The British Invasion

This week's (June 17) concert promises to be an enjoyable experience for audience and players alike. It includes works from the British Empire which have become a part of the canon of the contemporary wind band. There will be familiar pieces and some which may be new to members of the audience but we promise a concert which will be listenable in a very British style. So bring your picnic baskets and your wine (or better yet some appropriately British tea) and come and enjoy an evening of band music in the lovely surroundings of Eagle Point Park.

Kenneth Alford is best known for his march Colonel Bogey, which was featured by whistling British POW's in the classic film Bridge Over the River Kwai. Among his best marches, however, is Army of the Nile a British style "quick march." It is both stately and heroic, cast in a minor mode in its opening, before giving way to a major key in the trio. After a "dogfight" cast as a fanfare in the brass, the trio returns, with flittering woodwinds eventually handing off to the entire ensemble and closing in a glorious conclusion.

The suites for wind band by Gustav Holst have become landmarks of the wind band repertoire and the TSWS has performed the E-flat Suite on numerous occasions. Tonight we turn to the F Suite, which has not been presented for several seasons. It consists entirely of English folk songs and is cast in four movements, a march, a delicate "song without words, a spritely kind of scherzo (The "Song of the Blacksmith") and the concluding fantasia. Of particular interest is Holst's juxtaposition of two tunes, the "Dargason" and "Greensleeves" in the final movement. How he fits these two melodies together is a sign of his compositional genius. Also of note is Holst's orchestration in the conclusion where he crafts the piccolo and tuba in a most humorous duet. The Suite in F for Military Band is a favorite of the band and I am sure that the audience will feel much the same way.

Long before it was known as "Danny Boy," the Irish Tune from County Derry existed as a folk song which entered the collections of that unique musician Percy Aldridge Grainger. His setting of this lovely tune is simple yet stunning, cast in two verses. The brass and the saxophones present the first, giving way to the woodwinds in the second. The full band joins together in the concluding strains, enabling one of the most glorious climaxes in all of the band repertoire. I suspect that more than a few tears will be shed at the end of this beautiful work.

Piper Bill McInnes, a resident of Mount Horeb who leads the local bagpipe band, will be joining the ensemble for Highland Cathedral, following which he and some of his colleagues will offer a demonstration of the efforts of the local pipers. This should be a particularly special treat for all.

The English Folk Song Suite is another of those "old friends" of the contemporary band repertoire. Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was a close friend and confident of Holst and the two shared a love of collecting British folk songs. Like the Holst Suite, the Vaughan Williams work consists entirely of folk songs but is crafted in a much different way, with two marches encircling an intermezzo.

The last three works on the program include tunes which will be well-known and well-loved. We offer Highlights from H.M.S. Pinafore, among the most well-loved operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Jim Parcel's London Bridge is a delightful romp through this familiar tune and includes a number of curious and interesting byways. John Cacavas has arranged a number of familiar melodies into his concert march Tunes of Glory, which is a fitting conclusion to this concert of the music of the British Isles. And who knows, this week we might even have an encore ready. Stay tuned......