Performance of the Month - Sunrise and Safari by Adam Gorb

Adam Gorb Adam Gorb

To cheese or not to cheese, that is the question. I have been in Singapore during the famous School Band Contest time, when bands rehearse sometimes from November to April, often four times a week, usually a piece of school band music which every section will find easy enough for the school to gain a coveted Gold. For 2007, Adam Gorb wrote two pieces, with aleatoric passages of birdsong and trumpeting elephants and chattering monkeys. They may never be played again!

Download the score to Sunrise and Safari for Concert Band

Download Sunrise and Safari - Gorb

Commissioned by the Co-Curricular Activities Branch of the Ministry of Education, Singapore, for the 2007 Singapore Youth Festival. The ideal school or music centre motivational learning piece.

Programme Notes - Sunrise and Safari (2006)

This work consists of two movements which can be played together or separately. Both movements last around three and a half minutes.

The first movement Singapore Sunrise is intended for school bands, and is based on the Singaporean melody Ikan Kekek. It is characterised by a mysterious opening with early morning birdcalls on the woodwinds before the melody takes over and rises to a climax.

Night Safari is aimed at slightly more advanced bands and is a depiction of Singapore's world famous Safari park that can only be visited in the dark. I have tried to recapture the sense of excitement and danger as the wild animals are seen (or sometimes just heard) in their natural habitat. The piece is a sort of jazz waltz but with a lot of surprising sounds!

Sunrise and Safari was commissioned as the test piece for concert bands for the Singapore Youth Festival 2007

adam@adamgorb.co.uk

Website: www.adamgorb.co.uk