Blackfriars was the set piece here in Belgium for the 1st section last year.Charmed said:Never heard of the others though! :biggrin:
Selected by Mr. Read (and his two colleagues). So apparantly not everyone has forgotten it
Blackfriars was the set piece here in Belgium for the 1st section last year.Charmed said:Never heard of the others though! :biggrin:
HUDDSBASSBONE said:Couldn't agree more with you on that one. Triumphant Rhapsody is an absolute corker. Love playing it, and audinences seem to enjoy hearing it (People who choose the test pieces, pay heed...)
Another one I also like, but I'm not sure where or when its been used or, even if it is classed as a test piece is Endeavour. Can't remember the composer but I remember having a recording on tape years back of a massed band playing it at a concert. Absolutely FAB! Never played it, but would love to get my teeth into what sounds to be a decent bass trombone part.
i would love to know why people enjoy dismissing these sorts of pieces so much. they are almost universally more tuneful than anything we've had recently at any major contest, are obviously difficult to play if set at the right level, and in at least some cases were written by composers with better reputations than any alive today could possibly hope for (like Berlioz, Vinter, etc. also I recall Vaughan-Williams coming in for a bit of flak).Anno Draconis said:Also used at the Open in 87/88ish I think? I'm not especially keen on it, nor Lorenzo which was exhumed for Pontins last year - let's not hear that turgid old potboiler again. Put it in the same skip as Scena Sinfonica, Life Divine, Scena Sinfonica and Judges of the flippin' Secret Court. Oh, and James Cook, and Entertainments.
starperformer said:what exactly is the problem with them?
Anno Draconis said:Life Divine: Like the above, written to a formula. I find it dull and repetitive, pompous and overblown. Similar in may ways to Liszt's tone poems which also give me the heeby-jeebies, I can find little of musical value in it. Personally I would say exactly the same about Lorenzo
Bayerd said:Surely the fact it's overblown is a problem with the band not the music?
Anno Draconis said:...Beecham's aphorism that the English "don't really like music, but they adore the sound it makes" (paraphrased 'cos I can't remember his exact words!).
well that immediately puts it right on a par with the majority of modern testpieces - "journey to the centre of the earth" is far from being the only one, it is the rule not the exception. the only difference is that the fashionable effects nowadays have moved on and are now far more superficial. life divine requires a good solid band sound to a much greater extent - maybe that's what bands worry about?Anno Draconis said:It tries too hard to achieve aural effect without actually having much to say musically.
starperformer said:life divine requires a good solid band sound to a much greater extent - maybe that's what bands worry about?
andywooler said:I would add Chromascope, Paul Petterson - I like it myself but have never met anyone else who does which is a shame.
andywooler said:I would add Chromascope, Paul Petterson - I like it myself but have never met anyone else who does which is a shame.
I last heard it at the Scaba contest in the days when it was held in the Brighton Dome - Alder Valley played it (as a bet??)
You should've seen the audience response when Chromascope was played in the 70sAnno Draconis said:[*raises hand) I do. Would make a good 1st section area piece! Patterson wrote a follow-up called Cataclysm (I think) which is even more obscure.
KMJ Recordings said:You should've seen the audience response when Chromascope was played in the 70s![]()
brassneck said:
I think the thing about that, though, is that (relative) atonality and odd things are much more commonplace in the Brass Band arena now. Take it back to 1974 and it was, er, a little more unusualPeterBale said:Trinity College of Music Brass Band opened their lunch-time concert at Regent Hall with it a few years ago, and despite its still rather unusual sonorities no-one batted an eyelid. It certainly deserves to be performed moe frequently.
Maestro said:Does anyone remember 'Coriolanus'. I last played it a good namy years ago, and was wondering if it was ever played nowadays. If memory serves me right, I think it was by Cyril Jenkins.