In recent years it has become customary
to release a recording of the works that are to be played as test pieces
in all sections at the forthcoming regional qualifying stages of the
National Brass Band Championships, held throughout the country during
February and March. An opportunity for the bands concerned (particularly
the lower section bands) to listen to the work they will be getting
intimately to grips with, usually in a performance by a leading band
and conductor.
Of the works selected for the 2003 round of contests two, Simon Dobson’s Lydian
Pictures and Peter Graham’s Northern Landscapes, are newly
recorded for this disc, the Dobson being a new work and the composer’s
first major piece for brass band (Dobson is still a composition student
under Timothy Salter at the Royal College of Music), whilst the Graham
is a revised version of a work originally written for the brass quintet
of the Ulster Orchestra. Heaton’s Celestial Prospect, although
written shortly after the Second World War, remains little known due
to the disappearance of the score, which surfaced
once again in the 1980s and was subsequently significantly revised by
the composer. Arthur Butterworth’s impressive Passacaglia on a Theme
of Brahms, based on the Passacaglia from the fourth movement of
Brahms’ Fourth Symphony in E Minor, is heard
here in a fine recording drawn from a disc of Butterworth’s band music
released on Doyen by the Black Dyke Band last year. Judith Bingham’s
Prague was written to a commission from BBC Radio 3 for performance
in the 1996 BBC Festival of Brass and this is the original live BBC
recording, made during the festival by the Williams Fairey Band and
James Gourlay (Bingham has since written a solo tuba work for Gourlay,
Der Spuk).
Lydian Pictures and Northern
Landscapes stand at the lighter end of the brass band repertoire
and it is interesting to consider that both Simon Dobson and Peter Graham’s
melodic, tuneful style is rooted in the brass band movement, both composers
coming from a strong “banding” background. In terms of their melodic
material both works are attractive yet unremarkable, the central movement
of the Dobson, Romance, possibly lingering longer in the memory
than the outer movements. Where both composers distinguish themselves
however is in their skill in scoring for band, both using the restricted
textural palette available from the ensemble with consummate skill.
This in no small measure accounts for the popularity of Peter Graham’s
prolific output in the band world. Quite simply, his music is fun to
play. In comparison, Simon Dobson’s youthful work stands up well and
he is a young composer who will doubtless be heard again.
In many ways Wilfred Heaton is a name that should be better known outside the
brass band world. Having been taught and guided by Mátyás Seiber, Heaton did make serious attempts to establish
a reputation in wider musical spheres, although ultimately it is his
brass band music on which his memory has come to rest. Perhaps part
of the problem was his dedicated Salvationist background, something
that he found exceptionally difficult to shake off in spite of experimentation
with the musical fashions of the time, including serialism. Celestial
Prospect takes the Salvationist song Come, comrades
dear, and uses it as the basis for a set of symphonically conceived
variations, notable amongst which is the central elegy, the emotional
heart of the work. Despite the obvious imagination that shines in some
of the variations this is not Heaton at his best and to anyone who is
not familiar with his work I would strongly recommend hunting out a
recording of his rather mundanely titled Contest Music. Effectively
a symphony for band, the work’s bland title is anything but reflected
in the music, which forms an important milestone in the brass band repertoire
and is an endlessly fascinating piece to listen to.
The two heavyweight works here
are undoubtedly those by Butterworth and Bingham, two very different
yet equally fine pieces. I have already touched on the importance of
imaginative scoring in the band repertoire and in this respect Arthur
Butterworth is an acknowledged master. Anyone in any doubt should take
a listen to his symphony for brass, Odin, From the Land
of Fire
and Ice, like the Heaton a seminal work for the medium. It is Butterworth’s
Passacaglia on a Theme of Brahms that from a performance point
of view, is the highlight of this disc, magnificently played by the
Black Dyke Band and as mentioned above, drawn from their 2002 Doyen
disc dedicated to Butterworth, a disc that I would recommend as essential
listening to anyone with an interest in English music generally. Judith
Bingham’s Prague falls into
four continuously played sections, each of which, typically for Bingham,
carries an individual programmatic element ranging from an eerie evocation
of the Charles Bridge as the slow third section to a concluding fugal cacophony sub-titled
Wenceslas Square,
Defeat and Triumph. It is these final three words that sum up the piece, gritty, resolute
and ultimately triumphant in the face of adversity, a fitting tribute
to the people of a beautiful city that has been through much in its
troubled history. Williams Fairey Band are equal to Bingham’s tough,
robust language and in Prague I sense a work that will create
much for bands to talk about come the opening regional contest in February.
Christopher Thomas.
DOYEN DOYCD143 [57:52]