Carlton Brass

It’s that time of year again, the regional contest for qualification to the national finals, held in Cheltenham. This year we are competing in the second section along with 14 other midlands bands. The contest will be held in the Civic Hall in Bedworth. The image below is from when the band last competed in the second section 10 years ago – we hope for similar success!

The test piece this year is Friendly Takeover by Oliver Waepsi, a Swiss composer (Oliver Waespi | About).

Friendly Takeover was composed for the 2016 Swiss Wind Band Convention in Montreux. It has three movements throughout which the composer experiments with lyrical motives combined with rhythmical pulses in different meters. The first movement is very rhythmical with off-beat rhythms with variation in accents and dynamics. The second is slow and lyrical with expressive solos for Flugel, Solo Cornet and Euphonium. In the finale, the musical scene is taken over completely by groove-based rhythms. This takeover, however, is of a friendly nature, as the various beats are not competing with the lyrical motives, but are rather supposed to infuse energy and vitality to them. Thus, one gets the impression of an ongoing acceleration throughout the piece.

We have already performed the piece at the NEMBBA contest in February and came a creditable 7th but received some useful feedback and experience which we have been able to work on. Good luck to all of those competing!