HARMONY MUSIC - Score only, TEST PIECES (Major Works)
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Cat No.JM42436 Price
£44.95 Composer / arranger: Philip Sparke Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Difficulty level: Championship
This is the Championship Section Test Piece for the 2013 Regional Events of the British Brass Band Championships.
HARMONY MUSIC opens quietly with a long unison crescendo, intermpted by upward rushes from the basses and trombones which introduce a fanfare-like passage from the comets. A sonorous chorale follows which builds from the lower half of the band to a tutti climax.
There is a brief hint of faster music to come but this fails to dispel a high, haunting euphonium solo before the main Molto Vivace anives. This is a fast and furious gallop with a certain French flavour. A climax is reached and the music subsides into a slower, central section (in the form of a homage to Maurice Ravel) which incorporates two accompanied cadenzas for comet and horn.
The opening of the piece returns and this leads us back to a shortened recapitulation of the Vivace. Just as the piece seems to be hurtling to a close, the trombones and soprano introduce a brief moment of chaos before a presto Coda asserts itself.
The title is both a play on the German Harmoniesmusik with all its associations with bands in general as well as a reference to the overall tonal harmonic language of the piece.
This work was commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes Band Festivals Ltd. for the 1987 Finals of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
