After many years of
listening to Wilfred Heaton’s music
it has troubled me time and time again
that here we have a composer of genuine
talent who should be well known outside
the world of brass bands. At one time
it did appear that his path would take
him into the wider musical world with
private composition lessons under Matyas
Seiber opening up possible new horizons.
Indeed, it was probably no coincidence
that Heaton saw two of his early works,
the Rhapsody for oboe and string
orchestra and Three Pieces for
piano, performed in concerts organised
by the Society for the Promotion of
New Music, an organisation of which
Seiber was at that time a council member.
Yet from his early
years in the Salvation Army it was to
be the brass band with which Heaton
became synonymous. It was a reputation
that clearly troubled the composer deeply,
resulting in his eventual declaration
that he would cease composing altogether
if he could not attain recognition outside
the brass band world. As a consequence
he virtually gave up serious composition
altogether for many years, although
the composer cited a further reason
for this as his coming under the influence
of Anthroposophy, a movement founded
by the Austrian Rudolf Steiner that
advocated daily meditation, reading
and critical thinking in a manner designed
to elevate the body and spirit to a
higher level of consciousness.
It was therefore not
until quite late in his life that he
turned to composition once more ("I
suppose the urge to compose never really
leaves you"). Perhaps somewhat
ironically given his earlier frustrations,
it was the brass band that again became
his prime source of inspiration. By
this time Heaton had worked for a good
number of years as a peripatetic music
teacher in Harrogate and as a Yorkshire
man born and bred it must have been
difficult to hide away from the brass
bands that existed in virtually every
corner of his native county. It was
possibly in an attempt to reconcile
these factors that he turned to his
early pieces and set about reworking
many of them into substantial works
for brass band.
As a case in point
the Trombone Concerto started
its life as the aforementioned Op. 1
Rhapsody for oboe and strings,
originally written in 1952. Given the
disparate characters of the two instruments
it is to Heaton’s credit that the resulting
work for trombone has a feeling of being
utterly conceived for the instrument.
It is a major piece, not far short of
half an hour in length, playing continuously
and being masterfully constructed with
characteristic formal ingenuity and
cohesion. Interestingly, given that
influences such as Bartók, Prokofiev
and Stravinsky are discernible elsewhere
in Heaton’s music, it is Walton and
Britten that surface most frequently
here. Yet to over-emphasise the point
is to detract from the achievement of
the composer in producing a work that
also highlights many of Heaton’s melodic
and rhythmic thumb prints. Brett Baker,
the principal trombonist of the Black
Dyke Band is a worthy advocate although
it would be good to hear Christian Lindberg
take the work on in orchestral guise.
The other contribution
on the disc from the Black Dyke Band,
the Five Little Pieces, has its
origins in the Little Suite for
recorder and piano of 1955. Heaton reworked
the suite into several forms, the brass
band incarnation initially having been
rumoured as a possible test piece for
the All England Masters contest in 1989.
Ultimately however it was never used,
probably on account of it being too
short. As a result Heaton was never
able to comply with the contest organiser’s
request for a test piece for the contest,
a great pity for which the band world
is all the poorer. As in the Trombone
Concerto influences are never far
from the surface. Yet also as in the
Trombone Concerto Heaton succeeds
in weaving these into the fabric in
such a way that there are also tantalising
glimpses of other Heaton band works,
most notably the magnificent Contest
Music. Hindemith and Bartók
in particular play their part (the Con
Energico second piece could easily
be mistaken for a Bartók peasant
dance) yet there is no detraction from
the quality of the writing.
The three pieces played
by the International Staff Band of the
Salvation Army occupy somewhat different
musical territory. French is
essentially a prelude or chorale on
the hymn tune of the same name. Completed
by Paul Hindmarsh from Heaton’s incomplete
sketch, it is a personal if conservative
response to a hymn that clearly made
an impression on the composer. Annie
Laurie is a cornet solo in air varié
style that takes the form to a considerable
level of sophistication. As Paul Hindmarsh
points out in his admirably comprehensive
booklet notes the work is rooted in
Salvation Army tradition, a well known
tune, set using a form that was well
known through the likes of similar works
by Salvationist composers such as Erik
Leidzen. Yet at nearly ten minutes Heaton
allows himself to be both adventurous
and demanding of the soloist, whose
stamina and technique is tested to the
limits.
Beulah Land,
a suite in three movements that Heaton
rather disarmingly referred to as a
"waltz" reverts to the composer’s
Christian beliefs: Heaton’s musical
interpretation of the joy that awaits
the Christian in Heaven. I found the
work to be rather cloying in its light-heartedness
and lacking the vital edge that for
me is both memorable and essential in
Heaton’s "serious" works.
It nonetheless receives an affectionate
and well prepared performance by the
excellent International Staff Band under
bandmaster Stephen Cobb.
The Trombone Concerto
makes this disc highly worthwhile but
if you enjoy what you hear do not be
without the initial double disc volume
of ‘The Heaton Collection’. In Contest
Music and the Toccata, Oh The
Blessed Lord, it contains two of
the finest works Heaton ever penned
for the brass band and in the former
one of the seminal works of the brass
band repertoire.
Christopher Thomas
Black Dyke Band/Dr. Nicholas Childs 
