Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Edward Elgar Arranger: Eric Ball
duration approx. 17.00
The ENIGMA VARIATIONS in Eric Ball's scoring was published in the Novello Brass Band Series in 1982. Since the complete work is too long for contesting purposes, this collection of movements has been produced at the request of the National Brass Band championships as an essential part of the arrangers centenary in 2003. Ball's own choice of Variations has been adopted, with the addition of the original twelfth Variation (B.G.N.), as well as the entire finale.
You can hear extracts Of all of these variations by typing "ENIGMA VAR" into the QUICK SEARCH on the right hand side of the screen, and then clicking on "MORE DETAILS"
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Philip Sparke Difficulty level: Championship
Duration 14.00 Set as the Championship Section Test Piece for the Butlins Mineworkers Contest 2013.
A Tale as Yet Untold was commissioned by the Cory Band for the European Brass Band Championships in Linz, Austria, 2010, and their winning performance gave them a hattrick of victories at the competition. The theme of this impressive work, which is set in three movements, is one that recurs again and again throughout the music of Philip Sparke, the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity and how the beauty of music can help in this respect.
Categories: 2022 REGIONAL TEST PIECES, TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Wilfred Heaton Difficulty level: Championship Set as the Championship Section test piece for the 2022 Regional Championships of the British Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. In stock and available for immediate delivery.
Set as one of three Championship Section Test Pieces for the 2018 Butlins Mineworkers Brass Band Contest.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Kenneth Downie
Grade 6.0 Duration 15.00
Set as the Championship Section test piece for the 2018 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
Handel in the Band was commissioned by Geo-Pierre Moren and Brass Band Treize Etoiles, for performance at the 2013 Swiss National Championships, when it was conducted by Dr. James Gourlay. The first performance was given on 29 January 2017 by the Royal Northern College of Music Brass Band, conducted by James Gourlay at the RNCM Brass Band Festival, Manchester. This revised edition was prepared for the 2017 National Brass Band Championships of The Netherlands, Utrecht, 28th. October 2017.
Handel in the Band is a virtuoso set of symphonic variations on one of Handel’s best known keyboard dances, the Sarabande from his Suite in D minor, HWV 437, based on the Spanish traditional dance La Folia. Kenneth Downie’s work was commissioned by Brass Band Treize Etoiles, for performance at the 2013 Swiss National Brass Band Championships, where it was conducted by James Gourlay. The title is a reference to Percy Grainger’s popular Handel in the Strand, and is indicative of the witty and theatrical nature of the music, which is more playful than conventional competition pieces and as such offers different challenges to brass bands as well as being thoroughly entertaining for audiences. Kenneth Downie is one of the most respected and experienced brass band composers. His music has been widely performed and published throughout the brass band world since the 1960s.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Kenneth Downie
Grade 6.0 Duration 15.00
Set as the Championship Section test piece for the 2018 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.
Handel in the Band was commissioned by Geo-Pierre Moren and Brass Band Treize Etoiles, for performance at the 2013 Swiss National Championships, when it was conducted by Dr. James Gourlay. The first performance was given on 29 January 2017 by the Royal Northern College of Music Brass Band, conducted by James Gourlay at the RNCM Brass Band Festival, Manchester. This revised edition was prepared for the 2017 National Brass Band Championships of The Netherlands, Utrecht, 28th. October 2017.
Handel in the Band is a virtuoso set of symphonic variations on one of Handel’s best known keyboard dances, the Sarabande from his Suite in D minor, HWV 437, based on the Spanish traditional dance La Folia. Kenneth Downie’s work was commissioned by Brass Band Treize Etoiles, for performance at the 2013 Swiss National Brass Band Championships, where it was conducted by James Gourlay. The title is a reference to Percy Grainger’s popular Handel in the Strand, and is indicative of the witty and theatrical nature of the music, which is more playful than conventional competition pieces and as such offers different challenges to brass bands as well as being thoroughly entertaining for audiences. Kenneth Downie is one of the most respected and experienced brass band composers. His music has been widely performed and published throughout the brass band world since the 1960s.
You can buy a CD recording of this work in the CD section of our site. The CD is called "RED PRIEST".
During his lifetime, Antonio Vivaldi was known as 'il Prete Rosso', the Red Priest, thanks to his youthful ordination and his flaming red hair. The son of a violinist at San Marco in Venice, Vivaldi's musical pedigree was impeccable and an excellent start to his career was coupled with astounding energy and productivity. His vast output of concerti grossi, using soloists in groups, inspired this composition and performers may choose appropriate stage positions for the various groupings of cornets and trombones, spaced around the performance area. The score quotes freely from some of Vivaldi's most popular compositions, including 'Winter' from The Four Seasons, the motet Nisi Dominus, the famous Gloria and the fugue from the Concerto grosso in D minor found in L'Estro Armonico. However, it is the musical spirit of Vivaldi, a close contemporary of both Handel and Casanova, that inspired this music, which should be played with a mixture of accuracy and abandoned virtuosity. The musical images in this piece have clear associations in the composer's mind with individual Venetian locations, ranging from bustling street scenes to vaulted interiors, and describing the famous journey down the Grand Canal, past the Doge's Palace, to the Ospedale della Pietà where Vivaldi worked for so many years.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Phil Lawrence
This is the FIRST SECTION Test Piece for the 2023 Regional British Brass Band Championships
Duration: 11:00 Difficulty: 1st section
Here we have a most descriptive piece of writing - a story through music, by one of the brass band movement's exciting new voices. A fantastic 1st section testpiece and championship concert work:
The opening scene would depict standing on the battlements of a castle hearing the thundering hoofs of our brave Knight's horse miles in the distance. His arrival is expected, and his reputation is known across many lands. Today, he is to joust amongst mere mortal knights and compete for the hand of the fair (and local) Princess.
He vanquishes all competitors and wins the day. The scene moves to evening & court where reception and dance is to be held for our winning knight. Both Knight & Princess become centre of attention during the dance. Their eyes only for each other.
At last, the Knight has a chance to be a lone with his Princess as they steal away from the celebrations to a star lit rampart above the castle gardens, where the Knight declares his ever-lasting love and pledges his life and of honour to her. He asks her hand, meanwhile monks pray in the below chapel hoping for union. She say's yes. It is announced in court, then blown from the battlements.
Day breaks; he is brought word of evil doings back in his own land. He leaves word to the Princess that he will be back soon to take her hand. The trouble back home was a rouse to get him away from the Princes so one of the vanquished, a dark knight in yesterdays joust, has summoned a dragon to kidnap the princess for his own.
As the truth of the deception reaches our Knight he quickly returns to face the varlet that has taken his Lady. This time tis no joust, but a fight to the death with the dark knight & dragon. Our champion proves his best once again and wins the day and the hand of his Princess forever!
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Phil Lawrence
This is the FIRST SECTION Test Piece for the 2023 Regional British Brass Band Championships
Duration: 11:00 Difficulty: 1st section
Here we have a most descriptive piece of writing - a story through music, by one of the brass band movement's exciting new voices. A fantastic 1st section testpiece and championship concert work:
The opening scene would depict standing on the battlements of a castle hearing the thundering hoofs of our brave Knight's horse miles in the distance. His arrival is expected, and his reputation is known across many lands. Today, he is to joust amongst mere mortal knights and compete for the hand of the fair (and local) Princess.
He vanquishes all competitors and wins the day. The scene moves to evening & court where reception and dance is to be held for our winning knight. Both Knight & Princess become centre of attention during the dance. Their eyes only for each other.
At last, the Knight has a chance to be a lone with his Princess as they steal away from the celebrations to a star lit rampart above the castle gardens, where the Knight declares his ever-lasting love and pledges his life and of honour to her. He asks her hand, meanwhile monks pray in the below chapel hoping for union. She say's yes. It is announced in court, then blown from the battlements.
Day breaks; he is brought word of evil doings back in his own land. He leaves word to the Princess that he will be back soon to take her hand. The trouble back home was a rouse to get him away from the Princes so one of the vanquished, a dark knight in yesterdays joust, has summoned a dragon to kidnap the princess for his own.
As the truth of the deception reaches our Knight he quickly returns to face the varlet that has taken his Lady. This time tis no joust, but a fight to the death with the dark knight & dragon. Our champion proves his best once again and wins the day and the hand of his Princess forever!
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Gilbert Vinter
The 1st. Section Testpiece for the 2008 Regionals.
Some of Gilbert Vinter's best tunes, brass band voicings and as always his very unique fingerprint - his use of harmony.
A short audio extract is provided for you to listen to and get a flavour of the work. Click on "More Details" button on the right to access this extract.
If you enjoyed listening to this extract from this work, you can buy the full CD recording by clicking on the "BROWSE" valve at the top of your screen, then click on the "BRASS BAND CD's" section.
The CD recording is REGIONALS 2008, recorded on DOY CD238.
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works) Composer: Benjamin Britten Arranger: Paul Hindmarsh
Grade 5 Duration 14.00
Set as the First Section test piece for the 2018 National Finals of the British Brass Band Championships of Great Britain - The Centaur, Cheltenham Saturday and Sunday 15th. & 16th. September.
This colourful suite incorporates the Introduction, a dramatic Wild Dance, some of the music underscoring the scenes for Galahad and The Holy Grail, and two vivid battle scenes, ending with The Final Battle and Apotheosis.
A suite in four movements :
01.OVERTURE 02. GALAHAD and THE HOLY GRAIL 03. LANCELOT and ARTHUR 04. THE DEATH od ARTHUR
INTRODUCTION King Arthur was the first of 28 scores which Benjamin Britten (1913-V1976) composed for BBC or CBS radio between 1937 and 1947. Radio was in its infancy in the 19305. King Arthur was a pioneering project. It was an ambitious dramatization of Arthur’s life and times - part pageant, part play, part cantata Written by D.G. Bridson. Britten composed the music during March and April 1937. The first broadcast was given on 23 April (St. George’s Day) 1937, shortly before the coronation of George VI on 12 May. Val Gielgud was the director and the music was performed by the BBC Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Clarence Raybould.
The 23—year-old composer was Bridson’s third choice for the project, Arnold Bax and Rutland Boughton having declined the commission. Having originally scheduled King Arthur for broadcast over Christmas 1926, Bridson used the postponement to expand the scope of the drama, including references to George VI, ‘who shall rule justly and righteously’. His drama followed Arthur’s life from childhood (‘The Sword in the Stone’) to his death (‘The Last Battle’) in l8 scenes, each of which was prefaced by narrative verse. A distinguished cast for this 9O minute epic included a young Michael Redgrave as Galahad.
Bridson was delighted with the music and Britten noted in his diary that it ‘certainly comes off like hell !’. However, Britten was less enthusiastic about the script, which he considered dull, stilted and uninspiring, ‘a pale pastiche of Malory’. He composed 22 music cues, which he derived from two simple, memorable themes, My brass hand suite includes the most substantial orchestral items presented in narrative sequence, except for a ‘Wild Dance’, which I have moved forward to provide the second item in an Overture. Britten reused this virtuoso music in his Ballad of Heroes (Op.l4). The second movement, Galahad and The H05» Grail, presents three of the lyrical items underscoring Galahad, Merlin’s spell and a vision of the Holy Grail. In 1945, Britten used the theme again when writing a new slow movement for his Piano Concerto (Op. 13, 1938). My third movement combines a percussion episode, galloping theme and lament underscoring Lancelot’s pursuit of Arthur, While the music of the finale describes ‘The Final Battle’ and Arthur’s death. While the substance of Britten’s music remains unchanged, I have made some adjustments to facilitate smooth musical transitions and brass voicing.
King Arthur (Scenes from a radio drama) for brass band should not be confused with a much longer orchestral suite which I devised from the same source in 1995. This suite received its first performance on 23 October 1995 at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall by the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lutz Kohler. It was subsequently recorded by the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Richard Hickox (Chandos CHAN 9487).
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