With the dust barely settled on the 2011 Mineworkers Championship in Skegness, Butlins has already announced the test pieces for their 2012 event.

Nautical

The invited Championship Section bands will be faced with Robert Farnon’s nautically inspired 'Un Vie de Matelot', which was originally written for the 1975 National Championship Finals, and was last used at the Regional Championships in 1995.

Mountainous

Eric Ball’s classic 'High Peak' is the ambitious choice for the First Section. Written for the 1969 National/World Championships at London, it has remained one of the composer’s most accessible and popular works.

Greek comedy

There is a real delve back into the history books in the Second Section, where Granville Bantock’s descriptive overture, 'The Frogs (of Aristophanes)' will provide an amphibious test for the bands.

Inspired by the Greek comedic satire of the same name (the frogs do not belong to Aristophanes, but are merely a very small part of the original story) it was written for orchestra in 1935 and later arranged for brass band by Frank Wright to be used as the test piece at the 1952 National Championships.

Swiss miniatures

Philip Sparke’s 'Three Miniatures' for the Third Section was recently recorded on the Polyphonic label CD release 'Sea Pictures' and was originally commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band of Switzerland in 1994.

It comprises three movements; 'Prelude', 'Hill Song' and 'Scherzo'.

The Seasons

The Fourth Section bands will have to get to grips with Philip Wilby’s popular 'The Seasons', which was used as recently as 2007 as the set work for the Fourth Section Regional Championships.

As part of our ongoing policy of working along with suggestions and ideas submitted by our competing bands, we have decided to revisit the old repertoireButlins

Old repertoire

A spokesperson told 4BR: "As part of our ongoing policy of working along with suggestions and ideas submitted by our competing bands, we have decided to revisit the old repertoire."

Test Pieces

Championship Section: Un Vie de Matelot (Robert Farnon)
First Section: High Peak (Eric Ball)
Second Section: The Frogs (of Aristophanes) (Granville Bantock)
Third Section: Three Miniatures (Philip Sparke)
Fourth Section: The Seasons (Philip Wilby)