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Wingates century boosted by new commissions

A century of recording by Wingates Band is to be celebrated with a CD release — and a brace of new compositions from Lucy Pankhurst and Adam Taylor.

Lucy Pankhurst
 

The Wingates Band will premiere two new works from the pens of composers Lucy Pankhurst and Adam Taylor on their latest CD release.

'Sounds of a Century' features one work from each decade of Wingates' distinguished recording history — 10 in total, with two new commissions from Lucy (above) and Adam added for good measure.

Difficult task

MD Paul Andrews had the difficult task of trawling through the many recordings the band has made over the decades to pick the ten works that best reflected Wingates' many and varied achievements, and augmented them with the two newly commissioned pieces.

Voice of Gold

Lucy has composed a fanfare, entitled 'Vox Auri' (Voice of Gold) — featuring three instrument groupings representing the band's past, present and future, configured to produce antiphonal effects, giving an impression of depth and age.

This combination of old and new styles — the former including an 'echo' of the band's first ever recording — is a metaphor for modern banding.

'Sounds of a Century' features one work from each decade of Wingate's distinguished recording history4BR

Litany

Adam meanwhile, has written 'Litany', which provides the finale to the release. It is a tone poem based on four common 'plainchants' used in Catholic liturgy, melodies that he discovered not too long ago, which immediately caught his ear.

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Alan Duguid

BA (Hons), PGDipMus, PGCE
Conductor, Composer, Adjudicator (ABBA)


               

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