The Swiss National Championships will celebrate their 40th anniversary in Montreux in November with five specially commissioned works by leading home grown composers.

A great deal of interest surrounds each of the five new compositions, which will be performed by a record 57 bands.

A Voice in Them

Oliver Waespi’s eagerly awaited new composition, ‘A Voice in Them’ will be the set work in the Championship ‘Excellence’ Section, with Stephan Hodel’s ‘A Lenda do Curupira’ set for the First Section.

Second Section bands will be faced by ‘The Son of Light’ by Bertrand Moren, with Pierre Schmidhausler’s ‘Cha das Caldeiras’ testing the Third Section contenders.

Another intriguingly entitled work from the pen of Mario Burki, entitled ‘Flow!’ has been set for the Fourth Section.

Exotic own choices

There is also an exotic list of own choice works that will be performed by the top section rivals looking to join reigning National and Europe Champions, Brass Band Bürgermusik Luzern at the 2015 European Championships in Freiburg.

These include works by Philip Sparke, Oliver Marquis, Derek Bourgeois, Oliver Waespi, Johan Evenepoel, Simon Dobson, Philip Harper, Thomas Doss and Ludovic Neurohr.

Ondes Martenot

Rumours are circulating that in keeping with the sense of Swiss adventure that last year saw flying saucers hovering in the auditorium with Nigel Clarke’s ‘When World’s Collide’, one work will feature the sounds of the Ondes Martenot — an early electronic instrument.

Wordsworth

The Championship Section set work ‘A Voice in Them’ is inspired by the words of William Wordsworth in his poem ‘The Slimpon Pass’ — which he wrote sometime after walking the treacherous 6,578 foot connection between Brig in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy in the summer of 1790.

As Oliver Waespi describes it himself — “Nature is presented in this poem as an all-powerful, nameless force, but also as a creative energy and a mirror on man’s soul’.

Mythological

In contrast, Stephan Hodel’s ‘A Lenda do Curupira’ (The Legend of Curupira) is inspired by a mythological creature of Brazilian folklore.

Curupira is a red headed dwarf with feet turned backwards, who rides a peccary, has a weakness for tobacco and schnapps and attacks those who pay scant respect to the rainforest and its fauna.

Influenced heavily by Brazilian samba, Bossa Nova and Forro musical styles it is a symphonic poem with a strong environmentalist and political message — a call for the spirit of Curupira to return and protect the rainforest and its animals.

Curupira is a red headed dwarf with feet turned backwards, who rides a peccary, has a weakness for tobacco and schnapps and attacks those who pay scant respect to the rainforest and its fauna4BR

Plenty to enjoy

With the works of Bertrand Moren, Pierre Schmidhausler and Mario Burki sure to tickle the taste buds of the competitors as well as the audience, there should be plenty of great music for 4BR to enjoy as we report once again from the event at the Montreaux Music & Convention Centre on the weekend of the 29th/30th November.