FANTASIES FOR BAND

David Morgan

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The piece was originally written for Stourport on Severn Brass Band. The band was on the coach on the way back from the "Areas", and the principal cornet player bet that a test piece couldn't be written in a week. The first complete manuscript of this piece was duly delivered just five days later - though it has been revisited several times since then, the work remains largely faithful to the original manuscript in all except the smaller details.

"Alpha" and "Omega" are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, but are also used Biblically as an epithet signifying "the first and the last". "Scherzo" meaning "a joke", should be delivered in a 'dead-pan' style, but with tounge (metaphorically) firmly in cheek. Particular attention should be paid to effective delivery of the quasi-Renaissance sections in each of the first two movements.

The third movement is based on the plainsong melody Veni, Creator Spiritus ('Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire'), although there is no particular reference to the words intended. There should be a stillness and calmness at the beginning and end of the movement, but impassioned in the middle.

While the whole work begins and ends in a blaze of confident colour, there are moments of introspection, tenderness, laughter, tension and raw emotion and a successful performance is one that captures all of these (and more) effectively.

© Copyright 2005 JAGRINS Music Publications