Malcolm Arnold's ballet Sweeney Todd was first staged in 1959 by The Royal Ballet Company with choreography by John Cranko. The music was later adapted as a concert work and it is from this version that this brass band arrangement is made. The original concert suite lasts some 20 minutes but this version has been shortened to a more manageable eight minutes. The first performance of this arrangement was given on the 22nd October 2006 at the Malcolm Arnold Festival Derngate Northampton by the Rushden Windmill Band conducted by Richard Graves. Brass Band Grade 4: Advanced Youth and 3rd Section. Duration 8 minutes.

Hobson's Brass is Malcolm Arnold’s score to David Lean’s 1954 film Hobson’s Choice was one of three collaborations between the composer and director. It’s a story of Henry Hobson played by Charles Laughtan who runs a successful bootmaker’s shop in nineteenth-century Salford. A widower with a weakness for the pub he tries forcefully to rule the lives of his three unruly daughters. Brass Band Grade 5: 1st Section. Duration 10 minutes.

Little Suite for Orchestra No. 1: Op 53-Malcolm Arnold is one Britain’s best-loved composers. In 1948 he composed a very short suite for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain - entitled simply To Youth. Seven years later he took To Youth and made some fairly major revisions including a complete new movement and the Little Suite for Orchestra was born. The Little Suite for Orchestra follows a very similar pattern to the later suites for brass band starting with a bold strident Prelude which strangely ends quietly before a lovely lilting Dance composed in 3/8 time. Finally a rollicking and militaristic March brings the suite to a conclusion. This arrangement for brass band by Robin Norman is sure tobecome a classic in the brass band repertoire.

Written in 1966 Arnold drew on a more personal inspiration for these dances rather than folk music. Transcribed by Ray Farr the music depicts the fishermen farm workers and tin miners native to Cornwall going about their lives - it also includes a brief visit to the local Methodist chapel for a Sunday morning sevice!