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    Arthur Butterworth - Music For Brass Band Booklet

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    aldo bon

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 10
    Arthur Butterworth Arthur Butterworth was born in New Moston, Manchester, on 4th August 1923. From 1947 to 1949 he studied composition with Richard Hall at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he also received ‘trumpet and conducting lessons. Disillusioned with lack of opportunities for orchestral playing at the RMCM, he left college a year early to begin his professional career as a trumpet player with the Scottish National Orchestra in 1949. In 1955, he joined the Hallé Orchestra as trumpeter under Sir John Barbirolli, a post he relinquished 1962. In that year he was appointed associate conductor of the Huddersfield Philharmonic Society; where from 1964 to 1993, he was their permanent conductor. He has guest conducted many other orchestras, especially the BBC Northern ‘Symphony; the BBC Scottish and the BBC Concert Orchestras, with whom he has performed several of his own compositions. Early works, including the Romanza for hom and ‘orchestra of 1954 (CBC Records SMCD 5186), were heavily influenced by Ralph Vaughan Williams. ‘The first symphony (1957) was the culmination of Butierworth's previous creative output and the work which put his name on the musical map, (Classico CLASSCD 274), Premiered by Barbirolliand the Hallé at the 1957 Cheltenham Festival, this vibrant depiction of the far north west of Scotland, finds the composer at his most instantly communicative. Since then he has written many other large-scale orchestral compositions, including three more symphonies (1965, 1979 and 1986) and concertos for bassoon, organ, violin, viola, cello, guitar and trumpet. Of these, the very fine Viola Concerto of 1983 is his most personal statement, whilst the sultry and hugely enjoyable Guitar Concerto (2000), has a Hispanic flavour which is unusual from this, composer. The impressive Piano Trio (1983), written at the behest of Sir John Manduell, marked a new departure: he had previously writen few chamber works, preferring to express himself witha full orchestral palette, Of his vocal output, the Moorland Symphony (1967) and Haworth Moor for chorus and piano accompaniment (2000) are two highly representative works. Some of his most successful pieces in any genre were written for brass band, including Three Impressions (1968), which has received performances throughout the world. Other significant works include Odin, a brilliant symphony for brass commissioned by Black Dyke in 1986, Caliban, a scherzo malevolo written for the Brighouse and Rastrick Band (1978) and a work recently composed for the Black Dyke Band, the nostalgic Sinfonia Concertante (2001). These idiomatic compositions all benefit from the experienced ear of an accomplished trumpet player whilst reflecting the composer's two main influences: Sibelius and the highh moorlands of northern England. These twin inspirations licbehind his most characteristic works such as A Dales Suite (1965) and his most popular orchestral piece, The Path Across the Moors (1959), a delicately evocative miniature fone poem he later arranged for brass band (ASV CD WHL 2126). Compositions such as these share with so many of Arthur Butterworth’s hundred plus opus numbers an utterly authentic and distinctive voice. Paul Conway Nicholas J. Childs MA, FLCM, ARCM (Hons) Principal Conductor and Director Music From the age of eight - when Nicholas started his musical career on euphonium with Tredegar Junior Band - to the present day, it is fair to say that he has been ‘upwardly mobile’. Benefiting from the expert guidance and tuition given to him by his gifted father, John and the early example set by his elder brother Robert, Nicholas quickly made his mark as one of the world's finest brass instrumentalists ‘This sublime level of excellence manifested itself in a variety of ways: as Champion Euphonium Player of Great Britain, Welsh National Solo Champion; the first cuphonium player to win the Champion of Cham award; the 1986 Euphonium Player of the Year. Asa soloist he has performed to great critical acclaim all around the world and as.a member of the sensational, Childs Brothers duo, Nicholas has played Euphonium and Tenor Tuba on many occasions with The BBC Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestras, under Yan Pascal ‘Tortelier and Kent Nagano. in great demand as an educator and for many “years was Professor of Euphonium atthe Royal Norther College of Music, University of Salford and Tutor for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, Wales and Switzerland. He gained a Fellowship from the London College of Music; is an Associate of the Royal College of Music; and hasa Master of Arts degree where he majored in Conducting, Nicholas was also Music Director of the National Youth Brass Band of Denmark, and in the year 2000 has accepted a new appointment as Associate Conductor with Elgar Howarth and the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. ‘The skill and musical understanding gleaned from his international solo career have been harnessed in his, exceptionally successful conducting career, winning the ‘Welsh, French, Norwegian and the 1999 National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. In July, 2000 Nicholas accepted the position of Principal Conductorand Music