Brass Band Tribute

On the 22nd January 2005, the brass band community pays a unique musical tribute to Sir Michael Tippett (b. 5th January 2005), one of the most original of British composers.  Five of the leading contemporary voices in brass band music have been invited by Paul Hindmarsh, Artistic Director of the the Royal Northern Festival of Brass 2005 to contribute a movement to Birthday Variations for Michael. The composers are Michael Ball, Edward Gregson, Elgar Howarth, Bramwell Tovey and Philip Wilby. The Tippett theme is one of his most engaging - the miniature march from his opera A Midsummer Marriage, which also appears as a Processional in the Birthday Suite for Prince Charles (1948). The individual contributions have been designed to fit together into a single unbroken span.

Each composer has drawn something fresh and characteristic from Tippett’s theme. Bramwell Tovey’s Danse des Amis  is light and syncopated. Tippett loved jazz and the blues. In Midsummer Song, Edward Gregson pays hommage to the magical sound world of Tippett in the 1950s. Michael Ball provides a fleeting Scherzettino, which also seems to inhabit the Midsummer spirit. Elgar Howarth’s Collage  is more elegiac in tone and incorporates a number of the fanfares from Tippett’s second opera King Priam. Philip Wilby rounds to work off with a substantial and typically energetic Birthday Fugue-Finale.

The world premiere will be given by the Fodens(Richardson) Band conducted by Bramwell Tovey

BIRTHDAY VARIATIONS
for Michael

Theme -        Processional            Tippett (arr. Paul Hindmarsh)

Variation 1 -  Danse des amis        Tovey

Variation 2 -  Midsummer Song     Gregson

Variation 3 -  Scherzettino             Ball (arr. Hindmarsh)

Variation 4 -  Collage                    Howarth

Birthday Fugue-Finale                   Wilby (arr. Hindmarsh)

Paul Hindmarsh