Two highly regarded pieces have been announced for this year’s Brass Band Conductors’
Association (BBCA) conducting competition semi-final. They will be used to test the
musical interpretation and baton dexterity of the 10 competition semi-finalists on 20th
June at Halifax Minster, West Yorkshire.
The semi-finalists will have the opportunity to earn their place in the final by rehearsing
the championship Hammonds Band on a section of one of the following pieces:
‘Ghosts of Industry’ by Lucy Pankhurst
On the history and development of the piece, Lucy commented: "Growing up in an industrial town, there was so
much working history hidden in plain sight that it
became part of the landscape. Buildings and
structures that we pass every day become
almost invisible. That is, until they actually do
disappear – THEN, their absence becomes
deafening.
It was only after moving away for several years
and returning to work in the same familiar areas
that I began to appreciate the importance of this
town’s industrial heritage.
These dramatic and permanent changes to the local landscape have been on my mind a
lot over the last few years. There are so many vestigial remains, or ‘ghosts’ of its
industrial past, but there are also elements that have been erased to all but memory.
From my interest and research into local history, added to my own personal experiences,
I often feel that I am surrounded by ghosts of how things once were – ones that I find
more familiar than the actual landscape.
This work is my way of processing the changes and documenting them – paying respect
to the heritage of the area and coming to terms with the permanency of the change."
‘Metamorphosis on 'Finlandia’ by Andrew Wainwright
This major work was commissioned by Five
Lakes Silver Band and its Musical Director
Christopher Ward in February 2024, and is
featured on the band's CD Resurget Cineribus.
The music is based on the hymn tune by
Katharina von Schlegel, Be Still, My Soul, found in
Sibelius' famous tone poem Finlandia (Op. 26).
While the only source material used in
Metamorphosis on 'Finlandia' is the hymn itself
as opposed to any of the developmental music
found in the tone poem, it does also seek to
depict the strife of the Finnish people against the censorship of the Russian Empire. It is
therefore both rousing and turbulent at various times.
Find out more and enter the competition
The Brass Band Conductors’ Association is focused on providing support and bringing
together conductors and those interested in picking up the baton from all over the world.
Join the BBCA (with individual membership of Brass Bands England) for £50 a year.