National test-pieces announced for Cheltenham Finals

Kapitol Promotions Ltd, has announced the set test-pieces for this year’s National Championships of Great Britain, sections 1-4. Commissioned by the Swiss Brass Band Association for the 1988 Swiss National, this year’s Section 1 UK National challenge is James Curnow’s Trittico - a set of three extended variations on the American shaped-note hymn, Consolation. Published by Winwood Music, Trittico is one of James Curnow’s most popular works for brass band and was previously set as the Championship Section test-piece for the 1989 European Championships.

Section 2 will take on Darrol Barry’s four-movement Ghosts, Goblins, Witches and Wizards published by Obrasso Verlag. Movement I - Ghosts, opens mysteriously, with solo horn introducing the first theme, before a second theme is heard on solo cornets, euphoniums and baritones. Horns, basses and timpani usher in a more agitated central section, giving way to music from the opening for a short while as the faster, agitated music returns. Movement II – Goblins, evokes the ghost of Grieg with its quirky harmony and mood. Although mostly quiet, the music has its imposing moments, especially in the central section. Movement III – Witches, brings a swirling satanic scherzo, whilst the closing Wizards depicts mysterious incantations and explosive spells.

Having originally been used as the Section 2 Regional test in 1972, Joseph Horovitz’s Sinfonietta, published by Novello, will test Section 3 bands. It was Horovitz’s first work for brass band, later rescored by him for orchestra or ‘legitimate orchestra’, as he called it. The first movement, Allegro, is in sonata form, though the second subject is an emerging variant form of the first. The second movement, Lento Moderato, is based on a hymn tune that Horovitz said he heard in a dream. Its principal interest is harmonic, and it exploits the sustained quality of lower instruments. The finale, a con brio, is a rondo on a rather cheeky theme that is always treated in its basic triads.
 
The NYBBGB commissioned Black Dyke Band’s recently appointed young Composer-in-Residence, Norwegian Fredrick Schjelderup, to write the test set for Section 4, New Beginnings, for its Children’s Band as a follow-on piece to Peter Graham’s Strange New Worlds about Covid times. The Prima Vista Musikk publication is optimistic, describing in sonic terms the effect that energy can create musically and emotionally. Cast in three sections, the piece is driven by the percussion section, which pushes energy through a sequence of mysterious and joyous moments. After a sonorous climax, the music subsides to a slower, romantic middle section, where the earlier rhythmic energy is transformed into melodic playing from the brass. As the finale begins, earlier themes are combined, first with a fugato that passes the melodies around the band, before players unite in a recapitulation carrying the whole composition to a rousing finish.
 
All four publications are available to order from www.justmusicuk.com

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