Program No. 88 - 26th January 2014

Happy Australia Day everyone.

Tonight's show will be a celebration of Australian music, in brass, in cinema and on radio.

Hour 1 (Jazz and Contemporary Brass)

1.    Beds are Burning (Midnight Oil)
      - Scream In Blue (1992)

2.    Forgotten Years (Midnight Oil)
      - Blue Sky Mining (1989)

3.    ABC News Theme
      - Remixed by Pendulum (2010)

4.    Back In Black (Trombone Shorty)
      - Trombone Shorty - Live At Jazz Fest (2007)

5.    Holy Grail (Hunters & Collectors)
      -  Living In Large Rooms and Lounges (1995)

6.    Do You See What I See (Hunters & Collectors)
      - Collected Works (1986)

7.    Eagle Rock 1908 (Ross Wilson)
      - Tributary (2008)

8.    Land Down Under (Ophil)
      - Ophil Live (2005)

9.    Still Young  (The Cat Empire)
10.  Go (The Cat Empire)      -  Steal The Light (2013)

11.  Sydney By Night (James Morrison)
      -  Postcards from Down Under (1988)

Next week, we play music from Australian trumpeter and singer, Vince Jones.

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Hour 2 (Movie Scores)

We are featuring music from two iconic Australian movies. The first was released back in 1982 with music composed by Bruce Rowland - The Man From Snowy River. The second movie was released in 2008 with music composed largely by David Hirschfelder - Australia.

1.    Main Titles
2.    Mountain Theme
3.    Jessica's Theme
4.    The Chase
5.    Jim's Ride
6.    Jim Brings In The Brumbies
7.    Closing Titles
     - The Man from Snowy River

8.    Welcome to Australia (Overture)
9.    No Man Hires Me, No Man Fires Me
10.  The Rush
11.  Across the Room / Begin the Beguine
12.  Faraway Downs
13.  Fire from the Sky
14.  Nimrod (From the Enigma Variations)
15.  Waltzing Matilda
     - Australia

Next week we play music from Ramon Djawadi.
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Hour 3 (Brass Bands and Ensembles)

 1.   The Australasian (Grimethorpe Colliery Band)
     - Grimethorpe in Concert (2002)

2.    An Australian Fantasy (Sellers Engineering Band)
     - The World of Brass (1992)

3.    Endeavour (Yorkshire Imperial Band)
     - Endeavour (2002)

4.    At The Going Down Of The Sun (Kew Band Melbourne)
     - 'Neath Austral Skies

5.    Terra Australis (Brighouse & Rastrick Band)
     - The Nationals 2010

6.     Waltzing Matilda (Melbourne Staff Band)
     - Celebration Of Faithfulness (2007)

7.    Advance Australia Fair (Australian National Band & David Stanhope)
    - Advance Australia Fair: The Australian National Anthem (2005)

On next week's show, we feature trombone player Brett Baker.

Program No. 68 - 2013 Victorian State Championships Music

At the end of last week's show I promoted this week's show as being all about the music of compose George Lloyd.

Whilst Lloyd was better known for his orchestral and choral works he did write 4 relatively well known major works for brass bands. I was hoping to play all four pieces for you on this week's show. Unfortunately in my research during the week I was unable to find a recording of King's Messenger. Then I found a recording that is being released next week. I have therefore decided to postpone by program of George Lloyd music until a later date.

Instead I will be representing a show I produced earlier this year looking at the music chosen as test pieces for the 2013 Victorian State Championships to be held in Ballarat next weekend (17th and 18th August).

You can find the full list of test pieces on the VBL website.

Please note I have not found recordings of all the test pieces for brass band on the show. In order to mix things up a bit I have included some non-brass band pieces. I'll explain more, later:

1. Nott'num Town (Allan Street)
This is one of the test pieces chosen for D Grade.

I have only managed to find one recording of this piece, and that is by a Concert Band. Here it is performed by The Band of the 9th & 12th Royal Lancers from their 2011 album, In Concert.

I have then found a brass band recording of one of the movements, Goose Fair. Here it is performed by Black Dyke Mills Band from their 1981 album Concert Sound, with Major Peter Parkes as conductor.

2. A Salford Sinfonietta (Darrol Barry)
I believe that this has been selected as a test pieces previously, for the B Grade section. This year it is one of the choices for C Grade.

Here it is being played by BNFL Band on their 1993 album Partita.

3. First Suite in Eb (Gustav Holst)
This is another selection for C grade, and here is another piece where I was unsuccessful in finding a recording of the brass band arrangement. Here it is, for concert, military band, with The Central Band of the Royal Air Force and Wing Commander Eric Banks as conductor, from their 2010 album British Music for Concert Music.

4. The Flying Dutchman: Overture (Richard Wagner)
The first of the selections for B Grade, and yet another piece where I couldn't find the brass band recording. Here is the original orchestral recording, performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vernon Handley
as conductor, from the 2003 album Wagner: The Ride of the Valkyries, Overtures.

