BALLYGOWAN FLUTE BAND

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Our Music

During an average year the band plays a very wide range of music, and summarising this into a sentence or two is not easy. We play marches of course - not only on the street but in concerts and on the contest platform.

We play all sorts of music in concerts and entertainment contests e.g. light classical, Irish and other traditional, and music from the movies - generally any music that the general public will recognise and love.

We also turn over quite a range of classical music. The brass, concert/military and accordion bands can buy all the test piece music they need, because there has always been a worldwide market for them to choose from - not so for flute bands! In the early 20th century our representatives turned to the classics for contest test pieces. The pioneers would have put their experience and knowledge to good use by transcribing music from the masters (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn to name but a few). In recent years our contest test pieces have included music by Mussorsky, Britten, Dukas, Smetna, Copeland, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Verde - the list is endless. Indeed it would be difficult to challenge any claim that the degree of contact with classical music that a young championship flute band person could experience, is unlikely to be surpassed in any other band movement.

To name some of these arrangers/transcribers is to fail to name others who have contributed immensely, yet some names do come to the fore. From the early days, the best were undoubtedly John Murdie, Billy Blythe and Harry Gillespie, and from more recent times David Heaney, Frank Browne and Mark Douglas.

Flute bands are supposed to play marches - and why not? Surely there is no better foot-tapper known to man! Here are some examples of marches we play (or have played) - click the composer's name (if underlined) for more information:

Here are some examples of the contest pieces we have played with some notes on the composers:

Liebesverbot and Tannhäuser (Richard Wagner 1813-1883)

Liebesverbot is a comic opera in two acts based on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. It was set in Palermo in Sicily in the 16th Century, and is rarely played nowadays – indeed it had an ignominious start. Under-rehearsed, the first performance was a shambles and only a handful of people turned up for the second night.

The story line is based on the banning of promiscuity during a carnival, and Claudio is sentenced to death when his beloved Julia falls pregnant. The people later freed Claudio, but these indiscretions of youth came to haunt Wagner and he later renounced such free love.

In the opera Tannhäuser, he, Tannhäuser, has sold his soul to live in sin with the goddess of love, but his conscience is troubling him. Venus tries to talk him out of going back to the mortal side, but eventually she gives up and tells him to sling his hook. Tannhäuser is well received by his contemporaries until he lets slip where he has been – as far as their beliefs are concerned, he is doomed to the devil’s flames. Tannhäuser however holds on his belief that eternal salvation is there for all who genuinely repent - the price was very high but he wins out in the end.

Richard Wagner was born in Brühl, near Leipzig in Germany on 22 May 1813. His father died of typhus when he was only six months old and his mother subsequently remarried and they moved to Dresden. Sadly, his step-father died when he was eight years old, and they moved back to Dresden where he received his first formal musical training. He later studied music at the University of Leipzig.  From an early age he had been hooked on theatre and he harboured a desire to follow this career path. It was probably not surprising therefore that he became an opera composer, known especially for his rich harmonies, and unusually for an opera composer, he was his own librettist. He is also credited with being the first to face the orchestra while conducting.
His best known works are The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, Der Ring des Nibelungen and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He also had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which has been a Mecca for opera lovers ever since.

In his personal life Wagner had his problems: his personality, money shortage, outspoken views on music, and his political views are well documented. He died on 13 February 1883, leaving the world, in musical terms, a much richer place.

Capriccio Italien (Pyotr Tchaikovsky 1840-1893)

Tchaikovsky composed Capriccio Italien in 1880 after a visit to Rome. Apparently he was very taken with much of the music he heard there, especially the folk music, and the fanfare at the beginning reflected an army bugle call heard from his hotel. It is also said that he found inspiration in Glinka’s Spanish Pieces.
The work was initially well received, but the composer is reported to have later doubted if the work contained any musical merit. He subsequently arranged it for piano.
The piece is regularly played at Flute Band Own Choice Contests.

It is generally accepted that Tchaikovsky was one of the world’s most gifted composers. He was born in Votkinsk in Russia on 7th May 1840, the second son of a mining engineer. His talent for music was evident from a tender age but his formal education began at the age of eight, after the family had moved to St. Petersburg. He was a very sensitive child and the move caused him great unhappiness – not helped at all by being later sent to boarding school. He graduated in law and began work as a clerk. However his only release was music and he started to attend classes in composition. After a few years he resigned his post and became a full time student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He studied harmony, composition, took piano and flute lessons and gained entry into the Conservatoire orchestra.

He reached the height of his creativity by his mid-thirties, and it was around this time that he began to correspond with Nadezhda von Meck, who supported him financially and mentally for some fourteen years.
His three ballets, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker are still frequently performed all over the world. Classical music lovers must have several Tchaikovsky pieces in their favourites list, whether it be one of his symphonies or his violin concerto, 1812 or Fantasy overture, a string quartet, the list is almost endless…
Tchaikovsky’s cause of death was reported at the time as cholera due to drinking unboiled water, but it is generally believed that he took poison because a career-ending scandal was about to break.

