BBCA Conducting Competition test pieces announced
Two highly regarded test 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 28 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:
‘In Memoriam RK’ by Elgar Howarth
In Memoriam RK is a conductor’s piece, written by a conductor composer about his conducting inspiration. So it’s only fitting that in this sad year of the composer’s death In Memoriam RK is the choice of the Brass Band Conductors’ Association for one of its competition pieces.
The music has been used as a test piece at the All England International Masters previously, however it is freer and more emotive than most “test pieces”. With echoes of Mahler, Wagner and Strauss the emphasis in this music is on style, emotion and pathos and as such it offers conductors the opportunity to offer something of themselves to its ever delicately layered and changing textures, colours and shaping of musical lines.
The piece is dedicated to the memory of Rudolph Kempe, who Elgar Howarth noted as “the most consistently inspiring conductor I ever worked with”. Praise indeed from a figure often lauded as one of the most inspiring characters in brass banding. Any entrants given this music will likewise have a great opportunity to inspire.
‘Variations’ by Thea Musgrave
'Variations' was written by the highly regarded Scottish composer Thea Musgrave in 1966 for the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland. Whilst being critically acclaimed at the time of writing, the piece has not been frequently performed, only having an airing at the National Youth Brass Band Championships as a set work in 1984 and being recorded by Sun life band in 1990.
The work consists of five variations on an original theme, played at the opening by the trombones. Each variation has a very different character with some very clever writing offering opportunities for the players to shine but also many musical and technical challenges for the conductors, such as frequent tempi and metrical changes, interpretative questions which really show the conductor's skill and musicianship, and some tricky transitions.
BBCA Exec member Alan Duguid commented “The work certainly deserves to be heard more, written by a composer from outside of the brass band world who has an illustrious career, and of course another rarely heard work by a female composer”.
Entry to the conducting competition is open until midday on 10 April. The BBCA is grateful to Yamaha for its sponsorship of this event.
Find out more and enter the competition or email bbca@bbe.org.uk
