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£264.99
Diferencias on an Old Spanish Song - Yasuhide Ito
I am immensely happy that my Gloriosa, symphonic poem for band (1990), has been performed by so many bands in the last thirty years.During this period, the growth of the internet has made it much easier to access information.When I composed Gloriosa, I only had limited information about the period when Christianity and Western music was first introduced to Japan, and had to rely a lot on my imagination.However, nowadays, it is easy to obtain various source materials and to read interesting studies on the music of the past.In recent years, the music of Luis de Narvez (born ca.1500 - died between 1555-1560), Spanish composer and vihuela player, has become increasingly known, and several CDs of his music are now available.Narvez composed the earliest-known set of diferencias, a forerunner of the variation form. One of his works is Seys diferencias sobre el himno "O gloriosa domina" [Six diferencias on the hymn "O gloriosa domina"] (1538), based on the Spanish Marian hymn, and it was this melody I used in the first movement of my Gloriosa.Western music has been my musical roots since childhood, and throughout my career as a composer, it has continued to fascinate me. One could say that this has provided the inspiration for Diferencias on an Old Spanish Song, my own take on the diferencias form.Actually, such music from the early sixteenth century could sound fresh to our modern ears. So I decided to quote the melody from Narvez's Sey diferencias at the beginning and end of the piece, in order that people can get the feel for the period.The main section (bars 42-390) is formed of 13 diferencias, similar to the first movement of the Gloriosa.In the middle section, which begins after the eighth diferencia(from bar 187), one should be totally absorbed in the tranquility and the beauty of the music. Although it's in the style of a sarabande, it should be taken slower and played as pianissimo as possible.This is followed by folk-style dance music. (As only standard percussion instruments are used, try to be creative with tonal colours and sense of rhythm).The structure of the work is simple, but be aware of the connection between the sections when constructing the whole.Also, think about the tonality. Overall, the work is in F minor. The main section is basically in D minor, but from bar 102, it modulates to A flat minor and G minor, and then in the middle section it suddenly switches to A flat major (which is the furthest key from D minor, and the relative major of F minor). From bar 219, it modulates to F minor and then to C minor, then back to F minor by way of A minor.N.B. The Oboe II part can be substituted by the English Horn (as indicated in the parts). One can choose according to the player's skills or preference.Recent new compositions for wind band are often full of rhythm, dynamism, and tonal colour, and compositional techniques and orchestration have also evolved greatly. Yet on the other hand, they tend to feature fewer melodic or expressive elements. Since this work is the test piece for WMC Kerkrade 2022, I had to think about what "tests" or "challenges" to set, and I decided to compose something that doesn't involve a lot of technical display, but requires beautiful sounds and harmonies, and above all, musical expressivity. I didn't put many expression markings in the score, because I wanted the performers to think about how best to express this music. If it is played merely as notated, it's not going to sound very interesting.Christianity was introduced to Japan in the mid-16th century, but it was subsequently banned and Japan entered a period of national isolation, which meant that there was hardly any international exchange for two hundred years. As a result, the Christian hymns that were introduced prior to the isolation became almost unrecognizable over the centuries. This was the theme I explored in my Gloriosa thirty years ago.Now, in 2021, the whole world has been forced to "isolate" due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In such times, it seems pertinent that I've written a work using this melody again. I sincerely hope that people will be able to gather in Kerkrade in 2022.(English Translation:Nahoko Gotoh)
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£54.99
Sovereign Pageantry - Shawn E. Okpebholo
A majestic festival of sound!An ideal choice for your band's first festival experience, Sovereign Pageantry includes tutti scoring as well as call-and-response interchanges between the sections. The fanfare and procession in a stately tempo brings to mind the imperial castle guards and antiphonal brasses from high upon battlements as the noble family promenades on a joyous day of celebration. The music encourages a full sound and smooth, tasteful articulations from your young band.Resplendent!
