Ballad from Fantasy Pieces for Piano Op. 36. Par BACKER-GRONDAHL AGATHE. Agathe Backer Grøndahl’s ‘Ballade’ can best be described as a Romantic character piece. Such one-movement piano pieces with titles that loosely indicate a mood/idea made out a central genre in the 19th century. In Backer Grøndahl’s production, several of these are grouped under the term ‘fantasy pieces’. There are six collections with a total of 48 fantasy pieces on her opus list and ‘Ballade’ is from the first of these (Op. 36), published in 1895. ‘Ballade’ is a broader work than the other fantasy pieces. It is built around a dramatic theme that keeps returning after episodes with strongly contrasting thematic material. The arrangement is close to Backer Grøndahl’s original composition. It is transposed a semitone down: from E flat minor to D minor. The arrangement contains some challenging passages and is well-suited for amateur bands of a certain level. The instrumentation makes no special demands beyond normal concert band instrumentation and will sound just as good in small as in large bands. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

Norwegian Festival Overture. Par HALVORSEN JOHAN. The Norwegian Festival Overture was written for the grand opening of the National Theatre on September 1st, 1899. In the opening bars, one can virtually imagine the stage curtain being drawn aside, and the stage is revealed to the audience. The trumpets openly quote Peer Gynts return from Grieg's music to the play Peer Gynt. The main part of the overture consists of a theme in Norwegian folk music style, which Halvorsen brilliantly develops thematically and contrapuntally. The work can probably be seen as pompous and at times seems somewhat overwrought, but then Halvorsen himself, ever so slightly self-deprecating, has written Pomposo over the grand conclusion of the work. The arrangement of the overture was written to The Royal Norwegian Navy Band for a concert in Halvorsen’s native town of Drammen in 2016. The arranger has tried to preserve as much as possible of Halvorsen's brilliant orchestration. There are a lot of cue notes which make it possible to perform also with a reduced instrumentation. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

Op. 58b. Par CESARINI FRANCO. Après le grand succès de la Greek Folk Song Suite qui dure depuis plus de vingt ans, Franco Cesarini se mesure à nouveau à la longue et riche tradition de la musique folklorique grecque. Sa Greek Folk Song Suite No. 2 élabore trois dances qui donnent le nom aux trois mouvements de la pièce. Le premier mouvement, Samiotissa, est un kalamatianos, dont la caractéristique la plus distinctive est le rythme irrégulier en 7/8. C'est une danse festive, considérée aujourd'hui comme la danse nationale grecque dont les racines remontent à l'Antiquité. Le deuxième mouvement, Kato sto jalo, est un zeibekiko, une danse au rythme lent dansée par un seul homme à la fois qui est apparemment né parmi les guerriers de l'ancienne Anatolie. Chasaposerviko, le troisième et dernier mouvement, est la partie rapide de la danse hasapiko et se caractérise par sa forme plus étendue. Un nouveau voyage dans la tradition folklorique grecque qui ravira les interprètes et le public. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

Par WILLIAMS JOHN / HVEEM DAVID (Arr.). «Cantina Band (or «Mad About Me») was written by John Williams in 1977 for the film Star Wars (later Star Wars IV: A New Hope). Even with quite a bit of the Star Wars music being quite well known, Cantina Band is literally in a style of its own. In the Star Wars-universe this style is called «jizz», Williams’ take on the more well-known genre «jazz». Williams was tasked by Star Wars-creator George Lucas to make music that sounded like «several creatures in a future century finding some 1930's Benny Goodman swing band music ... and how they might attempt to interpret it» and ended up with Cantina Band #1 and #2. Both numbers are played in the legendary scene taking place in Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina where Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi gets in a fight causing even the band to stop playing. The band, which goes by the name Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, comes from the planet Clak'dor VII and specializes in jizz and the nearby, slightly older style of jatz. Performers of this music often go by the name 'jizz-wailers', and the Bith people from Clak'dor VII are especially well suited for jizz-wailing since they can hold every note as long as they want thanks to a unique respiratory system - something many perhaps would like to be able to do in the performance of this arrangement as well. The arrangement is relatively faithful to Williams' original version, but with a somewhat different ending. Although the woodwind section undoubtedly has the biggest technical challenges, an understanding of the musical style is the very key to making the arrangement sound good - and here all groups must work together. Playing lightly but quite articulated, and very precise, will be an absolute necessity to get the music drifting off all the way to Tatooine. In measure 113 there is a small improvised solo in either trombone or trumpet, but if you want the real authentic Cantina Band-sound this is of course done on a steel drum. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

