Programme Notes

Overdrive was commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland for their intermediate Band.
 

This fast paced piece is composed in a pop-jazz style. Opening with big chords in the cornets and trombones and being driven on by the percussion; the trombones then play the main theme. This is the replicated by the rest of the ensemble before the percussion takes us to the ’drop’ where the pulse is halved. The lower brass the drive the drop with clapping from the rest of the ensemble.
 

Chord stabs at rehearsal figure F punctuate the syncopated melodic lines in the cornets and horns. We then double the tempo to feature the cornet section in a flowing melodic line that is then joined by the euphoniums.
 

The syncopated lines and rhythmic ’stabs’ return with a bridge section that reintroduces the opening big chords that lead us to the close.

This piece needs to be performed with lots of pace and energy to make it as exciting as possible.

I hope you enjoy performing Overdrive.
 

Paul Lovatt-Cooper

July 2017