A brief history: Pentecost Monday was a special day for schools in Yorkshire (England). There were a variety of activities. The pupils of Sabine Baring-Gould would meet with the children of a nearby village. It seemed like a good idea that during the walk would be sung. But she could not find a suitable song and decided to write one by herself. 'Onward Christian Soldiers' was the result. It soon became very popular though she herself was not entirely satisfied with the rhyme scheme. The melody used (St. Gertrude) was by the famous English composer Sir Arthur S. Sullivan. Back to now: Gawan Roberts has given the hymn a proper update. He gave the still popularsong a solid rock beat and added daring harmonies. So it's popular for current generations again for years. Onward!

Major Yvon Ducene wanted a new lush and colourful composition for his Guides military band with André Waignein as its composer. Early in 1979 the composer began his assignement and in October of the same year the finished full score was on the music stands of this prestigious military band of the Belgian Army.The introduction (Grave) mirrors an atmosphere full of serenity in which the theme played by the oboes and the English horn is predominant and immediately holds the listener spell-bound. It is taken up again as central element of the slow movement.The Allegro breaks away from the quiet passion of the introduction. Here the band can really show its capabilities to thefull. Based on a very precise rythm an idiom of sudden desperation and adversity develops which fused with a crushing agression culminates in a kind of eruption soom calmed down by a Lento : peace and quiet has returned thanks to a melody by the horns and soon taken over by the clarinets. In the meantime the saxophone - an instrument full of human emotion - express the main spatial dimension in contemporary psyche. Following a harmonic transition the brass-players take up the theme again in forte whilst the basses and the woodwinds interwine in technical arabesques.The movings of the mind and the heart get an audible and almost touchable shape in the ensuing Allegro a movement characterized by a rhythmic dialogue in which the whole orchestra participates and where the exposition contains a wealth of sound and technical contrasts. The Lento finally uses the central theme of the slow movement again with some occasional references to the two allegros. The last page is of unprecedented grandeur. All the instruments display their most beautiful sound which were named by Jacques Ferschotte when speaking about Honneger 'harmonies d'intensités' harmonies of the unmeasurable.

Prayer to the Power of Love-The Ukrainian Dmitri Bortniansky (1751-1825) received lessons at the local singing school in his hometown of Hlukhiv and soon his extraordinary talent was recognised. He was somewhat of a child prodigy writing his first opera at a young age. Following his studies Bortniansky was appointed court composer and Kapellmeister of the Imperial Chapel Choir. In the period that followed he wrote - in addition to a number of operas instrumental works and a cycle of songs - more than a hundred religious works for a cappella choir in which he combined Russian-orthodox and Ukrainian traditions with late 18th century European music. The appealing melody of Ich bete an die Macht derLiebe (Prayer to the Power of Love) became well-known especially in Germany in combination with German text by Gerhard Tersteegen. This arrangement by Michael Bilkes reflects the atmosphere of the original work very well.

Fun for all!! The chorale style opening soon turns into a rousing funky-jazzy-gospel riff-style roof-raiser that will have your audience tapping along. It's nice for the concert band to get the opportunity to play something 'jazzy' once in a while and you know the audience will love it as much as the band does.Plenty of opportunity to study jazz-style phrasing in the concert band interesting Percussion parts a catchy tune and good linear motion for all move GETTIN' GOSPEL to the 'top of the list'. The only danger here is that the band might like it a little TOO much and want to play it every day.

for Concert Band-If you have a large percussion section Credo might be a perfect piece for your young band. It is very carefully scored and cross-cued so that almost any size band can perform it. Composed in sonatina form it is highly energetic and tuneful and the bass instruments have lots of fun easy things to play. Like Prairie Winds Festival Credo is very safely scored with Piccolo 2nd Oboe 2nd Bassoon Contra-Alto Clarinet 3rd Trombone and Double Bass parts optional. Ranges are very reasonable: the only sixteenth notes in the piece are in the snare drum.

for Concert Band-Prairie Winds Festival is a fast happy-go-lucky opener. It is very carefully scored and cross-cued so that almost any size band can perform it. The Piccolo 2nd Oboe 2nd Bassoon Contra-Alto Clarinet 3rd Trombone and Double Bass parts are all optional but if you have these instruments it will sound more full.

Work for Chamber dating from 1988.The composer writes:MINNEWATER means ‘love water’/‘love lake’ but when I began to compose the work this direct meaning of the title was not very important to me. Rather the word itself had a magical sound. Later on however it occurred to me that the piece was full of mumbling swells and swarming cascades and the sensation of water is perhaps most perceptible towards the end where lots of falling water movements are felt behind the emphasized rhythmic surface. Falls that moreover quite literally at the end sinks into the water. MINNEWATER has a subtitle: THOUSANDS OF CANONS which directly refers to a compostion techniquewhere all layers and elements in the music constantly are imitated; possibly waves imitating each other? The mudded and impalpable beginning of the work takes its starting point in one of my earlier pieces the sextett LES TUCHINS (in fact the first 5 or 6 pages of the two pieces are quite identical but in MINNEWATER it is all ‘blown up’ to a larger ensemble). Quite soon however the thread to LES TUCHINS is cut off and it goes its own way; From the mumbling in the start - through swarming trills and pointilistic staccato movements - to a long section where the trumpet appears as a soloist and in a way conducts the movements of the remaining ensemble right to the rhythmic final section of the piece. MINNEWATER was commissioned by the Danish Radio for the German Ensemble Modern