Timeless Cornish Melodies-As I sit myself down to write this brief foreword I ask myself can there be music more stirring than these old Cornish folk melodies? Though not Cornish myself (I confess to being born a little further up the road in Bristol) I feel I have spent sufficient time in these 'ere parts to resonate with the sturdy brass band tradition that continues to permeate this incomparably beautiful rugged county. One can almost detect a French 'accent' when listening to the piano music of Debussy and likewise speaking as a lapsed brass player there is undoubtedly something of the Cornish twang about Trelawny when played on a cornet or euphonium. Then again one gets a different yetentirely convincing effect upon hearing these melodies rendered on woodwind instruments; hence with a little gamesmanship on my part I am pleased to see my collection of these fifteen delectable ditties come to fruition in the form of arrangements for treble clef brass instruments (in B flat and E flat) trombone and tuba (bass clef) horn in F flute clarinet and bassoon.While many will find themselves humming the likes of Going up Camborne Hill Lamorna or The Helston Furry Dance even before they have turned to the first page - for these are indelibly intertwined with Cornish culture I wonder if I might draw your attention to The Cornish Squire The Pool of Pilate and Cold Blows the Wind Today Sweetheart which are quite simply sublime melodies perhaps needing that extra bit of help in bringing them to mind nowadays. In the best tradition of musical hand-me-downs Cornish folk music works equally ideally sung and played and only by doing so on a regular basis can such traditions hope to continue forward with vigour and authority. A legitimate way of achieving this is to revitalise the harmonic scheme of these ancient tunes and bring them up to date for a modern audience; after all it was such an approach that fuelled the imagination of Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams in decades past while skilfully paying homage to the

La réputation du compositeur Bohême Zdenek Fibich (1850-1900) a toujours été quelque peu éclipsée par celle de Bedrich Smetana et Antonín Dvorák. C'est fort dommage, pour Fibich, bien qu'il est mort jeune, apporté une contribution tout aussi importante à l'émergent styl national tchèque avec son large éventail de compositions. Après le début des leçons de piano avec sa mère comme son premier maître, le garçon ensuite à l'école de musique à Prague, puis au Conservatoire de Leipzig, où il apprend son métier comme compositeur. Il passe quelques mois enseignement de piano à Paris et poursuit ses études avec Vinzenz Lachner à Mannheim. Prague a finalement pour devenir le centre d'activités musicales du Fibich : comme son rêve d'un poste au Conservatoire est resté déçus, son emploi principal était donner des leçons de musique privée et comme un compositeur Zdenek Fibich a écrit des oeuvres de nombreux genres musicaux : chant et musique de chambre, pièces pour piano et oeuvres orchestrales, opéras, musique de scène et mélodrames, récitals littéraires avec orc... / Cor En Fa Et Piano