Cat No. JM31029
Price £55.00
Composers: Granville Bantock, Frank Wright
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works)

This work was specially composed as the test-piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britaln, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London. on the 11th October. 1975.

Set as one of two Third Section test pieces for the 2019 Butlins Mineworkers Contest.

DURATION: 10 mInutes approx.

Click on MORE DETAILS to view the Solo Cornet part.

Currently set as the Second Section Test Piece for Butlins Mineworkers Contest 2012.

Granville Bantock (1868—1946)
Together with his great friend Elgar, Bantock did more than anyone to bring about the revival in the fortunes of British music Apart from being one of the most prolific of all British composers, he used his tireless energy to promote unselfishly the works of his contemporaries like Delius, Holbrooke, Boughton, Parry and others. He was Principal of Birmingham School of Music for over thirty years, helped publish two music journals, worked unstintingly with the festival movement and examined for Trinity College for more than half a century; As a conductor he took over a dance band in New Brighton and turned it into a symphony orchestra of professional standard, he was music director of a theatre company which he took on a world tour and also fulfilled many appointments with major symphony orchestras both here and abroad. He it was who introduced the works of Sibelius to this country; and the Finnish master marked their life-long association by dedicating his 3rd Symphony to him.
Bantock’s compositions include operas, symphonies, tone poems, suites, ballets, chamber music, pieces for chorus and orchestra and many hundreds of songs and part-songs. He had a particular fondness for the Brass Band whose repertoire he enriched with several characteristic and major works. There are still many players who will remember with affection playing under his baton.

The Frogs
‘The Frogs’ is one of the eleven surviving comedies of Aristophanes, the Greek dramatist, and was first produced in 405 B.C. The subject is an imaginary contest in Hades between Euripides and Aeschylus, to decide which of them should return to earth to restore the dying art of Tragedy. Bantock’s ‘Comedy Overture’ in its original version for orchestra was composed in 1935 and first performed at a Promenade Concert the following year. After his death it was transcribed for band by Frank Wright and adopted for the finals of the (then) Daily Herald Championships at the Royal Albert Hall in 1952.

It is a more than worthy companion for his other great band works — the serious, dramatic Prometheus Unbound and Orion, or the atmospheric Land of the Ever-Young. The play’s mood of wit and mockery is brilliantly caught. The Atheniai?s genius for taking wicked swipes at his contemporaries finds its counterpart in this basically rumbustious score which still preserves the gaiety behind the lampoons and gives us, in the central section, a delightfully tuneful, lyrical passaga The finale even finds him poking fun at his own love of things oriental. Frank Wright’s masterly transcription faithfully captures Bantock’s great affection for the band. Notice particularly the mysterious passage just before the end (Poco meno allegro) where the whole cornet section is muted.

Notes by Giles Easterbrook ©Paxton Music Limited