Cat No. JM38179
Price £119.95
Composer: Peter Graham
Category: TEST PIECES (Major Works)

Set as the Championship Section Testpiece for the National Finals in the Albert Hall, London - October 2000.

Also selected for the 4th. Section of the 2009 Butlins Mineworkers Open Brass Band Festival.
Short Score also available.
Duration 15.13

You can both listen to three extracts of this work and view an image of the Solo Cornet part on your computer, by clicking on the "MORE DETAILS" button on the right - this will reveal the audio extracts and the PDF image for you to sample.

If you enjoyed listening to this extract, you can buy the full recording of this work on the CD section of our site. If you want to perform this work with your band, you can of course purchase the score and parts here right now, by clicking on "BUY NOW".
The CD is "NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL BRASS Volume 3 2004 - 2005"

COMPOSER’S NOTE
At 8.OOpm on the 22nd of October 1707, the Association, flagship of the Royal Navy, struck rocks off the Scilly Isles with the loss of the entire crew. Throughout the rest of the evening the remaining three ships in the fleet suffered the same fate. Only 26 of the original 1,647 crew members survived. This disaster was a direct result of an inability to calculate longitude, the most pressing scientific problem of the time. It pushed the longitude question to the forefront of the national consciousness and precipitated the Longitude Act. Parliament funded a prize of £20,000 to anyone whose method or device would solve the dilemma.

For carpenter and self-taught clockmaker John Harrison, this was the beginning of a 40 year obsession. To calculate longitude it is necessary to know the time aboard ship and at the home port or place of known longitude, at precisely the same moment. Harrison’s dream was to build a clock so accurate that this calculation could be made, an audacious feat of engineering.

This work reflects on aspects of this epic tale, brilliantly brought to life in Dava Sobel’s book Longitude. Much of the music is mechanistic in tone and is constructed along precise mathematical and metrical lines. The heart of the work however is human - the attraction of the £20,000 prize is often cited as Harrison’s motivation. However, the realisation that countless lives depended on a solution was one which haunted Harrison. The emotional core of the music reflects on this, and in particular the evening of 22nd October 1707.


Commissioned by the US Air Force Band - Washington DC