Director of the world famous Black Dyke Band. He is regarded as one of the finest conductors in the band world today, His musical talent is evident in the quality of performances that he conduets, bringing to the forefront inspirational ‘musical aspects. Prior to joining Black Dyke Nicholas was Principal Conductor of The Fodens Band. The insight Nicholas has always exhibited in his musical endeavours have also found an outlet in his entrepreneurial activities. He has elevated Doyen Recordings Lid. to a pre-eminent position in the world of Brass and Wind Band Recordings, and is in great demand as a producer for the BBC and other leading recording labels, Black Dyke Band (1855) In 1816 a brass and reed band was founded by Peter Wharton in Queenshead, Yorkshire - later to become Queensbury. John Foster, founder of Black Dyke Mills, played French Horn in this band, The band went out of existence through loss of members and in 1833 a new band ~ "Queenshead Band" - was formed. On 15th September 1855 the Halifax courier recorded "Qucenshead Band formed carly in the century by residents came into difficulties. John Foster & Son, having lately become acquainted with the depressed state of the band determined to make an effort themselves to raise it up again, Accordingly they have purchased from that eminent maker, Mr Joseph Higharn of Manchester, anew set of instruments which have this week been delivered to the band, which in future is to be denominated Black Dyke Mills Band. A new and talented leaderas well as several performers, have been added to the band which now comprises 18 musicians. Messts. Fosters have provided forthema comfortable room in which they will ‘meet for practising” Thus the Black Dyke Band was formed . Most of its musicians both lived in Queensbury and worked at the mill, soaclose link between the band and the communit was formed which remains to this day. ‘The Band has. always been at the forefront of Brass Band activity. making one of the earliest recordings in 1904 and ‘embarking on a five month tourot Canada and the United States in 1906, Since then the band has toured in many countries, including Germany, Austra, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, Sierra Leone, Spain, Australia, Japan, Denmurk, Sweden and Nosthern Ireland, The Band has made over 50 recordings. In 1996 they ‘won The Music Industries Association Award forthe Best CD in the Orchestral category. In. 1999 the allburn that 4 the Band recorded with Evelyn Glennie was nominated in the ‘Crossover Classical Section’ for a Grammy Award, and there was an Oscar nomination for the best song in a film (That'll Do, from Babe 2) with vocalist Peter Gabriel and backing by Black Dyke. The band provide the background music to the popular UK television programme ‘Ground Force! Jn addition to touring and recording, the musical life of the band has included television shows, films, broadcasts, concerts at Music festvals, Universities, The Proms, Fanfare into Europe and Songs of Praise, covering the whole musical spectrum and appearing with Leskey Garret, Elton John, Evelyn Glennie, James Mortison, Phil Smith and many more. In 1993 Black Dyke Band was the first British Brass band to perform a the Camegie Hall, New York and in 1994 the first to perform at the Royal College of Music Over the years the Black Dyke Band has produced and abundance of famous instrumentalists. Jack Pinches, Solo Trombone, became Principal Trombone inthe BBC Symphony Orchestra. Two former Principal Comets, William Lang and Maurice Murphy.achieved the position of Principal Trumpet at the London Symphony Orchestra. A former Comet player, Rod Franks, is also Principal Trumpet with the London Symphony Orchestra, Conductors of the Band have included Alexander Owen, John Gladney, Arthur O.Pearee, Harry Mortimer, Alex Mortimer, Major George Wilcocks, Major Peter Parkes and James Watson. ‘The Band was awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of Bradford in 1976 in recognition of itscontinucd success, services fo music in general and the region in particular, In 1997 the band was very proud to become Brass Band in Residence at The Royal Academy of Music, London, The band Jogo of the stag's head and Latin quotation are taken from the armorial bearings, granted in 1857 to John Foster, founder of the band. Programme Notes ‘Three Impressions For Brass Op 36 Scenes from Nineteenth-Century Northumberland ‘Commissioned by the Mid-Northumberland Arts Group with funds provided by the Northem Arts Association and first performed at the Morpeth Arts Festival by the Northumberland County Youth Band, conducted by Kenneth May. ‘The Brass Band movement grew up alongside the Industrial Revolution and thus became one of the significant cultural manifestations of that age. This impressionistic work For brass band is intended to convey something of the spirit of that heroic era, the three movements presenting contrasting pictures of the impact made by the new iron-age on the rural seene of Northumberland in the mid-1800's. I. "Wylam Colfiery” was suggested by one of Hairs 1816 sketches of coal-mines evoking a darkened landscape with ceaseless ereakings of crude machinery amidst the smoke and steam of coal wagons hauled by "Puffing Billy”, IL. "Deserted Farm" (1840) portrays a derelict small- holding, forlorn and decayed, encroached on all sides by new colliery workings, quarries and railways, the former pastoral landscape now scarred by industrial