Concert Band

A Nottingham Festival

Grade 4 | 6 Mins

A Nottingham Festival was commissioned by Nottingham Concert Band to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2011. Funds for the commission were donated by Flint Bishop Solicitors and it was premiered on 16th July 2011 at St Peter’s Church, Ruddington, conducted by the band’s musical director, Robert Parker.

The piece opens with an ascending figure, which contrasts with fanfares from the brass. The mood subsides to introduce a hymn-like melody on the clarinets, accompanied by a rhythmic figure on the snare drum. This builds to a full-band climax, which reintroduces the opening material. A faster section follows, which features a nervous opening theme alternating with a more joyful melody first played by the horns and saxophones. A short bridge passage leads to a new theme on trumpet, under figures derived from earlier in the piece, which eventually leads back to the opening figure and an altered recapitulation. At the climax of the work the original clarinet theme reappears majestically on the brass while the woodwind echo earlier material. An energetic coda brings the works to a close.