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EARTH AND MOON: Music for Brass Quartet

Ian MCQUEEN The Heights of Halifax
Antony ROPER A String of Tones
Stuart SCOTT Fellscape
Andrew SEIVEWRIGHT Gowbarrow Gavotte
Donald BOUSTED Tears
Peter CRUMP The March of the Hare
David SOLOMON Pieces of Eight
Raymond PARFREY Tributes to Tunesmiths, Male Voices for Brass
Guto Pryderi PUW Visages
Michael REGAN Quartet
Colin BAYLISS Tuba Quartet No. 2, Ale & Arty
Hugh Collins RICE Earth and Moon
Derek WOOD Tubafusion
TUBALATE TCD 4

£12.00 (£10.00 to BMS members), from John Powell, 39 Water View Park, Leigh, Lancs WN7 4JP (tel/fax 01942 680941) [E-mai1: tubalate@hotmail.com; www.tubalate.com]

Tubalate is a highly accomplished group of two euphoniums and two bass tubas which has enterprisingly commissioned a large number of original works from modern British composers of which this CD presents fourteen. These afford much stimulating variety. The Heights of Halifax is in the tradition of Pacific 231 and The Iron Foundry and depicts machines of the Industrial Revolution in the Calderdale Industrial Museum. Tears, Visages (Guto Puw in Welsh) and the title piece are astringent, often whimsical but well written for these instruments. Antony Roper's A String of Tones has much contrapuntal interest; Solomon's Pieces of Eight, mainly lyrical and Raymond Parfrey's two attractive three movement suites all rely considerably on modal elements. Michael Regan's Quartet, featuring jazz and Latin American rhythms, Peter Crump's catchy March of the Hare and Canadian-born Derek Wood's Tubafusion ("fusing" classical and jazz, though the latter dominates) are similarly approachable, as is Andrew Seivewright's Gowbarrow Gavotte, which contrasts syncopated rhythms with perhaps a glimpse of Wordsworth's daffodils. Stuart Scott's Fellscape, from much the same geographical area, is a sterner, though still accessible, landscape. Colin Bayliss's Ale & Arty, including spoken texts on beer, is a pure fun piece. Performances are excellent - having been to one, Tubalate's concerts are certainly memorable - and once one has got used to the unusual instrumentation, there is much to enjoy here.

Philip Scowcroft

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