Navigation Inn was originally written to celebrate one of the most popular events in the brass band calendar - the Whit Friday marches. The Navigation Inn is a pub which is a popular meeting place for bandsmen and which celebrates the love of brass bands with mementoes and historic photographs on the walls. This lively piece in the style of a traditional contest-style march will bring a great sense of tradition to any concert.

Sbandiamo! is a joyous?and swinging?work, taking its title from the wind music event held annually in the medieval Italian city of Gubbio, Umbria in which various bands from all over Italy participate. The first performance of this piece was given at the Piazza Grande, Gubbio, under the baton of the composer himself, with a wind band of some 250 musicians. A stately introduction, with festive percussion, is followed by a catchy theme in alternating pop and march rhythms. The opening theme then returns as a marcia cantabile, and the work is brought to a grand and compelling conclusion.

Bring the house down with Jerry Bensman's sparkling Footprints. Everyone is or at least feels important in this simple but very effective march which works equally well on stage as on parade. Often a march does not have to be difficult to possess a thorougly pleasing 'full' sound. In understanding this Jerry Bensman added a valuable repertoire-piece to the music available for youth-bands. In performing Footprints your beginning bandsmen take a major step forward in advancing their budding musical careers. Tip: Put the spotlights on your cymbals-player and make him (or her) the star of the evening.

Marching Blues est écrit dans un style où se croisent les influences blues et résolument swing-jazz des grands Big Bands. Idéale pour exploiter le talent des musiciens cette marche développe un solo de vingt-huit mesures confié au tuba saxophone ténor ou saxophone baryton. Quelle que soit la taille de votre formation (d?un petit ensemble instrumental à la formation complète) cette marche séduira aussi bien les musiciens que les auditeurs toutes générations confondues.

This concert march is a tribute to the ?pioneers? in the world of brass music in the Lowlands of Netherlands the original founders of the bands and the people who take the lead in organising the societies and associations in the band movement. Celebrate the joy and friendship of the brass band movement with this truly uplifting march.

Band director and radio presenter Yutaka Nishida hails from Tokyo and is the Frank Renton of the Japanese Brass Band world. He presents a weekly two-hour music programme on the Japanese national radio station Digital Radio Musicbird. The programme is called The Bandwagon and the station commissioned Philip Sparke to compose a march which could be used as the theme tune. The result is this bright and breezy march in simple ABA form. A great lively item for any concert.

A Bandsman’s Overture was commissioned by British Bandsman magazine to celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2012.It was premiered by Black Dyke Band conducted by Dr Nicholas Childs at a special anniversary concert held in Symphony Hall Birmingham on July 1st.British Bandsman was for a period known as British Bandsman and Contest Field following an amalgamation of two magazines. The then owner John Henry Iles celebrated this new title by commissioning Ord Hume to write the famous march  BB & CF. As a salute to this heritage A Bandsman’s Overture starts with thefour notes B(b)-B(b)-C-F a motive which permeates an opening fanfare which contrasts a busy opening with a more legato central section.This gives way to a bustling Vivo based on repeated staccato notes. A change of key heralds a central cantabile melody first on euphoniums and baritone and then played by the full band which is followed by a short development section. This leads to a transformed reprise and a return of the opening fanfare decorated this time by florid muted cornets.

