Highly recommended light concert repertoire - especially the beautifully atmospheric slow second movement The Catskills.
PROGRAMME NOTE by Nigel Hess :
The three short pictures which make up the suite East Coast Pictures were inspired by several visits to a small part of the USA’s East Coast, an area which provides great extremes in the geography and the people. Shelter Island is a small island situated almost at the end of Long Island, a few hours drive east of New York. In the summer it becomes a crowded tourist trap — but in the winter it is gloriously deserted, and bravely faces the onslaught of the Atlantic, shrouded in sea mists and driving rain. This picture is a fond memory of a winter weekend on Shelter Island.
NIGEL HESS Nigel Hess has worked extensively as a composer for television, theatre and film. Credits includeA Woman of Substance, Vanity Fair, Campion, Testament (Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme), Summer’s Lease (Television & Radio Industries Club Award for Best TV Theme), Maigret, Classic Adventure (‘Music from the Movies’ Award for Best BBC Theme), Dangerfield, Just William and Stick With me Kid for Disney. Recent television scores include Wycliffe for HTV (Royal Television Society Nomination for Best TV Theme and ‘Music from the Movies’ Award for Best 1W Theme), The BBC’s He14’ Wainthropp Investigates starring Patricia Routledge (Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Theme and Royal Television Society Nomination for Best TV Theme) and Badger, a Feelgood Fiction drama series for BBC1 starring Jerome Flynn. His most recent feature film score is for Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, directed by Bill Cartlidge. From 1981 to 1985 Nigel Hess was Company Music Director and House Composer for The Royal Shakespeare Company and has contributed twenty scores for RSC productions. He was awarded the New York Drama Desk Award for ‘Outstanding Music in a Play’ for the productions of Much Ado About Nothing and Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway.
Brass Band Grade 4/5
Duration: 16 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):