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£174.99Et in terra Pax - Jan Van der Roost
This piece was commissioned by the 'Concert Band Vlamertinge' and is a plea for peace: the title translates as 'Peace on Earth'. This is expressed by means of the vocal contribution expected from the performers. In various places of the piece you can recognize, the words 'Et In Terra Pax' - an appeal for peace - at first jumbled together but later more rhythmically structured, developing into synchronized massed voices.The work starts with a pentatonic theme based on the notes D, E, G, A and C (taken from 'ConCErtbAnD VlAmErtinGE' and the name of the conductor, NiCk VAnDEnDriessChe). A somewhat sad melody is developed during an orchestral climax which leads to the firstexplosion of sound (measure 62 onwards). Suddenly the opening measures are recaptured, albeit with a differently colored sound: the words 'Et In Terra Pax' bring the first movement to a close. A restless Allegro follows which abruptly stops and is replaced by a calming cho-rale-like passage. A narrator reads aloud the poem 'Sonnet' by the young poet Charles Hamilton Sorley, who was killed during World War I. This poem fittingly puts into words the cruelty and senselessness of war. After the expanded recapitulation of the allegro, the broad, almost infinite atmosphere of the beginning returns. Clarinet and English horn play the pentatonic opening theme once more, this time broadly, while the words 'Et In Terra... Pax' are repeated again and again by the rest of the orchestra.The composer has purposely avoided all forms of aggression and bombastic sounds regularly used in works about war. Fear of violence and destruction can be heard and felt during the allegro passages. The charged opening makes way in the end for hope: May peacefulness replace cruelty in everyday life, too.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£86.00Postcard From Machu Picchu - Dirk Brossé
Sir Dirk Bross, music director at the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, is a versatile composer of orchestral and symphonic repertoire, chamber music, film & musical. His compositions are performed worldwide by the most prominent orchestras and soloists. About the new series of 10 "Musical Postcards" for wind band, Dirk says the following: "Composing is a commitment; it is my life's mission. For me composing means creating a vacuum around myself and allowing myself to be submerged by impressions. It is a continual struggle between fantasy and reality, between dream and reality. Out of chaos of sounds and emotions I try to order my thoughts by juggling shreds of melodies, original chords, striking sound colours and alternating rhythms. Melody, harmony, rhythm and sound colours are finally balanced to generate a harmonious universe. This series of ten 'Musical Postcards' are a reflection of my travels, thoughts, discoveries and musical career so far, which has brought me around the globe. I look forward to you joining me on this voyage of discovery..."
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£73.00Postcard From Buenos Aires - Dirk Brossé
Sir Dirk Bross, music director at the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, is a versatile composer of orchestral and symphonic repertoire, chamber music, film & musical. His compositions are performed worldwide by the most prominent orchestras and soloists. About the new series of 10 "Musical Postcards" for wind band, Dirk says the following: "Composing is a commitment; it is my life's mission. For me composing means creating a vacuum around myself and allowing myself to be submerged by impressions. It is a continual struggle between fantasy and reality, between dream and reality. Out of chaos of sounds and emotions I try to order my thoughts by juggling shreds of melodies, original chords, striking sound colours and alternating rhythms. Melody, harmony, rhythm and sound colours are finally balanced to generate a harmonious universe. This series of ten 'Musical Postcards' are a reflection of my travels, thoughts, discoveries and musical career so far, which has brought me around the globe. I look forward to you joining me on this voyage of discovery..."
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£86.00Postcard From Petra - Dirk Brossé
Sir Dirk Bross, music director at the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, is a versatile composer of orchestral and symphonic repertoire, chamber music, film & musical. His compositions are performed worldwide by the most prominent orchestras and soloists. About the new series of 10 "Musical Postcards" for wind band, Dirk says the following: "Composing is a commitment; it is my life's mission. For me composing means creating a vacuum around myself and allowing myself to be submerged by impressions. It is a continual struggle between fantasy and reality, between dream and reality. Out of chaos of sounds and emotions I try to order my thoughts by juggling shreds of melodies, original chords, striking sound colours and alternating rhythms. Melody, harmony, rhythm and sound colours are finally balanced to generate a harmonious universe. This series of ten 'Musical Postcards' are a reflection of my travels, thoughts, discoveries and musical career so far, which has brought me around the globe. I look forward to you joining me on this voyage of discovery..."
