Par SPARKE PHILIP. Festival Prelude ‘Ad Excel’ est une commande de l’AD Concert Band de Solihull au Royaume-Uni, pour célébrer leur 40e anniversaire en 2016. Le titre, Ad Excel, est un jeu de mots : en latin, il signifie « exceller », mais les chiffres romains XL font aussi 40, l’anniversaire célébré par l’orchestre. L’oeuvre commence par une fanfare éclatante aux changements de mesure fréquents, …

Par SPARKE PHILIP. Suite from Hymn of the Highlands draws three expressivemusical pictures of the Scottish highlands. The first movement, Ardross Castle, contains solo passages for horn andbaritone and features a fascinating bagpipe melody. Thesecond movement, Alladale, is a trio for tenor horn, flugelhorn and baritone with an accompaniment featuring thepercussion section. The final movement, Dund…

Based on the hymn tune Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Par PARRY CHARLES HUBERT. Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918) appartient à cette génération de compositeurs anglais quelque peu oubliés dont font partie Charles Villiers Stanford et Sir Granville Bantock. La notoriété de Sir Edward Elgar a certainement contribué au fait que leurs oeuvres soient aujourd’hui très peu jouées ou même oubliées. Sir Huber…

Sword Dance from Hymn of the Highlands. Par SPARKE PHILIP. Strathcarron is a movement from Philip Sparke’s Hymn of the Highlands, in which each movement reflects a different location in the beautiful Scottish highlands. Stratcarron, named after a village at the head of Loch Carron, near the Isle of Skye, takes the form of a sword dance which alternates between fast and slow tempi. / Niveau : 5 /…

Arr. Philip Sparke. Pendant plus de quarante ans, Jimmy Webb (1946) a composé des chansons à succès pour divers artistes tels que Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash et Linda Ronstadt. En 1968, il écrit MacArthur Park, une chanson complètement novatrice. D’une durée de plus de sept minutes, elle est deux à trois fois plus longue que la plupart des succès pop et …

Par SPARKE PHILIP. En 2007, Philip Sparke est nommé compositeur en résidence à l’établissement scolaire de Monmouth (Monmouth School), bourgade historique sur la frontière Angleterre/Pays de Galles. L’école puise dans un passé prestigieux qui remonte à 1614. Elle dispose d’un département de musique particulièrement actif, qui peut s’enorgueillir de posséder deux Orchestres d’Harmonie en collaborat…

Jesu bleibet meine Freude from Cantata 147. Par BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN. Bach’s appointment as the Cantor at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche in 1723 required him to produce a new cantata for every Sunday service. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is taken from his Cantata No. 147 and is unusually elaborate, treated more like an aria than a chorale. It is perhaps the best-loved cantata movement from Bach’s entire o…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. The Four Noble Truths are the most basic expression of the teaching of Buddha and therefore still form the guidelines for Buddhists to this day. The four truths are Dukkha, which describes times of major stress in our lives - birth, aging, desire and death; Samudaya which describes those parts of our life that induce stress, feeling, craving, desire; Nirodha which tells us how t…

Flamenco for Band. Par SPARKE PHILIP. Flamenco is a style of music, usually played on the guitar to accompany dancing and singing, that has its home in Andalusia in southern Spain. It has its roots in the years of Moorish rule of the region (711-1492) although the modern flamenco style dates only from the 18th century. La Caracola (which is the Spanish name for the triton sea shell) is an annual f…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. This is an ancient Welsh air that was first published in Relics of the Welsh Bards in 1794. Dafydd (David) Owain was a famous Welsh bard who lived on a farm called Gareg Wen (The White Rock) in Eifionydd, Carnarnvonshire, North Wales. Tradition has it that on his deathbed he called for his harp and composed this lovely melody, requesting that it be played at his funeral. Accordi…