turmoil Til. "The Royal Border Bridge, Berwick-on-Tweed" (1850).Buill by George Stephenson, the bridge at Berwick-on-Tweed became one of the greatest symbols of railway-engineering, as an apotheosis of more than a century of continual motion, One is conscious of the rhythm and energy of trains toiling over the years, pulling coal and iron, steel and stone, men and mail. through the bitter snows of winter nights, windy March days, hot summer afternoons, or misty September evenings - of flame, smoke, heat and cold in the clear, dark northern skies. Passacaglia for Brass Op.87 on a theme of Brahms ‘The Passacaglia is a musical form almost indistinguishable from the chaconne, or old English “chacony’. It was originally a dance in triple time and usually of stately nature. It is invariably built upon a ground bass which in itself is a musical term by which the form is sometimes known. The ground bass consists of a repeated phrase, generally eight bars long. ‘The repetition of this theme provides a firm and rigid framework on which the whole piece is constructed. The ‘main intention is that the ground bass itself acts asa bass line to the harmony but for variety it is sometimes transferred to the upper mefodic parts at various points during the course of the movement. The basic harmony is still retained in outine providing a logical thread or unity throughout, Older examples of the passacagliat or chaconne usually followed this plan quite strictly. There ‘are many well-known, indeed fine specimens: Purcell air "When 1am laid in earth" (trom Dido and Aeneas), Bach's famous Chaconne for Violin alone—a tour-force in musical construction as well as purely violin technique ~and the great and solemn Passacaglia in C minor for organ amongst many others, form the passacaglia adopted a more serious character particularly appropriate to the organ and church music in general, it's stately progress lending an air of dignity and poise. Bach's church cantana no. 150, "Nach Dir, Herr. verlangt mich” (For Thee, Lord, do I yearn) contains a passacaglia of striking power and effect. Brahms must have been drawn to this theme- he was after all intensely devoted to Bach's music so much so that he conceived the idea of using Bach's original as the basis for a passacaglia of his own. What is surprising is that Brahms chose to use the notion of introducing a passacaglia into a most unusual situation: as the last movement of a symphony. Now, symphonic form has its own traditions and forms of classical usage, but the ground bass or passacaglia is not one of them so itmust have caused some interest to observe how aglia could be turned to good effect -all those repetitions- in a long drawn-out symphonic movement composed in the latter part of the nineteenth century using the full resouces of a large modern orchestra. This highly original idea resulted in one of the finest of all symphonic movements which Brahms, or indeed any other composer was able to conceive. It forms the finale of the Fourth Symphony in E minor, and its opening on the full wind band of the orchestra, the strings being silent, is especially notable for the first appearance in the work of the trombones. Brahms withholds the trombones until this moment, their previous silence making the effect of this delayed entry all the more striking. The first performance took place in 1886, Bulterworth's Passacaglia for Brass, however, is not a copy of Brahms's own theme, but merely inverts it and extends the idea of the Bach/Brahms chorale. Only towards the end is Brahms's powerful original quoted in full and shown how it relates to this recreation of it for bras Sinfonia Concertante Op.111 1- Pastorale Il - Scherzo IIL - Night Music IV - Rondo Alla Caccia Tenor Horn Soloist Lesley Howie Baritone Soloist Robert Blackburn Of the multifarious wind instruments invented by Adolphe Sax, the ubiquitous saxophone is the most familiar, However, the brass band owes its existence to a whole family of brass instruments devised and elaborated by Sax: the cornet, flugel, tenor horn, baritone, euphonium and tuba: only the trombone originated from earlier times. Most of these saxhorns have at one time or other found a place in wind bands and even oceasionally as additional brass in the ranks of the orchestra. Two of this family of homs however, have become almost exclusively associated with the brass band, and have rarely been utilised in other kinds of wind bands; the tenor hom, pitched in the key of E-flatand the baritone in B-flat. Consequently these two ‘middle of the band’ instruments, unlike the comet or euphonium, have often tended to be overlooked as solo instruments. This symphonic piece invest both hom and baritone with a concertante réle that takes account of their particular characteristics and timbres. Although only the first movement is specifically described as'pastorale' this establishes the nature of the whole work, which is imbued with an archaic modal flavour faintly suggestive of ancient rustic rites. In visual terms perhaps to be compared with one of those scenes found in 17th century Dutch painting where simple rural lifeis evoked, peasantsand country folk depicted inan allegorical way, where there lurks a deeper meaning below the innocent surface. The calm and innocent aspect of the countryside hides unsuspected hazards, particularly to nature's more gentle creatures, and especially after darkness falls, when predators relentlessly pursure their timid quarry. In purely musical terms the two solo instruments might be said to be pursued by the hue and cry of the full band. