Faber-Music - Brass ensemble

Smoke Sketches is Daniel Hall’s first original work to be published in the Faber Music Brass Band Series. Daniel is one of the most gifted of the rising generation of composers writing for brass bands. Smoke Sketches was composed at the invitation of Brass Bands England for the Intermediate Section of the 2017 National Youth Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. This colourful jazzy suite draws inspiration from the ancient art of gazing into smoke from fire to find stories through the act of divination. Into the Blaze suggests someone briskly fire-walking barefoot with unexpected sparks fizzling from the ground. A Lonesome Ember capturesthe fleeting life of a small ember beginning insignificantly and gradually evolving into a larger being before disappearing into ash while Spark of Light bristles with life and energy. Band Grade 3/4 duration 8 minutes.

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 beingthoroughly 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.

Originally commissioned as the set test piece for Section B of the 2007 European Brass Band Championships The Drop was re-worked and extended as The Drop: Remixed for Leyland Band to perform at the 2008 RNCM Festival of Brass in Manchester. Ideal as a First Section brass band test piece The Drop: Remixed contains much tuneful and dance-based music and finishes with a massive drum ‘n ‘bass-inspired ending.Brass Band Grade 5: 1st Section Duration: 12 minutes       The work has subsequently been recorded by the Leyland Band conducted by Jason Katsikaris an is on the CDentitled Penlee .

Another World’s Hell was commissioned in versions for brass wind and fanfare bands by the Société Cantonale des Musiques Vaudoises and the Association Cantonale des Musiques Neuchâteloises for the 2013 Swiss Cantonales festivals. It is inspired by a passage in Aldous Huxley’s classic 1932 science-fiction novel Brave New World which  describes in unusually close detail the music that is being played at a dance. This is Dobson’s interpretation of  the  imagined  ‘future music’ that Huxley dreamed of. Brass Band Grade 5Duration: 13 minutes

The theme music from the original motion picture Born on the Fourth of July starring Tom Cruise. The music was composed by John Williams and this arrangement for brass band is by Andrew Duncan. Brass Band Grade 3/4: Youth and 4th Section/Advanced Youth and 3rd Section Duration: 5 minutes

Lyonesse was commissioned by the Brass Band Heritage Trust as the test piece for the Finals of the National Youth Brass Band Championships held in Manchester in April 2005. This atmospheric music ideal as a test piece for First and Second section bands takes its inspiration from the lost kingdom of Lyonesse the mythical spur of land linking Cornwall and the Scilly Isles and its associated legend of Tristan and Isolde. Brass Band Grade 5: 1st Section Duration: 13 minutes

Gavin Higgins wrote Ivory Ghosts in 2006 for brass ensemble as one of a collection of short pieces composed in support of the charity Brass Band Aid. It is a haunting miniature created in response to the horrors of the illegal trade in African elephant ivory. This definitive version for brass band and percussion was prepared for the Tredegar Town Band.

Journey of the Lone Wolf tells the story of the hungarian composer Béla Bartók. It was commissioned by Dr. Nicholas Childs for Black Dyke Band who gave the first performance on Sunday 26 January 2014 at the Bridgewater Hall Manchester as part of the Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass. The composer's programme notes for each movement: 1. Capturing the Peasants SongAfter the upheaval of moving to Budapest the young Béla Bartók meets Zoltán Kodály and the pair embark on summertime adventures throughout the Hungarian countryside to collect and catalogue theastonishing variety (both harmonically and rhythmically) of gypsy and folk music heard in the Balkans. The arrival of WW1 plunges Bartók's beloved Hungary into chaos.2. Night MusicBartók was at times a cold man aloof and lonely. The odd moments of tenderness he showed are portrayed here in a series of evocative solos. His brief but intense affairs speak of a love he could only long for. Jazz is my night music and here there are hints of what Bartók may have heard in the USA later in his life.3. Flight and FightHaving been forced by the world's evils to leave his homeland of Hungary for America Bartók the anti-fascist felt isolated and angry. In this movement we hear his longing for a simpler time of gypsy folk dances as well as his maturity and depth as a composer finally exploring deeper colours and darker themes.

Simon Dobson wrote his 'Four Sketches' at the request of Peter Bossano Head of Brass at the Royal College of Music in recognition of the 25th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death. The first movement 'Fanfare' quotes directly from the opening violin melody from Britten’s song cycle Les Illuminations. This melodic line is superimposed upon sonorous Lydian mode chords to project a majestic sound. The second movement 'Prayer' is a definite contrast being and much more reflective and pensive in it’s mood and featuring a dream like euphonium cadenza. The third movement 'Funeral March' builds from a soft chordal opening to a chaotic and confusedfortississimo climax with flourishes in the cornets and pounding tri-tones across the basses before plunging into silence for a flugel cadenza to finish. The final Finale movement is much more positive from the off with its jaunty melodies over a Brittenesque ostinato. The block chordal passages offer a crashing climax making for an exciting conclusion to an excellent new work for the medium. Simon Dobson’s 'Four Sketches' was the winning entry in the European Brass Band Composer Competition held in Brussels in March 2002.

Malcolm Arnold's ballet Sweeney Todd was first staged in 1959 by The Royal Ballet Company with choreography by John Cranko. The music was later adapted as a concert work and it is from this version that this brass band arrangement is made. The original concert suite lasts some 20 minutes but this version has been shortened to a more manageable eight minutes. The first performance of this arrangement was given on the 22nd October 2006 at the Malcolm Arnold Festival Derngate Northampton by the Rushden Windmill Band conducted by Richard Graves. Brass Band Grade 4: Advanced Youth and 3rd Section. Duration 8 minutes.

A music selection of key themes from Howard Shore’s film score to the 1997 blockbuster The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring arranged for brass band by Andrew Duncan.Brass Band Grade 4: Advanced Youth and 3rd Section Duration: 7 minutes

The name John Philip Sousa is no stranger to any brass band aficionado. Our Flirtations has its origins in incidental music written by Sousa for a play of the same name. It was written around 1880 about the time he was appointed Director of the U.S. Marine Band a position he held until he formed his own civilian band in 1892. Sousa wrote over 130 marches many of which have been transcribed for brass band.

A music selection of key themes from Howard Shore’s film score to the 1997 blockbuster The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring arranged for brass band by Andrew Duncan.Brass Band Grade 4: Advanced Youth and 3rd Section Duration: 7 minutes