Dick Frizzell (b.1943), Road to the Peak, 1982, oil on hardboard, 1200 x 600mm. Reproduced by permission of the artist.
Brass Aotearoa Music for Brass Band from New Zealand
Land of the Long White Cloud – Aotearoa 12:10 1 The Philip Sparke 5:39 2 Bremner Aria Ross Harris 9:32 3 Waipiro Gareth Farr Three Musketeers George Hespe 11:48 The and Fugue (Aramis - The Student) 3:40 4 Introduction Allegro grazioso (Athos - Poet and Lover) 2:31 5 Serenade (Porthos - The Good Companion) 3:03 6 Polacca (D’Artagnan - Soldier of Fortune) 2:32 7 12:55 8 Behold the Narrows From the Hill Dwayne Bloomfield 8:27 9 Tawhirimatea Gareth Farr
David Bremner, Trombone
Total Duration
National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand Nigel Weeks, Conductor
B 2003 HRL Morrison Music Trust
- 2003 HRL Morrison Music Trust MMT2049 Copyright Clearance via AMCOS
60:50
Brass Aotearoa
Music for Brass Band from New Zealand The traditional brass band is the musical backbone of New Zealand. Brass bands, as they exist now, have been established for over 150 years and are prevalent throughout the world. The amateur brass band encapsulates a working class love of music, a ‘do-it-yourself’ ethic often epitomised by the British association of brass bands with coal mining, but just as relevant to New Zealand’s colonial history. Equally important is its appeal to youth, both as audience and participant. For younger musicians the brass band offers performance opportunities and a social component which are often both unavailable even to professional performers. Before the advent of recording technology, it was in the form of brass band arrangements that New Zealanders heard contemporary orchestral repertoire from Europe. The civic function of bands in New Zealand also contributes significantly to their role, not simply as entertainment, but as organisations with responsibilities towards the community. Over the course of the last 50 years contemporary composers have sought less to serve the band with arrangements of existing repertoire but rather to have the band serve them as communicators of new music. For New Zealand composers the opportunity existed to have their music played by capable musicians, before a committed and supportive audience. Larry Pruden and John Ritchie were among the first to create important works, such as Pruden’s Lambton Quay and Haast Highway. More recently Kenneth Young, John Psathas and Gareth Farr have contributed to the repertoire. The distinctive sound of the brass band, and the enthusiasm of its members, has allowed composers to develop a unique voice, inseparable from the musical community to which it belongs.
The 2003 National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand The National Youth Brass Band consists of New Zealand’s most talented young brass and percussion musicians. The band members are all under twenty-three years of age and are selected from nationwide auditions. Each player must re-audition annually with the current Musical Director. Many band members have gone on to professional musical careers. The band had its beginnings in 1959 with a youth training course. Courses were organised over the years in various towns on an irregular basis and there were two overseas tours. In 1998 Nigel Weeks (ex-Tredegar Band of Wales) initiated a new format and the summer course became an annual event, with guest artists and tours throughout New Zealand. This regularity has resulted in an increased standard of playing, and some of the most technically demanding music written for brass band is now performed with aplomb by the ensemble. Members of the National Youth Brass Band have been fortunate to be tutored by some of the best players from New Zealand’s top brass bands and symphony orchestras. They have also had the opportunity to work with outstanding international guest soloists, including Robert Childs (euphonium), Simone Rebello (percussion), and Nick Hudson (trombone) as well as Clyde Dixon and Phillip Johnston of the New Zealand Army Band. In 2001 Ray Farr, a renowned British conductor now living in Norway, was the guest musical director of our National Youth Brass Band. In 2002 Kenneth Young, former principal tuba and resident conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, led the band on a South Island tour. This CD recording was commissioned to coincide with the band’s ‘ANZAC’ Tour of the United Kingdom in April 2003.
The Land of the Long White Cloud – Aotearoa
(1979)
Philip Sparke
This work was commissioned by the New Zealand Brass Bands Association (as it then was) to commemorate 100 years of brass band competitions in New Zealand. Its first performance was at the 1980 New Zealand Championships held in Christchurch, where it was performed as the test piece by 11 A-Grade bands. The championship was won by Continental Airlines Auckland Brass under Errol Mason, and the work has remained a favourite in concerts and competitions with bands in New Zealand and around the world. Although a single movement work, Aotearoa falls into five distinct sections. The opening Maestoso is a heroic fanfare introduction, which depicts the long voyage by Maori explorers across the Pacific ocean. This leads into a contrasting Molto vivace, which is lyrical, dynamic and technically demanding for all sections of the band. The theme which is introduced is reminiscent of a traditional brass band march, but the diversion which follows is constantly interrupted by metrically uneven figures which displace the beat. A distant
homophonic passage leads into a slow section where Sparke’s skilful melodic writing becomes apparent. Solo cornet, soprano cornet, and flugel are all featured and the music moves to a glorious tutti section, before returning to the Molto vivace. This recapitulation is halted, however, and a fugato section is inserted, beginning with lumbering basses and bass trombone. The rapid tempo is soon re-established, resulting in the completion of the Molto vivace. The work closes with a return to the opening Maestoso before an exciting Prestissimo coda. Philip Sparke (b.1951) was born in London and studied composition, trumpet and piano at the Royal College of Music, where he gained an ARCM. It was at the College that his interest in bands arose. He played in the College wind orchestra and also formed a brass band among the students, writing several works for both ensembles. At that time, his first published works appeared – Concert Prelude (brass band) and Gaudium (wind band). A growing interest in his
Charles Blomfield (1848-1926), Mount Taranaki, c.1870, oil on canvas, 490 x 744mm. Private collection, Christchurch. music led to his first major commission, Aotearoa. Sparke’s music is now widely performed by bands, both in New Zealand and around the world. Sparke has himself adjudicated the New Zealand Brass Band
Championships at Rotorua in 1995.
Bremner Aria
(2002)
Ross Harris
Ross Harris first heard the playing of trombonist David Bremner in 1994, the year David began his studies in performance at Victoria University of Wellington where Harris lectured in composition. The Bremner Aria was composed for David’s style of playing: it is an expressive and lyrical piece which allows the solo trombone line to build in intensity, whilst accompanied by a calm, and constantly shifting kaleidoscope of harmony. Despite being himself an accomplished brass instrumentalist, this work is the first that Ross Harris has written for brass band, and it exploits the ensemble’s characteristic warmth of timbre while demonstrating the composer’s fluent melodic style. Ross Harris (b.1945) was born in the small town of Amberley in North Canterbury, New Zealand. He was educated in Christchurch and attended the University of Canterbury, where he gained his Bachelor of Music before moving to Victoria University of Wellington to complete his Masters Degree in Music. He was appointed a lecturer in music at Victoria University in 1971.
He played tuba and french horn in the National Youth Orchestra, and french horn in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for a short time. In 1978 he spent three months in Stockholm on a Swedish Institute Scholarship working in EMS Stockholm. During the early 1960s Harris was himself a member of the National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand, playing BBÏ bass. In 1985, following the premiere of his opera Waituhi, Harris was awarded the QSM for Public Service. In 1990 he was awarded the CANZ Citation for Services to New Zealand Music. Most recently Harris was awarded the 2000 SOUNZ Contemporary Award, funded by the Australasian Performing Rights Association, for his chamber work To the Memory of I.S. Totzka. His works, numbering more than 100, include many piano pieces, several operas, orchestral works, jazz and rock music.
Waipiro
(2000/2002)
Gareth Farr Waipiro was Gareth Farr’s first work for brass band and was commissioned by the Brass Bands Association of New Zealand as the B-Grade test piece for the National Championships in 2000. The title refers to Waipiro Bay, a picturesque bay north of Gisborne on the East Cape of New Zealand; and perhaps also to the Maori word for liquor (literally: fermented water). Waipiro was revised especially for this recording by the composer. Waipiro begins with a mysterious, shimmering introduction, and a theme which presents a tonality based on seconds and fourths. After a more strident reinterpretation of the theme, given by a solo cornet, with commentary by solo horn, the main rhythmic motif of the work is introduced: a distinctive iterative figure of two quavers followed by a semiquaver. The motif is heard in increasingly aggressive brass accompaniment with the introduction of log drums, and patterns are created from the motif which are allowed to coagulate into an intense texture. As excitement builds, the first theme is reintroduced and the two melodies interact.
With a suddenly desolate harmonic and dynamic shift the log drums drop out, leaving only metal percussion, and the ensuing tempo adjustment allows rhythmic augmentation and manipulation of the themes against an accompaniment of drones created by timpani and bass drum. With a dramatic entrance in a fanfare style the rhythmic motif returns, and the music builds to a huge fortissimo climax where all themes are heard again before a final declamatory statement. Gareth Farr (b.1968) was the youngest ever composer-in-residence with Chamber Music New Zealand in 1993. He has performed with a variety of musical groups both in New Zealand and overseas, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra (under Leonard Bernstein), in addition to many Indonesian gamelan ensembles. He has also worked as a professional drag artist in the United States and New Zealand. His list of forthcoming commissions attests to the fact that he is now recognised as one of New Zealand’s most important composers, and
The Three Musketeers (1952) Introduction and Fugue (Aramis – The Student) Allegro grazioso (Athos – Poet and Lover) Serenade (Porthos – The Good Companion) Polacca (D’Artagnan – Soldier of Fortune)
George Hespe several of his works are in the repertoire of the New Zealand String Quartet and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The percussion score commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Ballet for Smashing Sweet Vixen was received to great acclaim, as was his music for the opening of Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. Two works were performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Te Wairua o te Whenua (Spirit of the Land) and Hikoi, a percussion concerto written for and played by Evelyn Glennie. In addition to his works for the concert platform, Farr has also composed soundtracks for film and television, and incidental music for theatre productions. Four full-length CDs of his music have been released, and a fifth – featuring orchestral works performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra – is scheduled for recording in mid-2003.
This more traditional brass band work is a suite in four movements, each representing a character from the novel by Alexandre Dumas. Aramis was the student of the three musketeers. A sombre introduction is developed in several ways, before the opening motif is moulded into a melody played by solo horn, which then becomes the subject of a fugue. This movement is characterised by the ebb and flow of dynamic intensity, perhaps representing the duality of Aramis’ character, clergyman and soldier, whilst the fugal sections of this movement suggest his theological attainments. Athos was a poet and a lover, and the binary form of this movement encapsulates the two with music which is both lyrical and emotional. The movement is initially more sedate than the first, with a traditional melodic passage played by cornets with a homophonic accompaniment. A second theme is shared between euphonium and cornets, with a stabbing accompaniment
figure. This theme gives way again to a peaceful ending. Porthos, purportedly a caricature of Dumas’ father was a stout fellow, both in stature and temperament. A rousing introduction contrasts with the conclusion of the preceding movement, whilst a flexibility of tempo suggests a merry singalong. This movement recreates a tavern scene where Porthos sings a toast to Bacchus, and his comrades reply with an apostrophe to Venus. D’Artagnan was Dumas’ true hero, although his ethics seem dubious by today’s standards. His character is one of cunning, military brilliance, and tenacious courage. Semiquaver rhythms, and the use of acciacature in the main theme, might suggest heroic glee and love of adventure. The movement is in rondo form, and each section frantically increases in tempo until the final dramatic allargando, and triumphant cadence.
George Hespe (b.1900) is perhaps better known as an accomplished tuba player and conductor – he conducted, amongst other bands, the famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band from 1948-49 – but Hespe also contributed to the brass band world as a composer. Major works include Welsh Fantasy, and the trombone solo Melodie et Caprice, as well as numerous marches. His most well known work remains The Three Musketeers. The piece was selected as the test piece for the 1953 British Open Championships at Belle Vue, Manchester, and Hespe was himself one of the adjudicators. The contest was won – to the astonishment of other contestants – by the New Zealand National Band, and since then, like Sparke’s Aotearoa, The Three Musketeers has held a special significance for New Zealand bands, even though it was written by a British composer.
Behold the Narrows from the Hill
(2001)
Dwayne Bloomfield
After reading Gallipoli – The New Zealand Story by Christopher Pugsley, Bloomfield was immediately inspired by the events that took place, and began writing Behold the Narrows from the Hill. Bloomfield was also inspired by the painting The Battle of Chunuk Bair, 8 August 1915 by Ion Brown. The composer writes: The work begins by depicting ANZAC Cove today with the shoreline and landscape overlooked by the monument. The flugel sounds a haunting solo to tell us the earth hides a story and is stained with blood. The euphonium and soprano continue to unearth the secrets of the land. The Adagio builds as the souls from the marked and unmarked graves rise to tell their story. The Presto deciso takes us back to the beginning of their story, with the coming of the war, the rush to enlist and the build up of the troops. The Giocoso depicts the camaraderie and sense of adventure shared by the New Zealand soldiers.
The Andante largamente takes us to Egypt where we share one of their marches through the desert. The Lento lacrimoso takes us to the trenches, before the assault on Chunuk Bair. The Presto marcato sounds the call to battle and the Feroce depicts the assault itself. The Misterioso sounds the disbelief at how easily the hill is taken and the Largamente as the narrows are seen for the first time. The Andante furioso depicts the soldiers’ anger at being shelled, apparently by their own artillery, and anguish at the lack of reinforcements. Despite desperate efforts the hill is lost. The flugel brings us back to the present day. The final section, Largo sonoro, depicts the return of the veteran to the battlefield, and, as those who hold memories disappear from the earth, a bass drum fades away, but still beats for those who saw the narrows from the hill.
Dwayne Bloomfield (b.1970) was born in Timaru, New Zealand. He began playing euphonium with the Timaru Municipal Band and in 1987 joined the New Zealand Army Band. Bloomfield presently conducts the Timaru Municipal Band, which won the C-Grade at the National Brass Band Championships in 2002 with Behold the Narrows from the Hill. An interest in arranging music led to composing, and his first composition Seven Wonders has become popular with bands throughout New Zealand and Australia. Bloomfield has won several prizes with his arrangements and compositions, with Behold the Narrows from the Hill receiving second place in the 2001 Australasian Brass Composition Competition. The first performance of the work was in a combined concert of the Timaru Municipal Band and the 2nd Canterbury Regiment Band on 27 October 2001. It featured the bass drum of the Regiment Band, which had been used to carry medical bandages ashore at the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign.
Tawhirimatea
(2003)
Gareth Farr
Tawhirimatea is the Maori god of the wind, and this work, commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand, clearly illustrates the power and dignity of elemental forces. An interlocking motif of rapid, regular semiquavers suggests rushing winds, and the interaction of the instruments using this pattern creates a ‘blustery’ texture. As the music progresses the individual parts become smaller, and more fragmented, with a melodic line which alternates between repeated notes and rapid scalic figures. Throughout the introduction glockenspiel and tubular bells provide a steady arpeggio ostinato based on fourths. A climactic fortississimo erupts from the texture, and immediately subsides, as the constituent components of the introduction join together to form a new melodic shape in euphoniums and EÏ basses, and subsequently in trombones. Soprano and solo cornets provide an ornamented version of the melody against a more agitated rhythmic accompaniment. Again the texture accumulates and drops away as players in the band take up conch shells –
traditionally used as a musical instrument by Maori, and played in the same manner as a brass instrument. Musical components are recapitulated against the unique timbre of the conch shells. A varied version of the theme returns in basses and trombones, initially over a calm droning accompaniment. The rapid ‘wind’ rhythms soon return, and drive the work to a dramatic conclusion.
Shane Cotton (b.1964), Taiamai, 1996, oil on canvas, 1800 x 1500 mm. Private collection. Reproduced by permission of the artist and the Gow Langsford Gallery.
The 2003 National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand Soprano Cornet Colin Clark Dalewool Auckland Brass Solo Cornet Bede Williams (Principal) Dalewool Auckland Brass Barrett Hocking Woolston Brass David Maas Brass Wanganui
Jeremy Thompson Rotorua Brass Ben Burnell Waikato Times Hamilton Brass Flugelhorn Anthony Smith Timaru Municipal Band Julia Moseley Canterbury NMWC Regiment Band Solo Horn
2nd Baritone Emma Kirkland Timaru Municipal Band Fiona McKee Wellington Brass Band 1st Trombone Kieran Byrne (Principal) Canterbury NMWC Regiment Band Tim Walsh St Kilda Brass 2nd Trombone
Craig Thompson Dalewool Auckland Brass
Abbey Edlin (Principal) St Kilda Brass 1st Horn
Rowena Howard St Kilda Brass
Philip Spriggs Woolston Brass
Repiano Cornet
Vicki Henderson Dalewool Auckland Brass
Andrew Simpson Tasman Eastern Bay of Plenty Brass
Sarah Walker Woolston Brass
Karen McLellan Wellington Brass Band
Bass Trombone
Ben O’Sullivan Brass Wanganui
2nd Horn
2nd Cornet Hamish Miller St Kilda Brass Tricia Fredericksen Brass Wanganui Christopher Herman Ascot Park Hotel Invercargill Brass 3rd Cornet Te Reo Hughes Te Awamutu Brass
Nicola Moseley Canterbury NMWC Regiment Band Janine Howard New Plymouth Brass 1st Baritone David Mallett (Principal) Canterbury NMWC Regiment Band
Hamish Dean Brass Wanganui Euphonium Jessica Blair (Principal) Woolston Brass Grant Robinson Dalewool Auckland Brass
EÏ Bass Ryan Peni (Principal) Dalewool Auckland Brass Amy Walsh St Kilda Brass Rebecca Davison Brass Wanganui Aaron Herman Ascot Park Hotel Invercargill Brass BBÏ Bass
Gareth Lawless Woolston Brass Dennis Benfell Rotorua Brass Percussion Leni Sulusi (Principal) Dalewool Auckland Brass Fraser Bremner Timaru Municipal Band Emma Hooper Dalewool Auckland Brass Dayle Jellyman Brass Wanganui BAND MANAGER
Robert Simpson Rotorua Brass
Owen Melhuish
Byron Newton Woolston Brass
Helen Hoy
ASST MANAGER
Nigel Weeks Since immigrating to New Zealand from Wales in 1994, Nigel Weeks has been heavily involved in the music scene both in Auckland and throughout the country. As the Musical Director of Dalewool Auckland Brass, he has led the band to several championship wins in both New Zealand and Australia. He is also the conductor of the recently formed Dalewool Junior Band. Nigel was the Musical Director of the National Youth Brass from 1998 until 2000. During this time the band recorded a criticallyacclaimed CD entitled Triumphant Brass which was voted one of the top ten brass CDs in the United Kingdom in the year 2000. His role during the past two years has been that of Course Director. In 2001, Nigel was appointed Musical Director of the National Band of Australia. He initiated and led two successful New Zealand National Secondary Schools Brass Band courses, a new and exciting venture by the Brass Bands Association of New Zealand to expose more people to the brass band culture and repertoire.
David Bremner David is a former principal trombone player with the National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand. He began his musical career as a young member of the New Plymouth City Brass Band. In 1997 he graduated from Victoria University of Wellington with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and was awarded the Patricia Pratt Scholarship, which enabled him to study in the USA. There he gained a Masters Degree in Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. David won the New Zealand Brass ‘Champion of Champions’ title in 1999 and was a finalist in the New Zealand Young Musicians competition in 2000. He then spent a year with the Auckland Philharmonia prior to his appointment as principal trombone of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Ross Harris’ Bremner Aria, commissioned for this CD, was written especially for David’s playing, and is dedicated to him.
