Just Brass No. 32-Edited by Philip Jones & Elgar Howarth. The Just Brass series is regarded by brass players worldwide as the most important brass ensemble series available. There are more than 100 titles subdivided into Just Brass (mainstream) Junior Just Brass Just Brass Lollipops and Giant Just Brass. Supplied as score and parts together.

Stephen Bullas highly descriptive work was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima which took place between the 19th February and 26th March 1945.Casualties on both the American and Japanese sides were horrendously high before the famous image of the raising of the flag on top of Mount Suribachi signalled the end of one of the most significant and terrifying Pacific conflicts of the SecondWorld War.The work received its first performance by the brass choir of the U.S. Marine Band at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. and is divided into four programmatic sections.The first portrays the sense of anticipation before conflict (Prologue) before the arduous journey to the scene of the battle (Approach by Sea) is followed by introspection and prayer featuring the hymn tune Melita (Chorale Prayer) andfinally the hostile confrontation itself (Engagement).There are frequent references to the Marines Hymn and the US National Anthem particularly in the closing bars depicting the ultimate raising of the American flag.

Since most of the bands competing in the 4th Section of the Dutch National Championships have many young players this piece is stylistically youthful— especially in the opening and closing sections. An arpeggio pattern appears numerous times in all registers and is the basic musical element of the main melody alternating with a second theme that has a slightly different melodic character. The middle section is conceived like a chorale introduced and developed stepwise: firstly with short patterns and gradually in increasingly long snippets until it’s played in its glorious entirety at measure 216. No real solo passages are included but rather small chambercombinations thus offering the opportunity to various players to display their technical and performance skills. The finale recaptures musical material from the first section of the piece and provides a majestic conclusion.

Simon Dobson wrote his 'Four Sketches' at the request of Peter Bossano Head of Brass at the Royal College of Music in recognition of the 25th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death. The first movement 'Fanfare' quotes directly from the opening violin melody from Britten’s song cycle Les Illuminations. This melodic line is superimposed upon sonorous Lydian mode chords to project a majestic sound. The second movement 'Prayer' is a definite contrast being and much more reflective and pensive in it’s mood and featuring a dream like euphonium cadenza. The third movement 'Funeral March' builds from a soft chordal opening to a chaotic and confusedfortississimo climax with flourishes in the cornets and pounding tri-tones across the basses before plunging into silence for a flugel cadenza to finish. The final Finale movement is much more positive from the off with its jaunty melodies over a Brittenesque ostinato. The block chordal passages offer a crashing climax making for an exciting conclusion to an excellent new work for the medium. Simon Dobson’s 'Four Sketches' was the winning entry in the European Brass Band Composer Competition held in Brussels in March 2002.

Here are 19 easy-intermediate arrangements of familiar melodies in classical folk and jazz styles. Each tune is presented as a trio but these ingenious arrangements work equally well as solos or duets - with or without accompaniment. You can even invite other instrumentalists to play along using the Flute Saxophone Clarinet and Violin editions in Book 2 of this series. This highly flexible series of coordinated instrumental books has been designed to give young people the chance to play together in various combinations of numbers and instruments. Perfect for one two or three brass players - with or without accompaniment Mayalso be used with matching arrangements in Book 2 editions of this series for Flute Saxophone Clarinet or Violin Optional Piano Accompaniment book with guitar chord symbols available Ideal for individual or classroom use

A Masque (short for Masquerade) has been defined by Historians as 'A revel in which Mummers or masked folk come with torches blazing into the festive hall and call upon the company to dance and dice'. The chaos of this dramatic dance is depicted in this 'Masque' by Hesketh. The main theme is bravura and is often present in the background. The form of the piece is a simple scherzo-trio-scherzo. Colourful scoring (upper wind solos trumpet and horn solos alternating with full bodied tuttis) with a dash of wildness may tease both player and listener to let their hair down a little! 'Masque' has been transcribed for wind band by Kenneth Hesketh from his 'Scherzo for Orchestra' commissioned by the National Children's Orchestra in 1987.

‘Jubilant Prelude’ is an orchestration of the ‘Preludium over Psalm 150’ originally composed for organ by Toon Hagen. Since 1998 Toon Hagen has been organ-player of the ‘Grote or Sint Michaëlskerk’ in Zwolle (the Netherlands). He has written several ‘contemporary’ compositions for organ.‘Jubilant Prelude’ has a capricious character by the use of irregular measures and its many measure changes. The structure of the Prelude is that of a fugue and is based on motives from the psalm.After the first climax which is both dynamic and harmonic the theme in the Andante Jubiloso is clearly audible and it is alternated with erratic motifs. Tension increases until at last the psalm itself isheard in all its glory. The melody of the psalm sounds as a cantus firmus in tenor register with motifs in ornamentation for saxophones bugles and trumpets. The finale like the prelude is capricious and vehement.The instrumentation for brassband was made by Dirk Annema. It is particularly colourful and has a surprising role for the percussion section.