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Superbrass Saturday: Gull Dances (Terry Johns)

A great series of dances inspired by Scottish gulls in flight, looking for food and soaring above the Scottish cliffs to add to any concert programme.

Gull Dances
  Gull Dances is a suite inspired by dancing gulls on the Forth Estuary in Scotland

'Gull Dances' is a great series of dances inspired by Scottish gulls in flight, looking for food and soaring above the Scottish cliffs.

Tap dancing



The composer, who lives and works at the edge of the Forth Estuary in Edinburgh has been inspired here by the intriguing 'tap' dance that the gulls perform on the grass at certain times to encourage worms to break the surface.

The middle movements of the suite describe the birds' dancing in flight, with a waltz and a slow soaring melody.

The 11 minute piece was written for the cooperative band (then the CWS Glasgow Band) on the occasion of their winning the Scottish Championship in 2009, and was subsequently broadcast on the BBC.

Composer

The son of a Welsh miner, Terry Johns is a French horn player with a distinguished career as a member of the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony orchestras

He played with many jazz greats, including Tubby Hayes, Kenny Wheeler, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, and John Dankworth.

He is also a composer of music for television. He has written music for the RPO and LSO brass and he composed the theme and incidental music for television series 'The Pretenders'.

Find out more and purchase

https://www.superbrass.co.uk/product/gull-dances

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Sam Fisher

BA (Hons), PGCE, Dip.ABRSM
Conductor, Adjudicator (AoBBA), Composer/Arranger, Cornet & Flugelhorn Soloist


               

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