From 'Harry Potter and the Philisopher's Stoine'. Par WILLIAMS JOHN / ROGERS SCOTT (Arr.). Hedwig's Theme is the easily recognizable melody that musically binds together all of the Harry Potter films. Composer John Williams has used the tune as a leitmotif, setting it in different moods according to the situations in the movie, yet always reminding the listener of it’s connection to the main characters of the film. The melody is intervalic, with many interesting dissonances. Normally, this would make the tune difficult for young players, but their familiarity with this particular melody gives them easier access to these dissonances and unusual intervals. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

(An Overture), Op. 60. Par CESARINI FRANCO. «Que votre chemin soit sinueux, venteux, solitaire, dangereux et vous emmène vers la vue la plus spectaculaire. Que vos montagnes s'élèvent jusqu'aux nuages ??et les surmontent. » – Edward Abbey Notes from the Road a été composé pour donner suite à une commande de la fédération musicale du Canton de Thurgovie (Suisse), en tant que pièce imposée de la deuxième catégorie du Festival Cantonal 2023. La pièce est écrite sous la forme typique d'une ouverture à l'italienne, avec la succession des tempos veloce-lento-veloce. Les réflexions sur la vie et la rue comme sa métaphore ont été les éléments moteurs de la composition de cette pièce. Le symbole du parcours se caractérise par différentes cultures, au point que le verbe 'marcher' ou le mot 'route' désignent une manière d'être dans la vie et de s'accomplir. « Faire son chemin » signifie s'affirmer ; « Avoir un chemin » indique une approche propre et personnelle. La route est la plus belle métaphore de la vie : il y a un départ, une destination et au milieu un chemin parfois tortueux, des défis à surmonter et des directions à prendre. Une pièce introspective, une invitation pour chacun de nous à réfléchir sur son propre 'chemin'. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). Par BRUCKNER ANTON. Anton Bruckner (b. 4.9.1824, Ansfelden, d. 11.10.1896, Vienna) didn’t have it easy. Throughout his life, the Austrian composer was plagued by self-doubt. Anton Bruckner came from a simple, rural background. After the death of his father, he was accepted as a choirboy at the monastery of Sankt Florian in 1837. After several years as a school assistant and his own organ and piano studies, he first worked as organist in St. Florian, then from 1855 as cathedral organist in Linz. Introduced to music theory and instrumentation by Simon Sechter and Otto Kitzler, he discovered Richard Wagner as an artistic role model, whom he admired throughout his life and also visited several times in Bayreuth. In 1868 Anton Bruckner became professor of basso continuo, counterpoint and organ at the Vienna Conservatory; ten years later court organist; and in 1891 finally honorary doctor of the University of Vienna. He was considered an important organ virtuoso of his era, but had to wait a long time for recognition as a composer. It was not until Symphony No.7 in E major, composed between 1881 and 1883, with the famous Adagio written under the effects of Wagner's death, that he achieved the recognition he had hoped for, even if he was reluctant to accept it given his inclination towards scepticism and self-criticism. Anton Bruckner was a loner who did not want to follow a particular school or doctrine. He composed numerous sacred vocal works, such as his three masses, the Missa Solemnis in B flat minor (1854), the Te Deum (1881-84) and numerous motets. As a symphonic composer, he wrote a total of nine symphonies and many symphonic studies from 1863 onwards, tending to revise completed versions several times over. Bruckner's orchestral works were long considered unplayable, but in fact were merely exceptionally bold for the tonal language of their time, uniting traditions from Beethoven through Wagner to folk music, on the threshold between late Romanticism and Modernism. Anton Bruckner composed about 40 motets during his lifetime, the earliest a setting of Pange lingua around 1835, and the last, Vexilla regis, in 1892. Thomas Doss has compiled some of these motets in this volume for symphonic wind orchestra. These motets show many characteristics of personal expression, especially Bruckner's colourful harmony in the earlier works, which is in places aligned with Franz Schubert (changes between major and minor; and movements in thirds). Later works are characterised by many components which, in addition to the expanded stature of the movements, include above all a sense of the instrumentation as an outward phenomenon and the harmony as a compositional feature that works more internally. Some aspects of Bruckner's work are the result of his long period of study, which familiarised him not only with the tradition of his craft, but also gave him insights into the 'modernity' of his time in such composers as Wagner, Liszt and Berlioz. From this developed his personal standpoint, which always pursues the connection between the old and the new. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie

Par TORSKANGERPOLL IDAR. This piece was commissioned by Torskangerpoll Musikklag as a massed-band item for their “Storm Festival” in 2016. The “Storm Festival” is a festival for from bands all over Norway with concerts, parades and a lot of fun in the small Western Norway town of Måløy. The music is built around two motifs used throughout the piece. This piece is a good concert-opener or a character piece. Beware of the changing articulations in this piece, the contrast between marcato and legato is a vital part of the character of the piece. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie