Name: Seriously Brass: A Tale As Yet Untold
Start: 2024-08-24T19:30:00+12:00
End: 2024-08-24T21:30:00+12:00
Location: The Piano

Seriously Brass: A Tale As Yet Untold
Woolston Brass
Music Director Tyme Marsters
Guest Percussion Soloist Roanna Funcke
Saturday 24 August, 7.30pm The Piano
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The Plantagenets by Edward Gregson
Percussion Concerto by Jennifer Higdon featuring Guest Marimba Soloist Roanna Funcke
Hope by Stijn Aertgeerts
A Tale as Yet Untold by Philip Sparke
The Plantagenets:
The Plantagenets was English composer Edward Gregson’s first major test piece, written for the 1973 National Brass Band Championships. In this ambitious symphonic study of rhythmic and melodic variety, The Plantagenets attempts to portray the mood and feelings of an age – that of the House of Plantagenet which lasted from the middle of the twelfth century to the end of the fourteenth. To many it conjures up an age of chivalry and this is represented by fanfare motifs which occur throughout the work in varied form intertwined with a majestic lyrical theme.
Percussion Concerto:
Guest Percussion Soloist Roanna Funcke is Associate Principal Percussionist of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the NZ National Youth Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, Pandemonium, Christchurch Bicycle Band, Woolston Brass and the National Band of New Zealand.
Talented Roanna Funcke will perform Percussion Concerto written by American composer Jennifer Higdon. Premiered in 2005 by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the work has been transcribed for brass band by Pablo Ruiz Henao for this special performance. Composer Higdon makes wondrous use of percussion in all its wide spectrum of sounds and unleashes a kinetic storm of urban beats, balanced by passages of Asian-influenced musings that exploit the most seductive qualities of the diverse percussion instruments assigned to the soloist.
Hope:
In the troubled world we live in these days, such as the alarming state of the climate, controversial worldwide politics, hatred, and wars, it can make you feel helpless and difficult to stay positive. Reflective work Hope written by Belgian composer Stijn Aertgeerts symbolises and portrays hope and love, and the belief in humanity to come out stronger than everything that drives us apart, ultimately working towards a better world.
A Tale as Yet Untold:
A Tale as Yet Untold was commissioned in 2010 by the Cory Band for the European Brass Band Championships in Linz, Austria. The theme of the major work, which is set in three movements, is one that recurs throughout the music of British composer Philip Sparke – the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity and how the beauty of music can help in this respect.
The first movement opens with a nervous repetitive figure in the cornets, under which an impassioned theme develops. This is cut short by a closely related faster section which comprises two alternating moods: an aggressive ‘toccata’ interspersed by a yearning melody. The second movement is the heart of the work and symbolises the ability of the human soul to overcome the turmoil of the first movement with an invincible sense of optimism. The third movement tries to negate this feeling of peace but ends triumphantly in a salute to the power of the human spirit.