Carnival Overture (Antonin Dvorak 1841-1904)
The Carnival Overture was written by Antonin Dvorak in 1892 as part of a Nature, Life and Love trilogy - it formed the Life part. The Nature part, In Nature’s Realm, has also been a test piece for the N.I.B.A. Championship Flute Section.
The listener could imagine a horse rider entering a village where a carnival is in full swing. He works his way slowly though the carnival and continues on his way, where the music changes to reflect his new surroundings. By and by, the trail brings him back to the village where the carnival is now at full intensity.
The piece is regularly played at Flute Band Own Choice Contests.

Antonin Dvorak was born in what we now know as the Czech Republic, and he was considered to be one of the most level-headed and contented of all classical composers. His family were hard working country people, who great difficulty in funding the development of his obvious talent. Indeed it was his tutor who was instrumental in persuading an uncle of Dvorak to sponsor him at the Organ School in Prague (apparently there was no money for a train ticket and he walked there - some 25 miles). Life was not easy at first, as his early music did not attract much attention. The break-through came in his early thirties when he won the Austrian State Stipendium – he was to enter it the following year and he won it again.
Dvorak toured England in his early forties and was feted everywhere he went – his Slavonic dances were a great hit. He also accepted a not-to-be refused offer in his early fifties to establish a National Conservatory of Music in New York, and his success in America is legendary – he composed his famous and final symphony no. 9 (From the New World) while in the U.S.A. Apparently at its premiere in the Carnegie Hall, the 9th was so loudly cheered that he felt obliged to take a bow after every movement.

Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on a Bare Mountain (Mussorgsky)
Pictures at an Exhibition is a set of piano pieces written in 1874 to commemorate an exhibition of the work of the artist Victor Hartmann. The exhibits are linked by a promenade - which is a repeating theme - and includes representations of e.g. kids playing, women gossiping, catacombs, a singer, unborn chicks, a witches hut and the Great Gate of Kiev.
Pictures at an Exhibition was completed for piano in 1874 – probably the best orchestral version was subsequently arranged by French composer Maurice Ravel.

Night on a Bare Mountain was composed in 1867 but, although he revisited it a number of times, it was never performed in his lifetime. Indeed, the version we are familiar with was arranged by his friend Rimsky-Korsakov and premiered in 1886. The story line is basically that of a witches sabbath.

Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) was born in Karevo, Russia into a wealthy family. He began receiving piano lessons from his mother as a six-year old. He made rapid progress, and four years later studied in Saint Petersburg. At 13, he became a cadet in preparation for military service (a family tradition), but he managed to continue studying music. In 1858 Mussorgsky resigned his commission to devote himself to music, but later became a civil servant – a career which was frustrated by his alcoholism. It is said that many of his works were completed by other composers.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Paul Abraham Dukas, 1865–1935)

The story originates from a poem by Goethe and begins with an old sorcerer who left his apprentice to clean the place up. Tired of fetching buckets of water, the apprentice uses some magic to get the brush and bucket to do the work for him. Everything is going well until the job is nearly finished, when his attempts to stop the process were frustrated by his lack of magical powers. Things get out of hand fast and he chops the broom in half. The two halves of the broom then resume the water carrying but at double the rate. Only the return of the old sorcerer saves the day, and the apprentice learns a valuable lesson.

Paul Dukas composed the piece in 1897. It was an instant hit, and became even better known after 1940 when Walt Disney released the film cartoon “Fantasia”, in which Mickey Mouse was the apprentice.

He was born in Paris into a Jewish family. His father was a banker and his mother played the piano. He began piano lessons with his mother at four years of age but, sadly she died in childbirth a year or so later. He did not display any particular talent until, at fourteen, he started composing. Little of his output is well known today – partly because of the success of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and partly because he was better known as a scholar and music critic. Having attended the Paris Conservatory with some distinction in his early life, he was subsequently appointed Professor of Composition.

Ma Vlast (Bedřich Smetana 1824 – 1884)

Bedřich Smetana was born in modern day Czech  Republic. He was a natural on the piano and at the age of six, gave his first public performance. He studied music in Prague but could not find work there, so he left for Sweden where he worked as a teacher and choirmaster. When he eventually returned to his native Praque, he was quite prolific, and he made a reputation for himself as the father of Czech music. His best known works are his opera “The Bartered Bride” and Ma Vlast (My Motherland), the latter charting the river Vltava (or Moldau) from its source in the Bohemian Mountains until it flowed into the River Elba - more precisely it charted his country’s landscape, history and legends.
Smetana suffered quite some criticism in later life, which may well have affected his health - he passed his final days in a mental institution.

The Three-Cornered Hat (Manuel De Falla)

The Three-Cornered Hat test piece consisted of four dances as follows: The Three-Cornered Hat, , The Neighbour's Dance, The Miller's Dance and the Final Dance.
Manuel de Falla was born in 1876 in Cadiz in Spain and studied music in Madrid. He became very interested in native Spanish music, and the Three Cornered Hat started life as a ballet called The Magistrate & the Miller's Wife. Falla made a major contribution to his country's music and appeared for a number of years on a Spanish bank note.