5. Royal Parks (George Lloyd)
The second of the selections for B Grade, this was one of 4 test pieces written by George Lloyd for brass bands. Apparently the story goes that people though this test pieces a bit too easy when it was presented by Lloyd. He made sure his next piece was much harder (more about that in our later show on George Lloyd).
This recording is from Black Dyke Mills Band with Major Peter Parkes as conductor from their 1986 album The Complete Champions.

6. Partita for Band - Postcards from Home (Philip Wilby)
This was also an option for B grade bands. Here it is performed by Grimethorpe Colliery Band from their 1993 album Wilby.

7. Rienzi: Overture (Richard Wagner)
This piece was provided as an option for A Grade Bands, but once again I couldn't find a recording of the brass band arrangement. Once again I have turned to an orchestral recording, from the same CD as before (See The Flying Dutchman, above).

8. The Legend of King Arthur (Peter Meechan)
The last recording chosen for tonight's show is also the newest. This piece was only composed in the last couple of years with this recording, from Foden's Band only released last year, on the album with the same name.

I'll be away at the State Championships next Sunday so there won't be a show next week.

The following week we'll have the results of the State Championships as part of our show featuring the music of George Lloyd.

Program No. 67 - Music by Philip Sparke II

Program No. 62 was the first of our shows featuring the music of Philip Sparke.  This week we present our second program of his works.

1. Gala Fanfare - from Five Festive Fanfares (Williams Fairy Band)
We open the show with Gala Fanfare which was originally composed for a festival of bands that was a part of World Expo '88 in Brisbane. For those interested the other four fanfares are titled Champions Fanfare, Birthday Fanfare, Festival Fanfare and Victory Fanfare and were all composed for different events. Tonight's recording is by the Williams Fairy Band, with Phillip McCann as conductor, from the album Images of Brass (2001).

2. A London Overture (Britannia Building Society Band)
This is one of Sparke's earlier major works for Brass Band having been commissioned to compose a piece for the 1984 Dutch National Brass Band Championships and is one of the pieces heard consistently in brass band contests since. This particular performance is by the Britannia Building Society Band recorded at the 1991 European Band Championships.

3. The Vikings (Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag)
First composed in 1989, this piece is performed by Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag from their 1997 album, Philip Sparke.

4. Music for a Festival (Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra)
This piece was commissioned by the Boosey & Hawkes Band Festivals for the 1985 finals of the Youth Section in the National Brass Band Championships of  Great Britain. Sparke has written a lot of music for brass bands that he subsequently arranges concert bands, and vice versa. This, as you will note, is the concert band arrangement of the brass band work. It is performed here by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra with Philip Sparke as conductor, from the 1992 album Orient Express (European Wind Circle).

 5. Tuba Concerto - Allegro (Black Dyke Band)
This was commissioned in 2006 by German instrument manufacturer Miraphone. It is dedicated to, and first performed by, a long time friend of Sparke, Markus Theinart. The Concerto is in two movements (Lento and Allegro) but we will only be hearing the final movement, performed by Black Dyke Band with Nicholas Childs as conductor and Joe Cook as the soloist, from their 2008 album Music for Battle Creek - The Brass Band Music of Philip Sparke. We will be coming back to this CD for some of the rest of the music on the show.

6. Dances and Alleluias (Black Dyke Band)
This piece was commissioned by the British Federation of Brass Bands for their inaugural English National Brass Band Championships held in 2006.

Sparke describes the piece as follows:

My chief concern when writing Dances and Alleluias was that I knew I couldn’t continue the line of thought that had led to Music of the Spheres, a piece which had taken me about as far as I currently could (or wanted to) go in terms of scale and virtuosity. In addition, I wanted to write ‘absolute’ music rather than a programmatic piece but keep the same emotional journey which is for me the most important aspect of Spheres. 

My first idea for the new piece was a final ‘alleluia’ - I didn’t imagine any specific religious connection but wanted the slow music to be vocal in nature and ecstatic in mood, as that word implies. It was then logical to intersperse the slow music with faster dances. 

This piece is also one of the test pieces chosen for the A Grade section in this year's Victorian Brass Band Championships to be held in Ballarat later this month. My spies tell me that there is a chance that more than one of the bands has chosen this as their test piece.

Tonight's performance is again from the album Music for Battle Creek - The Brass Band Music of Philip Sparke, and again performed by Black Dyke Band.

This piece is in 4 movements and goes for about 14 and a half minutes. 

7. Pantomime (Britannia Building Society Band)

This solo work was commissioned by Nicholas Childs back in 1986. It is being performed by Britannia Building Society Band. Unfortunately my information does not indicate who the soloist is. This is again from the 1997 album titled Philip Sparke.

8. A Tale As Yet Untold (Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag) 

I endeavoured to play this piece on the last Philip Sparke program, but technical issues foiled that attempt. Hopefully those technical issues have disappeared and we will be able to play this piece in full. For a description of this piece please read my program notes from that show.

9. Music for Battle Creek (Black Dyke Band)

This piece was commissioned by the Brass Band of Battle Creek, located in Michigan, USA. The music seeks to salute the American 'can-do' attitude, full of excitement, bravado and virtuosity.

