2024 ‘Regional’ challenges released

The Music Panel of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain has announced the set tests for the 2024 Regional Championships:

CHAMPIONSHIP SECTION 
Variations on an Enigma By Philip Sparke 
Published by Studio Music 

Howard Snell commissioned Variations on an Enigma for Desford Colliery Band, which premièred it in Gillingham, Dorset, in September 1986. The ‘enigma’ is a short snatch of a phrase taken from a well-known brass band test-piece – a phrase that caught the imagination of composer, Philip Sparke, who used it as the basis of a quasi concerto for band featuring each section in turn. 

First, the cornets have their chance to shine with a moto perpetuo, followed by horns and the flugel, with a delicate and decorative variation. Trombones are next, each of which has their own tune in turn before combining, after which the euphoniums and baritones play an expressive funeral march interrupted by percussion and basses sharing a rhythmic, syncopated variation. A climax is reached, after which a fugue based on the theme follows, against which snatches of the preceding variations appear. The fugue heralds what turns out to be the theme on which all the variations are based, appearing in full at last, the first five notes of which are derived from the ‘enigma’ theme. The piece ends with an emphatic final statement by the timpani.
 

SECTION 1
High Peak By Eric Ball 
Published by Studio Music 

Commissioned for the Championship Section Final of the British National Championships, this music is for simple enjoyment and much contemplation, as indicated by the score programme note, in which Eric Ball explained that the rhapsody falls into four main sections: Vision portraying the ever-changing light, colour and cloud as one contemplates a great mountain from below it; Aspiration, in which he suggests the opening may remind of the psalm, ‘I will lift up my eyes to the hills’, and that the busier section relates to plans to be discussed and preparations to be made; Ascent –more purposeful at first, followed by alpine effects and a breaking storm; and finally the Attainment of reaching the summit and great joy being unleashed. The composer concludes: ‘Where – or what – the High Peak, and the attainment, the listener must decide for themselves.’ 

SECTION 2 
Triptych By Philip Sparke 
Published by Studio Music 

The Swiss Band Federation commissioned Triptych for Section 2 of its 16th Brass Band Championships in Montreux, 1990. 

In three connected movements, (i) Pageant, (ii) Fantasy on One Note and (iii) Festival, the first has a slightly medieval mood through use of modal harmony, starting with a single line with the feel of a fanfare. The texture thickens as layer is laid upon layer until a chordal climax is reached. A second, but still martial subject leads back to the original fanfare and, after material is restated, the three themes combine to close the movement. 

Movement 2, Fantasy on One Note, is a hymn-like movement with a concert ‘F’ present throughout. As the harmony changes, the ‘F’ appears in various parts of the band, but returns to the second and third cornets under changing harmony, leading to movement 3, Festival. This is joyous with a lively tune stated first by the trombones and euphoniums, before the full band takes up the tune. A cantabile second subject is introduced by the euphoniums and, again, taken up by ‘tutti’. The first tune then reappears to close the movement. 

SECTION 3 
Corineus By Christopher Bond 
Published by Christopher Bond Music 

In medieval British legend, Corineus was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants and the eponymous founder of Cornwall. The first of Cornwall’s legendary rulers, he is described as a character of strength and power, and on which this new work, Corineus, is based in three contrasting sections. 

The work opens with heraldic fanfares and a jubilance before presenting musical material that changes and develops organically, portraying the journey of Corineus, Brutus and the Trojans from modern-day mainland Europe to Britain. 

Brutus’ son, Locrinus, had agreed to marry Corineus’ daughter, Gwendolen, but instead fell in love with a German princess, so the central section is slower, portraying Gwendolen’s longing for her husband, knowing that he is in love with somebody else. 

After Corineus died, Locrinus divorced Gwendolen. She raised an army in Cornwall against her ex-husband, who was killed in battle and, legend suggests, Gwendolen threw his lover into the River Severn – depicted by work’s final part, in which the composer hopes the imaginations of young brass players will be fired. 

SECTION 4 
Music for Jock Tamson By Alan Fernie 
Published by Just Music 

Described by the composer as ‘A typcially dour affirmation of the character and rugged landscape of Scotland, ‘Jock Tamson’ is a general Scottish term originating from the 1840 Edinburgh gravestone of the Reverend John Thomson, which states, ‘We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s Barins’ – meaning the common man… humanity, or to put it another way, ‘This is music for EVERYONE!’ 

Cast in three movements – 1. Nyah Fearties!, 2. Inchkeith and 3. Wha’s Like Us? – the work was one of 12 commissioned by the Scottish Brass Band Association, funded by Creative Scotland Targeted Fund 2021 to aid Covid Recovery and support composers in Scotland. 

Nyah Fearties! is a phrase usually directed at defeated opponents by the Scottish cartoon character, Oor Wullie, and depicted in the music, which takes the form of a belligerent Strathspey, are the character’s three best friends, his reluctantly acknowledged girlfriend, and his nemesis, the stern PC Murdoch. 

Inchkeith is a picturesque, uninhabited island in the middle of the Firth of Forth, halfway between Edinburgh and the Kingdom of Fife, and the suite’s finale, Wha’s Like Us?, is a shortened version of the toast, ‘Wha’s Like Us?, Damn few, and they’re a’deid!’