Danse Macabre (The Dance of Death - C. Saint-Saens)

Apparently the dead summon the living to the grave to give them a reminder of how fragile is life itself. The dance is like a last fling amidst the need for penitence and also, while it’s still possible, amusement – while remembering that death may be just around the corner.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 –1921) was born in Paris. His father died shortly after his birth, and he was brought up by his Mum and a great-aunt - it was the aunt who gave him piano lessons while still a toddler. He was a truly gifted child, reading and writing, and composing his first piece at three years of age.

He studied at the Paris Conservatory, and had composed two symphonies before he was seventeen – the first was not released. He also made a name for himself as a brilliant organist.

He had a large musical output but he is probably best known for Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre and his Organ Symphony. He spent time in America where he enjoyed success as a conductor. He was also a scholar in many subjects and wrote many books under a nom de plume. Saint-Saens was a recipient of France’s Légion d’honneur, and he received a state funeral.

Theme and Variations (S. Taneyev)

The test piece for 2009 was Theme & Variations by Taneyev, a piano piece arranged for flute by P.Walton. The arranger actually composed the finale specifically for this contest.

Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev was born near Moscow in 1856. He began taking piano lessons at age five, and when he was nine entered the Moscow Conservatory - he was later to study under Tchaikovsky.
He graduated in 1875, the first student in the history of the Conservatory to win the gold medal for both composition and performing (piano). He was also the first person ever to be awarded the Conservatory's Great Gold Medal.
Taneyev was an accomplished performer and composer, and Tchaikovsky came to respect his professional opinion above most others (even though his frank opinions sometimes hurt the sensitive genius!) He was the soloist in the first Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, and he was to perform other Tchaikovsky works for piano and orchestra. His pupils included Rachmaninov.

Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo (A. Copland)
Rodeo is an orchestral score of the ballet Rodeo, which is set on a typically Western ranch. The leading lady is a cowgirl struggling to be taken seriously in a man’s world. She strongly fancies the ranch foreman but he only has eyes for the ranch owner’s daughter. Included are many beautiful, recognisable tunes, culminating in the famous Hoedown – where the now-dressed-up cowgirl catches the foreman’s eye. However she chooses the only one of the cowboys who had treated her with any kindness.

This was a popular test piece for the flutes and has been performed many times since at Own Choice and Entertainment Contests.

Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990) was born in Brooklyn New York, his father having emigrated from Russia. His contact with music came from his mother and his sister, and he received lessons from childhood. He was performing from an early age and, becoming interested in composition, he studied harmony, theory, and composition privately.
He developed a distinctly American style of composition, and is best known for the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and for his Fanfare for the Common Man (composed to dignify the men who lay their lives on the line for their country)

He travelled extensively to Europe, Africa and Mexico. He got the inspiration in the latter country for his El Salón México which brought him international fame.

His range of output was extensive with concertos, symphonies, jazz and film scores (his score for the film The North Star was nominated for an Academy Award, and he won the award for The Heiress.)
He was a recipient of many awards in his lifetime, and he was a great supporter of young musicians and composers during his career, leaving left much of his state to the creation of the Aaron Copland Fund for Composers.

When at home, Copland was a modest and mild-mannered man, but his political interests got him into trouble with the authorities although he denied ever being a communist.

Jazz Suite No.2 (D. Shostakovich 1906 - 1975)

Shostakovich responded to a Leningrad competition to promote Soviet jazz. He composed his first jazz suite as an encouragement to others, and he followed it up a few years later with the second. Due to band contest time constraints, only six of the eight movements were arranged for Flute Bands – the opening march, the two waltzes, two dances and the finale (the other movements consisted of a lyric waltz and a polka).

It proved to be a very popular test-piece, and some of the movements have since been played in contest, concerts and radio broadcasts.

Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated composers, and achieved fame in his own country Russia, then in the USA and worldwide.

He was born in Saint Petersburg as the second of three, and was a child prodigy as a pianist and composer. He studied composition, counterpoint and fugue at the Petrograd Conservatory under Alexander Glazunov, and composed his first symphony as his graduation piece.

He started his full time career as a concert pianist and composer but soon settled on composing. His output included 15 symphonies, six concertos, string quartets, preludes and many film scores.
Soviet opinion tended to be suspicious of the arts. He received many accolades but also had a complex and difficult relationship with the Stalin administration, culminating in his escape to America. He was however accepted back into the fold after Stalin’s death (marked by his Tenth Symphony)
Shostakovich was married three times and did not enjoy good health in his later years. He contacted polio, suffered from falls and heart attacks. He died of lung cancer, received a Russian state funeral and was commemorated on a Russian stamp.

Performing Rights

We have a mounted certificate on the Bandroom wall from The Performing Rights Society, thanking us for our long-standing support for those who make their living from their music, and whose music we play.

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