Durkle Bandrydge is the name of the composers imaginary world but it could very well be anyones invisible dream world with a different name. In this very versatile suite by Bruce Fraser 8 characters are featured each with its ownpeculiarities making Durkle Bandrydge such a colourful place. Do these characters differ that much from us? That is for you to find out! In the last part all characters come together in a special way.Durkle Bandrydge exists at the end ofyour street. It is invisible to humans but Durkle Bandrygators can watch us with great interest. The music will introduce you to some of the characters who live in this unusual place. The parts: Somnanbulyss who is a giant trollguarding the entrance to Durkle Bandryde. At least he is supposed to but he tends to sleep most of the time. His music is therefore very slow moving and sleepy. Long Gwysteen is a tall mysterious and somehow sophisticated character who walls around with a shell on his back. His music glides along rather gracefully. Squelfitch is a rather unpleasant and smelly character who lives in a bog which is why his music sounds rather slimy and a bit like trying to walkthrough quicksand. Perfydlia is a meddling old woman who gossips about everybody and squeals with sudden delight at the small exciting bits of tittletattle about others in the village. In the music you can hear her sudden little squealsof delight. Maryann Lovely is a beautiful young lady graceful gorgeous absolutely devine and her music is obviously just the same. Thistledoo Nicely is a lively character who spends and spends and spends with her credit card buying the latest fashion and never worries about having to pay the bills. Her music reflects her excitement when shopping and het ‘happy go lucky’ approach to life. Marsyn Edginton is the Lord of the manor the richest man in town the‘big cheese’ the man with all the power and of course the biggest house. He is very grand and his music like he could be a king. Jimmy McScotsmyn is a red haired scotsman wearing tartan cap. He misses his home country terribly and eatslots of shortbread oatcakes scotch eggs porridge and drinks an enormous amount of Scotch Wisky which helps him to have fond memories of the kind of music he would like to dance to when he was a younger man. His favourite dance is a Jig andthis is the music he remembers. Grand March of the Durkle Bandrydgators. We hope that you have enjoyed meeting these characters from Drukle Bandrydge and would invite you to listen to all the villagers now march along in a grand parade -it is a pity that you can not see them what is a wonderful sight. If you listen carefully you will hear the melodies which belong to the characters as they march past. Oh what a grand spectacle!

Jubiloso was commissioned by Utsunomiya Brass Society a talented and versatile group of brass players whom Philip Sparke has conducted on many occasions.When they asked him to compose a ‘signature’ march to celebrate their 30th anniversary they asked for a bright and breezy march which they could use to open concerts.Jubiloso is in the same ‘Broadway’ style as Sparke’s Slipstream and The Bandwagon with heavily syncopated melodies and the conventional cantabile trio section but also contains sudden bars with unusual time signatures which trip up the march rhythm.

A classy treatment of the classic show number When the Saints Go Marching In arranged for brass band by Mark Freeh. Brass Band Grade 4: Advanced Youth and 3rd Section Duration: 5 minutes

As the title implies this piece is all joy and cheerfulness. In Joyful March the themes have been combined to make a spirited work that can give each concert an elated touch. From the opening vivid melody to the softer and colourful themes of the trio Joyful March is full of joie de vivre. Its fairly simple structure makes it accessible to most brass bands.

Contest March-This fantastic contest march was composed for the Alexander Brass Band from Stavanger Norway who wanted a brand new march to play when they took part in the world-renowned Whit Friday March Contest. In the march Philip Sparke has followed the traditional brass band contest march format and it is named as a tribute to Alexander the Great rather than the Alexander brass band who were actually named after their local pub!

Composer of Groningen Egbert composed the march 'Hellender' in response to the opening of the bandroom of the 'Hellendoornse Harmonie' (NL). The joyfull sounds of the march let you hear how well the total refurbished building now looks again: fresh bright and spacious! The name Hellender was chosen from historical awareness. The village Hellendoorn is an ancient village as shown by archaeological finds. In 1078 the name Hellender can be found in the archives. Hellender changed into Hellendoorn later.

Little Suite for Orchestra No. 1: Op 53-Malcolm Arnold is one Britain’s best-loved composers. In 1948 he composed a very short suite for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain - entitled simply To Youth. Seven years later he took To Youth and made some fairly major revisions including a complete new movement and the Little Suite for Orchestra was born. The Little Suite for Orchestra follows a very similar pattern to the later suites for brass band starting with a bold strident Prelude which strangely ends quietly before a lovely lilting Dance composed in 3/8 time. Finally a rollicking and militaristic March brings the suite to a conclusion. This arrangement for brass band by Robin Norman is sure tobecome a classic in the brass band repertoire.

Gawan Roberts wrote this march in 2001 on the occasion of the play Brassed Off which took place in the Frisian village of Jorwert. The march has been written in the virtuosic English brass band style. Gawan Roberts schreef deze mars in 2001 ter gelegenheid van de opvoering van het toneelstuk Brassed Off wat plaats vond in het Friese dorpje Jorwerd.De mars is geschreven in de virtuoze Engelse brass band stijl.