This piece is in 3 movements:

1.   Prelude and Toccata
2.   Elegy
3.   Rondo Finale

This is the title track of the CD we have used for a lot of this show, Music for Battle Creek - The Brass Band Music of Philip Sparke, and again is performed by Black Dyke Band.

That's it for this show. There's plenty more music from Philip Sparke that we haven't played yet, though we may leave it for a couple of months before we play the third program of this series.

For next week's show we'll be looking at another composer, Lloyd George, plus talk about the upcoming Victorian Brass Band Championships.

Program No. 62 - Music by Philip Sparke

There wouldn't be many brass band or concert band players out that aren't familiar with Philip Sparke's works.

London born, in 1951, and with his first composition in 1973 (Gaudium), Sparke has written well over 150 works for both brass and concert bands.

Over the years the bands that I have been involved in have played a number of his works, as they are often used as test pieces at both state and national level, both here in Australia, as well as overseas.

Tonight's program will look at only a small selection of his vast catalogue of works, and only for brass bands. Something tells me there will be one or two more shows in the future featuring more of his music.

So, what's on?:

1. Sandstone Centennial (2007)
This march was commissioned by Frodsham Silver Band to celebrate their centenary as a band, and is styled as a traditional march. This recording is by Brass Band De Bazuin Oenkerk with  Klaas van der Woude as conductor, from the album Colour of Brass (2008).

2. The Land of the Long White Cloud - Aotearoa (1979)
This was one of Sparke's first major pieces, and is probably the first piece I recall playing from Sparke. I think that this piece still stands up quite well, and doesn't sound as dated as other major works that I have heard composed in the 70s. This is now seen as a B Grade major work, though back in the 80s it was seen as an A Grade Test Piece. This just shows you how the standard of playing within the brass band movement has increased over the years. This particular recording is by National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand with Nigel Weeks as conductor, from the album Brass Aotearoa: Music for Brass Band from New Zealand (2003).

3. Fugue from Graduation Day (1986)
This piece (full name Prelude, Toccata and Fugue - Graduation Day) was commissioned by Salford College of Technology to be played at the college's 1986 graduation ceremony by their relatively new brass band. The music depicts both the traditional and contemporary sounds of the brass band repertoire at that time. This recording by Buy As You View Cory Band with Robert Childs as conductor from their album Diadem of Gold (2000).

4. Capriccio (1979)
This Eb Soprano Cornet solo was one of the first solo pieces written by Sparke. This recording is by Williams Fairey Band with Major Peter Parkes as conductor, from their album Double Champions (1993).

5. Hymn of the Highlands (2002)
This lengthy (36 minutes) concert piece was commissioned by Professor David King who was at the time conducting the Yorkshire Building Society Band, and was the played at the 2002 European Brass Band Championships Gala Concert, in Brussels.

The concept here was to develop a themed piece that would work as a half concert, and featuring a number of the band's soloists.

There are 7 movements in this work and all are named after locations in the Scottish Highlands:

1. Ardross Castle
2. Summer Isles (Euphonium Solo)
3. Flowerdale (Eb Soprano Cornet Solo)
4. Strathcarron - Sword Dance
5. Lairg Muir (Cornet Solo)
6. Alladale (Flugel Horn, Baritone and Tenor Horn Trio)
7. Dundonnell - Finale

The Flowerdale movement is often used as a standalone solo piece, for Soprano Cornet.
 
I especially enjoy the Finale, having played this on stage only a few weeks ago.

This recording is by Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band with David King as conductor from the album titled Hymn of the Highlands.

6. Music of the Spheres (2004)
This major work was also commissioned by Yorkshire Building Society Band for the 2004 European Brass Band Championships at Glasgow.

The piece reflects Sparke's fascination with the origins of the universe, and space.

The opening of this piece is played by the Tenor Horn at t=0 (or the time of The Big Bang, the creation of time and space). This is then followed by a slower section titled The Lonely Planet (Earth). This is then followed by Asteroids and Shooting Stars, depicting objects flying through space and the piece ends with The Unknown,

This recording is from that 2004 European Championships, and played by Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band with David King as conductor.

7. A Tale as Yet Untold (2010)
This was commissioned for the 2010 European Championships in Linz, Austria, though this time by Cory Band.

I'll quote directly from Sparke himself about what this piece is about:

The ‘tale’ of the title is an autobiographical one which the composer feels need not be divulged to explain the programme of the music, which deals with a much more general human condition. The first movement opens with a nervous repetitive figure in the cornets, under which an impassioned theme develops. This is cut short by a closely related faster section which comprises two alternating moods: an aggressive ‘toccata’ interspersed by a yearning 6/8 melody. The second movement is the heart of the work and symbolises the ability of the human soul to overcome the ‘Sturm und Drang’ of the first movement with an indomitable sense of optimism. The third movement tries to negate this feeling of peace but ends triumphantly in a salute to the power of the human spirit.

This was used as the test piece for the Elitedivisjon of the National Brass Band Championships of Norway this year. The recording tonight is from that contest and features the winning band, Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag, with David King as the conductor.

Next week's topic - staying with brass bands, and looking at brass band arrangements of movie music (for something different!)