Light Music (Concert Band - Score and Parts) - Wiffin, Rob

The title Light Music alludes to different things. Most of the music in the suite is light in nature, and is in the inherently British tradition of 'light music' - original pieces which are often descriptive but essentially melodic. In another sense the music depicts various aspects of light itself. The title itself is a trick of the light!The first movement, Lightscape, portrays shifting patterns and types of light, highlighting some details and obscuring others. It is sometimes vibrant, dancing and full of movement, and sometimes tranquil.The second movement, At the going down of the sun, considers the light of the sun as it sets. Because of the nature of his career, the composer has written a fair amount of ceremonial music and this movement is close to that genre once again. There is, in the title, a reference to the familiar Remembrance line 'At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them' from the poem For the Fallen by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) written in September 1914, a few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. While the music is not a setting of these words - or in any way referential - there is an echo of the words 'We will remember them'.The suite finishes with Set Alight which starts off with a few combustible bars as the flame catches and then the fire is under way.Duration: 11.30