEAROA)
Set as the FIRST SECTION test piece for the 2017 British Brass Band Regional Championships.
Previously used as a Championship Section test piece.
Click on our NEW You Tube Score and Sound presentations below, to both see and hear the score.
The various sectios are marked as follows :
Maestoso
Molto Vivace
Larghetto
Molto vivace
Meno mosso, ma accelerando poco a poco
Maestoso
Prestissimo
Click on "MORE DETAILS" to view the Solo Cornet part.
THE LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD - Aotearoa (Philip Sparke)
Also dating from 1979, The Land of the Long White Cloud was Philip Sparke's first test piece; it was commissioned by the New Zealand Brass Band Association for their 1980 National Championships (their centenary year) and set for the European Brass Band Championships, held, that year, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Aoteama was the name ghren to New Zealand by its Polynesian settlers whose first sight of the islands was a long, flat cloud lying low over the land, The work has no specific programme although many have seen pictures ol the surging ocean in the opening bars. A faster dance-like section leads to a slow, haunting solo tor soprano comet; this is taken up by the whole band before earlier material returns‘ The dance-like tune is, this tame, given a fugal treatment and the opening bars return to close the work.
Scottish Overture which depicts with superb musical imagery the rugged beauty of this often "wet" land - duration 9.12
Previously used as a Third Section testpiece.
Land of the Mountain and the Flood, arranged by Glynn Bragg, is available on the CD 'Around The World In Eighty Minutes' by The Rigid Containers Group Band, conducted by John Berryman.
Categories: TEST PIECES (Major Works), LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC Composer: Hamish McCunn Arranger: Glynn Bragg
Scottish Overture which depicts with superb musical imagery the rugged beauty of this often "wet" land - duration 9.12
Previously used as a Third Section testpiece.
Land of the Mountain and the Flood, arranged by Glynn Bragg, is available on the CD 'Around The World In Eighty Minutes' by The Rigid Containers Group Band, conducted by John Berryman.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Alan Fernie
Previously set as a Second Section testpiece.
Click on MORE DETAILS to listen to an audio extract of this work and to view the Solo Cornet part.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract and want to hear the complete performance, you can purchase the CD on this site.
The CD is : "DIE ALPEN" - the Black Dyke Band conducted by Dr. Nicholas Childs.
Landscape And Journey was commissioned by Brass Band Un for their 15th anniversary concert in March 1996. The music takes the form of an impressionistic overture. The composer has spent many happy times working with the band in the beautiful Canton of Un, in Switzerland, and whilst there, he has stayed often in the village of Gurtnellen. Set in a narrow valley, the village is not only surrounded by the most glorious Alpine landscape, but it is also dissected by three routes of travel; a busy railway line, en even busier motorway, and a very fast flowing river. The composer has tried to convey this striking juxtaposition of magnificent mountainscapes with the relentless and impatient movement of the many journeys taken through this valley of stone.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer / arranger: Stuart Johnson
Previously set as both Fourth & Youth Section testpieces.
Landscapes was commissioned by BBC Radio Stoke to mark the twenty-first birthday of the station. The music reflects not only the urban areas of Stoke and Newcastle but also the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Plain of South Cheshire, the areas served by the radio station. It is in four sections.
The Composer writes: ‘The first part, subtitled ‘The Roaches, is evocative of the craggy rocks so often shrouded in mist which rise dramatically out of the moors north of Leek. The next section is called ‘From Harishill Bank’. No-one who has stood and looked across the Vale of Etruria from this vantage point could fail to be impressed by this industrial landscape. It is a view which has changed considerably in recent years and my perspective perhaps remembers an earlier time, before the Festival Park, when Shelton Bar was in full production and dominating both earth and sky with the glare of the blast furnaces.
Bignall Hill lies between Chesterton and Audley and when standing at the top by the needle-like monument now somewhat truncated, a magnificent panorama of the lush pasturelands of South Cheshire opens up. The third part of “Landscapes” tries to capture this pastoral richness.
The finale is entitled ‘Up Hanley’ and reflects the hustle and bustle of what has become the centre of the Potteries The music uses themes from the other three movements to create this activity reflecting the way that people from all parts of the area travel into Hanley for shopping and entertainment.”
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Bertrand Moren
Grade 6.0
Duration 14.00
Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Percussion
Landscapes is a work structured around two main ideas. On the one hand, the music freely paints some of the superb landscapes seen by composer Bertrand Moren on his many trips around the world. On the other hand, Landscapes is a test piece for each section of the band with each musical landscape highlighting particular instruments in the form of solo passages. Despite being extremely technically challenging and highly complex, Landscapes remains musical throughout and will be loved by all who perform it.
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