Cat No. JM40610
Price £93.00
Composer / arranger: Jan Van Der Roost
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works)

Commissioned by the W.M.C. Foundation, in Kerkrade,
Stonehenge is the test piece for the Brass Band Concert Section at the 12th World Music Contest in July 1993.
The piece is dedicated to Jan and Henderika de Haan .

A huge circle of boulders has been standing in South-West England for almost 3,500 years, and despite research and calculations made by many scientists, man is still not certain as to the real significance of the site. Throughout the ages people have made guesses and suppositions about the Gods worshipped and rituals enacted there, but until today no-one has proved conclusively any of these hypotheses. One of the currently held opinions is that STONEHENGE represents a giant calendar. Because of the specific placing of the boulders, it is possible to observe the sunrise, the end of the midsummer and midwinter’s day, through the sunbeams. It is also possible to read the lunar positions through the diagonals in short: the changing of the seasons becomes apparent through this mysterious monument in stone.

The piece attempts to put atmospheric pictures and images into music. Although no concrete story, or clear-cut scenario is used, a number of clearly recognizable images are represented. Thus, the first section evokes the somewhat misty and hazy atmosphere engulfing the ancient monument. When the orchestra (at letter F) reaches its first voluminous sound eruption, it is as if the massive boulders become audible, even touchable by means of the pregnant minor third chords used.

The main theme - constructed from the five tones C A F B G - makes its presence felt throughout the piece. Almost as a “Leitmotiv” it symbolizes the arrangement of the central boulders, in the shape of a horse-shoe, which is the nucleus of this huge collection of stones. A special effect can be found at letter S when the 5 soloists play a five part hymne, whilst the remaining musicians create an erie atmosphere by means of a sung (!) “choir of druids and monks”. It is as if the voices of a distant and unknown have not yet been completely silenced: STONEHENGE still keeps its own secret.