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REPERTOIRE – BRITISH WIND MUSIC FOR SCHOOLS FROM THE RNCM-BASBWE INTERNATIONAL WIND FESTIVAL AT MANCHESTER, UK 2004 Selected recommended repertoire from UK A further short list of material useful for school use can be found under the SCHOOL FILE 2 with some recommendations from a clinic in Singapore Available from Just Music or Shattinger A Cambrian Suite/Michael Ball/ms/Grade 3/4 Candelight Procession/Adam Gorb/G&M Brand/Grade 2/3 Dance Sequence/Marco Pütz/Maecenas/Grade 4 Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusic/Gorb/G&M Brand/Grade 3 Parade of the Wooden Warriors/Adam Gorb/G&M Brand/Grade 3 It was good to get back to a BASBWE Conference, having attended the first twenty-one and sadly missed the past two. As usual, there were a vast number of works, well over seventy, as usual the arguments raged over whether there was too much elitist music or too much commercial music, and as usual the truth lay somewhere in the middle. We in UK have been tardy in developing fine original music for school band, so it was encouraging to find several pieces this year by established composers, tackling this perennial problem of how to write at Grade 2/3/4 level without resorting to cliché and commercialism. Song of Lir/Fergus Carroll/Maecenas/Grade 2/3 My own commission at school band level for this year was from Fergus Carroll, a sensitive Irish composer whose two works so far are for High School or Community Band, Amphion and Winter Dances, (both Grade 4, published by Maecenas). Song of Lir is a Caione (pronounced Keen) or lament. A short introduction and coda frame several versions of a traditional Irish tune; the work is about 7 minutes, but the changing orchestrations and the emotional appeal of the folk legend will challenge the younger group but retain their interest. A Cambrian Suite/Michael Ball/ms/Grade 3/4 Michael Ball has written a number of fine works, a virtuoso wind Omaggio (Novello), a brilliant Saxophone Concerto with a grade 4 accompaniment but Grade 6 solo part, as well as pieces for school band at Grade 4 Chaucer’s Tunes (Novello) and Three Processionals (Studio) at Grade 2/3, all very individual and English. His Cambrian Suite (Grade 4 unpublished) is a transcription of an original brass band piece, skilfully crafted with snippets and snatches of a number of Welsh traditional tunes, less obvious than similar works by Clare Grundman, worth exploring when it reaches publication. To contact Michael, email michaelball@iol.ie Candelight Procession/Adam Gorb/G&M Brand/Grade 2/3 Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusic/Gorb/G&M Brand/Grade 3 Parade of the Wooden Warriors/Adam Gorb/G&M Brand/Grade 3 Adam Gorb I believe is one of the most original composers of the past decade, and several works have joined the international repertoire including Metropolis (Grade 5/6 Maecenas) which won the Walter Beeler Prize, and Awayday, (Grade 5 Maecenas), a breezy post-Bernstein overture which is being played by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra this month in its new orchestral version. Perhaps his biggest success is Yiddish Dances (Grade 4/5 Maecenas), followed recently by an equally promising Dances from Crete (Grade 4/5 Maecenas). Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusic is a kind of Yiddish Dances ll, equally witty, and the typical Jewish sense of irony and humour erupts in the cute Parade of the Wooden Warriors. My favourite of his school pieces is the moving Candlelight Procession, a gently rocking 5/4 which slowly increases to a full climax and quickly dies, full of pathos. If you want to tax your group with some quirky phrasing and harmonic twists, often on the edge of the cliché without falling off, Gorb’s music, or any of this repertoire, is well worth exploring. Dance Sequence/Marco Pütz/Maecenas/Grade 4 Marco Pütz is a saxophone player from Luxembourg with a vast raft of largescale works for amateur wind band to his credit. These, such as Meltdown and Praemonitio, or the concerti for flute, horn or bass trombone, should be better known. The WASBE consortium commission for a school band piece is therefore very welcome. Again, the piece uses a traditional language, but in an original and offbeat way. There are some mixed meters, and as with all of these composers, unusual phrasing, thin orchestration with solo passages which sometimes might need to be cued into other parts. GUY WOOLFENDEN My old friend and Best Man, Guy Woolfenden, was featured composer this year, and it was great to hear him discussing the interpretation of his pieces with the excellent Cork School of Music, fascinating to hear the opening of the slow movement of Illyrian Dances where he encourages the horn and woodwind to think orchestrally, sharing the phrase as if handed seamlessly from cellos to violas. With Guy, we celebrated the 21st birthday of Gallimaufry, commissioned by the RNCM for the first Manchester BASBWE Conference in 1983, we explored Illyrian Dances commissioned by Tony Veal for the first Warwick BASBWE Conference, Mockbeggar Variations commissioned for the joint WASBE/BASBWE Conference in 1991, and two recent works, Curtain Call and French Impressions, while the Saturday evening gala had a performance of Fireworks. For anyone unfamiliar with his music, may I urge you buy the CD of Guy conducting the RNCM, and to explore the Ariel publications. The general level is about Grade 4/5. Other recordings by the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra:
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