Know the score: The Lone Wolf

Composer, Simon Dobson, recounts his first RAH Final, reveals what music means to him and introduces readers to the ‘Lone Wolf’ – the inspiration for this year’s British National Final test-piece.

‘Despite being warned by a certain nameless foe that I’d never be good enough to study music to degree level, I’m at the Royal College of Music hanging out with my friend and room mate, Chris Moyse (one of the only other true ‘banders’ in my year and now Principal Trumpet of the Hong Kong ‘Phil’). Chris and I attended the Finals together and we joked that I wanted the composition gig by the age of 30. At the time, I was running the circle bar and collecting glasses at the RAH, and didn’t even know whether I’d still be composing by 30.

Fast forward a while longer and we arrive at my composition - Journey of the Lone Wolf, which will be used as the set work for this year’s showdown at the RAH.’

I’ve already transitioned through a ton of voices since I began composing and (like most other composers) have equally used the voices of other musicians, artists and authors to inspire my own, as well as composed ‘pure’ (non-programmatic) music.

Two of my favourite composers have always been Oliver Messiaen and Béla Bartók. Having already written a piece about the unique Frenchman (Symphony of Colours, commission by my friend, Russell Gray, for Fairey Band to play in Montreux at the European Brass Band Championships in 2011), I turned my thoughts to the serious and lonely Hungarian, Bartók...

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Photo: Simon Dobson in action on the RAH's conductor podium