Dick Frizzell (b.1943) Dick Frizzell graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. He began his career as a ‘renegade pop artist’ in the 1970s. His work has always been characterised by a highly skilled handling of paint and an endlessly inventive range of subject matter and styles: faux-naïf New Zealand landscapes, figurative still-lifes, comic book characters and witty parodies of modernist abstraction. His taste is conveniently broad and he has a penchant for fondly remembered and well-worn cliches. There is also in his work a sense of exuberance, ironic humour and a baby-boomer nostalgia. An antitraditionalist, Frizzell often makes a deliberate effort to mix up the categories of high and low art – poking fun at the intellectualisation of ‘high art’ and the existential angst of much New Zealand painting in the art culture of his youth. Frizzell has exhibited since the late 1970s. His works are held in all of the major public and corporate collections throughout New Zealand, and he has completed a number of important commissions. In 1996 a retrospective exhibition of his work, Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste was toured nationally to all of the public art galleries in the main centres. (Kriselle Baker, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland)
Charles Blomfield (1848-1926)
Born in London, Blomfield was a self-taught artist. He was a committed explorer and spent sixty years travelling extensively throughout New Zealand recording the landscape, often going to great lengths to find a scene that inspired him. One of New Zealand’s earliest conservationists, Blomfield lamented and protested against the destruction of the New Zealand bush. Mount Taranaki was produced just after the New Zealand wars of the 1860s, a time of ‘progressive colonisation’ when whole forests were felled. Blomfield deplored this destruction saying ‘it seems nothing short of a crime to destroy so much beauty, but the bushman’s axe and settlers’ fires are playing havoc’. The style of much landscape painting at the time was governed by notions of the ‘ideal’ and the ‘sublime’ so that the viewer might think ‘how beautiful’ or in the case of the sublime ‘how overwhelming’. Blomfield followed this style in Mount Taranaki: a high viewpoint, a dark foreground, repoussir trees on either side, a sunlit plane in the middle ground form an ideal landscape, while elements of the ‘sublime’ are provided by the sheer majesty and beauty of Mount Taranaki. Shane Cotton (b.1964) Born in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, Shane Cotton graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury in 1988. He currently lives and paints in Palmerston North.
Brass Aotearoa National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand MMT2049 Digital Stereo recording B 2003 HRL Morrison Music Trust
2003 HRL Morrison Music Trust Recorded in the Lower Hutt Town Hall, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, 5-7 January 2003.
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Producer Murray Khouri, Continuum Recording Engineer Keith Warren, Radio New Zealand Digital Editing and Mastering Wayne Laird, Atoll Executive Producer Ross Hendy Booklet Notes Aaron Lloydd Design Mallabar Music The HRL Morrison Music Trust gratefully acknowledges the support of the following people and organisations in the making of this recording: Melanie Roger, John Gow, Lara Strongman, Owen Melhuish, Helen Hoy, Brass Bands Association of New Zealand, John Harrison.
HRL Morrison Music Trust The HRL Morrison Music Trust was established in March 1995 as a charitable trust to support New Zealand musicians of international calibre. All funds received by the Trust are used to make recordings, present concerts – both in New Zealand and overseas – and assist artists to undertake projects to further develop their talents. HRL Morrison Music Trust PO Box 1395 Wellington, New Zealand info@trustcds.com More information about other releases by the HRL Morrison Music Trust can be found at the internet site:
www.trustcds.com ALL RIGHTS OF THE PRODUCER AND OF THE OWNER OF THE WORK REPRODUCED ARE RESERVED. UNAUTHORISED COPYING, HIRING, LENDING, PUBLIC PERFORMANCE AND BROADCASTING OF THIS RECORDING IS PROHIBITED.
Brass Aotearoa Music for Brass Band from New Zealand
Land of the Long White Cloud – Aotearoa 1 The Philip Sparke 2 Bremner Aria Ross Harris 3 Waipiro Gareth Farr Three Musketeers George Hespe The and Fugue (Aramis - The Student) 4 Introduction Allegro grazioso (Athos - Poet and Lover) 5 Serenade (Porthos - The Good Companion) 6 Polacca (D’Artagnan - Soldier of Fortune) 7 8 Behold the Narrows From the Hill Dwayne Bloomfield 9 Tawhirimatea Gareth Farr
12:10
5:39
David Bremner, Trombone
Total Duration
National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand Nigel Weeks, Conductor
B 2003 HRL Morrison Music Trust
- 2003 HRL Morrison Music Trust MMT2049
9:32 11:48 3:40 2:31 3:03 2:32 12:55 8:27 60:50