The brass band world has had the uncanny knack of producing a
veritable host of talented composers and arrangers from within
its ranks. Some, such as Philip Sparke, have emerged from secular
banding. Others, in a lineage stretching back to the great Eric
Ball, have been a product of the Salvation Army’s impressively
productive brass banding tradition.
Paul Lovatt-Cooper
could be said to have a foot in both camps. Although having
grown up with the Salvation Army around him he now occupies
a position in the percussion section of the Black Dyke Band.
Her is also the band’s current composer-in-residence. For him,
secular banding was an inevitable progression from percussion
lessons at school although for players directly involved with
SA bands “crossing over” is something that until comparatively
recently would not have been deemed possible. For many years,
Salvation Army rules were such that players from within the
Army were not able to engage in playing activity with bands
on the outside.
The “coming together”
of these two strands of brass band tradition over the course
of the last fifteen years or so has opened many new doors to
the movement as a whole. Largely this has been the result of
both a relaxation of the rules for Salvation Army musicians
as well as the increasing financial involvement the Salvation
Army has developed in the competitive band scene through its
commercial musical arm, Salvationist Publishing and Supplies.
SP&S is now heavily involved in publishing, recording and
financially underpinning numerous events on the banding calendar,
as well as being the force behind Doyen recordings, a label
originally founded by Nick Childs, now Black Dyke’s long standing
Musical Director.
As demonstrated
by one of the more substantial works on this new disc, Vitae
Aeternum, Paul Lovatt-Cooper has never forgotten his Salvationist
roots. That said, it only takes a few minutes spent with this
CD to realise that the greatest influence on his work is the
cinema. Figures such as John Williams, James Horner and Danny
Elfman are ever-present. Even so, the music is scored with such
skill and played with such supreme musicianship and vigour that
one is inclined to gloss over any derivative element in favour
of the thematic inspiration.
Lovatt-Cooper’s
concert works have taken the band world by storm and it is easy
to hear why. Walking with Heroes and Where Eagles
Sing are the most overtly John Williams-influenced pieces
on the disc. They are packed with great American-tinged melodies
at their respective hearts and flanked by rapid, fanfare figurations
in accompaniment. At times these really take some playing
- listen to the flying finger work from euphonium star David
Thornton in Where Eagles Sing. In contrast there is a
more reflective element in Lovatt-Cooper’s nature demonstrated
in An Untold Story and Donegal Bay. Both deploy
delightful and easy-going melodies featuring the tenor horn
and baritone respectively. Donegal Bay
is particularly affecting and here is played with ravishing
tone and style by Gareth Brindle on baritone. It represents
an all too rare opportunity to hear what until recently has
been a neglected solo instrument within the banding world.
Of the more substantial
offerings, The Dark Side of the Moon has become the best
known through its use as the test-piece for the Third Section
round of regional qualifying contests for the 2008 National
Brass Band Championships. It is a piece that the competing bands
enjoyed getting their teeth into. It is again scored with the
knowledge of a man who knows bands from the inside. It presents
some real challenges for the players whilst once again being
packed with rhythmically dynamic and exciting, if not strikingly
original, melodic ideas. Dream Catchers was written with
youth bands in mind, something close to Lovatt-Cooper’s heart
given that his day job is head of music at Wardle High in Rochdale,
a school with a legendary reputation for brass music. It’s sure
to be a hit with younger players. Its “jazz and funk influences”
include a bass line in the opening movement that sounds as if
it has been lifted from a Jackson 5 song. There’s plenty for
the rhythm section to contribute too. The Haunted Halls
also has its fair share of effects as well as some self-confessed
quotes from a range of horror films. It’s Elfman’s score to
Batman that most readily comes to mind, however.
The most personal
of the works is Vitae Aeternum, Lovatt-Cooper’s tribute
to his composition teacher Peter Graham - also from a Salvationist
background. It acknowledges directly his Salvation Army upbringing
in its use of three devotional songs, albeit very much transformed
into Lovatt-Cooper’s own style to form a three movement concert
closer.
Pictured walking
with his own heroes Peter Graham, Nicholas Childs, Philip Sparke
and Philip Wilby on the CD cover, Paul Lovatt-Cooper is a new
voice for a new age of brass band entertainment. On a purely
artistic level he might be a composer that does not speak with
an entirely individual voice, but to dismiss his work on that
alone is to miss the point. This is music to be enjoyed by both
players and audience in equal measure. It makes few demands
on the listener other than to sit back and enjoy. For that,
he is a composer likely to remain in high demand.
One final word has
to be reserved for the performers. Lovatt-Cooper’s own band, Black
Dyke, are in splendid form. In the ample acoustic of Morley Town
Hall they wring every last ounce of excitement out of the composer’s
dynamic scoring.
Christopher Thomas
Black Dyke
Band/Nicholas J. Childs 