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£76.40Postcard from Beijing - Dirk Brossé
Sir Dirk Bross, music director at the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, is a versatile composer of orchestral and symphonic repertoire, chamber music, film & musical. His compositions are performed worldwide by the most prominent orchestras and soloists. About the new series of 10 "Musical Postcards" for wind band, Dirk says the following: "Composing is a commitment; it is my life's mission. For me composing means creating a vacuum around myself and allowing myself to be submerged by impressions. It is a continual struggle between fantasy and reality, between dream and reality. Out of chaos of sounds and emotions I try to order my thoughts by juggling shreds of melodies, original chords, striking sound colours and alternating rhythms. Melody, harmony, rhythm and sound colours are finally balanced to generate a harmonious universe. This series of ten 'Musical Postcards' are a reflection of my travels, thoughts, discoveries and musical career so far, which has brought me around the globe. I look forward to you joining me on this voyage of discovery..."
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£116.40Three Pictures for Band - Oliver Waespi
This composition consists of three sound pictures. When writing this work Oliver Waespi did not have any concrete image such as a scenery or a specific form in mind, but rather some typical visual movements. Hence the successive titles of the different parts: Procession, Dialogue and Waves. Numerous associations mutually link those parts as far as motifs and harmony are concerned. The motif of the ascending and descending fourth plays an important role in many a theme. There are many fourth chords by means of which Waespi tries to put a harmonic and unifying stamp on the compostition as a whole. Moreover there are similar or identical, though varied, motifs in the successive parts.The first part, Cortge (Procession), describes the dignified majestic procession by means of simple precise rhythms. At first the music is scarcely audible, as if coming from a distance; it gradually comes nearer until it reaches its climax in large chords, before fading away again. At each quarter note one could imagine a step. The second part, Dialogue, consists of broad outlines of dialogues between the different orchestral groups. Some instruments are asking questions, others are giving answers. After a rather sad passage, the music turns into a climax followed by a second passage that brings comfort and leads to a quiet ending. In the third part, there is a sudden movement coming up in the shape of waves. The principle of the wave, successively swelling and decreasing, dominates the entire musical structure of this part, even in the separate motifs.As far as the instrumentation is concerned there are the following notes: in the brass band version Oliver Waespi has a definite (orchestral) brass band strength in mind. If some parts (e.g. euphonium and flugelhorn) are played by several musicians, the conductor should feel free either to double or to thin those parts, providing the musical contents are not damaged. The same goes for the fanfare band in which the conductor can feel even more free as to the band's orchestral strenght. Anyway, a convincing overall sound is determining and that is to be realised by any kind of wind band.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£113.30Via Della Terra - Marco Somadossi
Composing music also involves being able to imagine the sound of something that has no sound of its own. "Via della Terra" is a soundtrack without a film, a story without a narrator; "Via della Terra" is a street in a town, but not just any street, because if a street could tell its story, "Via della Terra" would not know where to start or where and indeed if it should finish. Like all "Vie della Terra", this street in this piece is full of sounds, none of which, however, have ever belonged to it for more than a fleeting moment, just long enough to be reflected here and there and then up and away from the earth, to be lost in the air. The steps of Mozart as a child as he whistled a piece of music, never again to be remembered or written; the philosophical thoughts, or mere everyday cares, uttered to a friend by Rosmini (whispered? or declaimed?); the excited or humorous comments of people who saw Depero's futuristic works for the first time; the voices of marketstall owners, rendered louder and more acute by the noisy crowd of women sorting through the stalls of rustling and colourful silk (so many desires; silent pauses between one item of gossip and the next); the absolute and devastating roar of cannons that violated every corner of the town, injuring bodies and mutilating the memories of its inhabitants... followed by a seeming eternity, as the citizens held their breath, waiting... "Via della Terra" is the old imperial road along which the town of Rovereto was built and has developed. "Via della Terra" is music for an imaginary, impossible and simultaneous representation of all its stories. The composer has always lived in this town, which he dearly loves, and on innumerable occasions he has imagined the voices, smells, people and the lives that have been such a part of it. With his composition, "Via della Terra", Marco Somadossi won second prize (no first prize was awarded) at the XXI Corciano International Competition for original band music in the grade 4 category.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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£134.99Absolute Crossover - Otto M. Schwarz
This composition is made up of three themes, which feature all thefacets of the instrumentation of a concert band as well as that ofa big band. The symphonic passages, reminiscent of film music,enable the full tone and colour of the concert band to be heard,whilst the big band sound is represented in the rock segments andslow swing sections. The musical journey travels along practicallyall styles, ending with an impressive tutti, in which the shufflerhythm of the big band melts together with the grand, classic filmmusic sound of the concert band.
Estimated dispatch 7-14 working days
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