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Variations & Fugue ona theme of Handel, Op. 24 During the middle of the nineteenth century there had been a revival of interest in music from the baroque period; works by Bach and Handel appeared more and more frequently in concert programmes. Brahms was thoroughly in keeping with the spirit of the time; his preoccupation with the music of Bach was paralleled by an equal interest in that of Handel. The theme comes from the "Pieces pour le clavecin” of Handel's Complete Edition. However these Variation blend the baroque spirit with the tonal language of nineteenth century romanticism. Throughout his life Brahms had been fascinated and challenged by the idea of variation, and these Handel variations have since established themselves as one of the great works in the piano repertoire. They represent an immense challenge {o pianists; technical, intellectual, emotional and interpretative. The original theme is a simple two-part, eight bar aria which suggests a baroque trumpet tune, which is profusely ornamented over the simplest harmonic bass structure. Brahms took only the aria, ignoring Handel's original five variations, replacing them with twenty-five variations and concluding fugue of his own, They tend to fall into groups which suggests an underlying symphonic design in the way they relate to each other; later ones appearing to grow out of the texture of the preceding ones regarding rhythm, melodie motif and general character, ‘They were composed in 1861 as a birthday gift to his beloved friend, Clara Schumann, but not being finished in time for her birthday on 13th September, she gave the first performance 7th December of that year, ‘This transcription was first suggested by a mere fragment of Variation 5 that had been used as an tration of brass band scoring in Denis Wright's “Scoring for Brass Band" published in 1935, but it was not until the early 1970's when Butterworth conducted several radio performaces of the orchestral version made by Edmund Rubbra in 1938, that the notion of scoring it for brass band began seriously to be considered. To make it a practical proposition for brass band performace regarding duration; the original variations 15 to 18 and a passage in the fugue have been omitted. A radio talk by Rubbra en-titled ‘Re-creative ‘Orcheatration’ explained the thinking behind the art of transcription, implying that the challenging, indeed heroic, nature if the virtuoso piano writing needs to find a counterpart in any such new version in order to preserve the strong impact and sense of musical purpose. “Composer's View" Berlioz is reputed to have rarely been satisfied with other conductors’ interpretations of his music, preferring always himself to be on the rostrum in charge of performances. There have been many distinguished composer/ Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss and Elgar come to mind. [also like to conduct my own music and often do so; but the composer cannot do other than take an objective view of his music, whereas what is often preferable is the objective interpretation achieved by a conductor who takes a wider perspective of the compos- er’s creation. Nicholas Childs’ account of these works demonstrate the validity of this more objective view, and. Tam captivated by the manner in which he has so intuitively sensed the nature of the music’s intention, resulting in these magnificent and truly stunning performances. Arthur Butterworth MBE October 2001 DOYEN Producers Paul Hindmarsh and Alison Childs Sound Engineer Harold Barnes and Richard Scott Recorded at Morley Town Hall, during 2001 Digital Editing & Mastering R.E. Editing Layout & Typesetting D. R. Graphics Front Cover Design Simion Baxter-Cox For further information on the music of Arthur Butterworth please contact Michael Dennison at: Comus Edition Heirs House Lane, Colne, Lancashire BB8 9TA England www.comusedition.com WARNING: Copyright subsists in all recordings issued under this label. Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording in any manner whatsoever will constitute infringement of such copyright. Application for public performance licences should be addressed to Phonographic Performances Ltd. Granton House, 14-22 Granton Street, London. WIV ILB Tel: 0207 437 0311. DOY CD 130 ACK DYKE BAND BON TNICtOr mciolas J. Childs) & EN Featuring the Music oj ea ARTHUR BUTTERWORTH Die Dies) 1.-3. Three Impressions for Brass Op.36 Premiére Recording Arthur Butterworth 11.00 1. Wylam Colliery (1836) 4.30 as Deserted Farm (1840) 3.56 Se The Royal Border Bridge, Berwick-on-Tweed (1850) 3.52 z EMI Music B 4. Passacaglia on a Theme of Brahis Op. 87 Premiére Recording Arthur Butterworth 11.55 z Comus Edition 3 5.-7._ Sinfonia Concertante Op. 111 Premiére Recording Arthur Butterworth 15.55 e ss 1 Pastorale 44] 2 6. II Scherzo 3.29 Ez Fe III Night Music IV - Rondo Alla Caccia 7.42 Tenor Horn Soloist Lesley Howie Baritone Soloist Robert Blackburn Comus Edition 8. Variations & Fugue Premiére Recording Johannes Brahms 21.05 On a Theme of Handel Op. 24 Trans. Arthur Butterworth Comus Edition Total Playing Time 61.13 DOYCD130 Arthur BLACK DYKE BAND Doyen Recordings would like to acknowledge the support and help of Arthur Butterworth who was resent throughout the making of this recording.

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