The test pieces for the 2010 Regional Championships have been announced, with a wide selection in time and place from the Music Panel.
Championship
The Championship contenders will have to get to grips with George Lloyd’s ‘English Heritage’, commissioned for the Historic Buildings and monuments Commission for England in 1988, and first performed by Black Dyke and Grimethorpe at Kenwood in the same year.
It was later used as the test piece for the National Finals in 1990, won by Scottish Co-op Band.
The First Section meanwhile will have to get to grips with one of the all time classics of banding repertoire, Gustav Holst's ‘A Moorside Suite’, written in 19284BR
First Section
The First Section meanwhile will have to get to grips with one of the all time classics of banding repertoire, Gustav Holst's ‘A Moorside Suite’, written in 1928.
The historical significance of the work has not been lost over time, and its testing musical and technical passages, should prove popular with performers and listeners alike.
Second Section
Something more up to date will be the challenge faced by bands in the Second Section, where Philip Harper’s ‘Kingdom of Dragons’ should give the bands and conductors plenty to think about and enjoy.
Third Section
Much further back in time though, the first acknowledged original brass band work, the tone poem ‘Labour and Love’, written by Percy Fletcher for the 1913 Crystal Palace Contest will test the Third Section bands.
Fourth Section
However, the Fourth Section contenders will surely be pleased that the Music Panel has not delved into the midst’s of time once again for a work for them to endure this year – with Philip Sparke providing his usual mix of tunefulness and tricky but manageable technique in his ‘Saint-Saëns Variations’.
Written initially for the Sierra Vista High School Symphonic Band in Las Vegas in 2006, it has since been rescored for brass band this year.
Test pieces:
Championship Section:
English Heritage (George Lloyd) – published by R. Smith & Co.
First Section:
Moorside Suite (Gustav Holst) — published by R. Smith & Co.
Second Section:
Kingdom of Dragons (Philip Harper) – published by Harper Music
Third Section:
Labour and Love (Percy Fletcher) – published by R. Smith & Co.
Fourth Section:
Saint-Saëns Variations (Philip Sparke) – published by Anglo Music Press.
Get you hands on a recording!
If you want to know just what lies in store, then get your order into 4BR now!
