Cat No. JM41975
Price £99.00
Composer / arranger: Howard Snell
Categories: TEST PIECES (Major Works), Howard Snell Music

Set as the Second Section Testpiece for the 2006 Regionals.
Duration 16.27

See the notes of the full original version for details of the movements of this Suite. This work was set as a Second Section test piece in the UK Area contests, in a cut version, which is NOT sanctioned for concert performance. The choice was rather advanced for that Section: it would truly be a big test for a 1st section contest and could be fairly used in the Championship.


Click on "MORE DETAILS" to both view the Solo Cornet part and listen to the THREE audio extracts provided.

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The recording is REGIONALS 2006 , - CD is DOY CD206

This work was commissioned by Richard Evans for the JJB Leyland Band, to be performed during the year 2000. It was originally scored to include a second Band, in order to enable its use with other sometimes technically lesser Bands. The original work is in seven movements, but for this Suite I have chosen three, and re-scored them for a single Band. As Richard Evans specified that the work should mirror aspects of the history of banding, I chose a variety of representative subjects, to be treated in differing styles, to be demanding and enjoyable to play on the one hand, but to be immediately accessible to a banding audience on the other.

1. SCHERZO : The CRYSTAL PALACE Gathering for the National Championships in the Crystal Palace in London was not only a great day out for bandsmen, their families and supporters, but brought the astonishing skills of these mostly amateur musicians to the notice of Britain’s finest establishment musicians. I see the Bands and their followers descending on London in trains and charabancs, then displaying their virtuoso abilities in this most astonishing of buildings.

2. DREAM-NOCTURNE. As if in a trance, a single unending musical line passes around the ensemble to celebrate those players who possessed, and still possess, the beauty of sound and expressive phrasing to enthrall the listener.

3. ODYSSEY. The way forward now beckons. The music passes through conflict, struggle and turmoil on its way to release, resolution and finally to triumph. Banding’s greatest strength is that it allows everyone, regardless of station or status, to exercise the arts and crafts of music and to enjoy epic moments along the way.

Howard Snell May 2005
N.B. September 2005. For the 2006 Regional Contests of the Besson National
Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, the Music Panel has asked
1. that the vibraphone part be totally omitted. For the first and third movements this is simply a matter of leaving out the relevant passages: the part is marked. For the second movement I have produced an alternative Glockenspiel part to be played instead of the original for Vibraphone.
2. The Music Panel has also asked for a cut to be made in the second movement as follows : play up to one bar before letter F, Then cut to one bar before J.
There is no problem with the join, in spite of the different scorings of the two otherwise similar passages. The dynamic for the Timpani entering one bar before should be mf crescendo to as in the Repiano Cornet part. This Cut is not sanctioned for concert performances.
3. The metronome marks are for guidance only.