Test Piece Review: Of Distant Memories

The SWBBA Contest was nearly 3 weeks ago, and I've had some time to digest the contest and the piece. We decided to play Of Distant Memories by Edward Gregson. Right from the start we knew that it was a challenge to say the least, and that ultimately it was probably a bit too hard, but we decided that we didn't care about the result and that we wanted to better ourselves as a band and as players. And I think we achieved that.

The Context

Of Distant Memories was composed for the National Finals to celebrate 2013 being the centenary of the first ever original brass band test piece, Labour and Love by Percy Fletcher. The contest was won by Cory, which should give you some indication of the difficulty of the piece, and it has been very popular at set test and own piece choice contest ever since.

The Music

Overall, I think this piece is probably as good as it gets. There's so many themes that are established early in the piece that come back later on, such as the 'descending in thirds' motif that establishes itself at the very beginning in the horns, is repeated in trombones and cornets, and then disappears at 4, returning in each subsequent slow section. Here's a list of every place it appears:

• beginning - horns

• 1 - trombones

• 2 - trombones, cornets, and horns

• 3 - cornets (inverted octaves)

• 10 - flugel, solo cornet, soprano, trombone, horn, flugel again

• just before 13 - a version in bass trom/bb bass

• 18 - solo cornets, trombones

• 19 - dotted variant in trombones

• 22 - inverted variant in cornet cadenza

• 22 - eb bass

• 23 - trombones, flugel, solo cornet, horns, repiano

• 32 - main motif returns in cornets and trombones

• 33 - horns

• 34 - cornets, euphonium, baritones

It's everywhere. And I love it.

The other 'main motif' that I want to talk about is the ba-am ba-bam one. (I don't know how to describe it - you know the one I'm on about, first bar in 4.) Whereas the first motif was the running theme in the slow sections, this plays the main role in the fast sections. It's essentially a fanfare, and in places it feels almost like a millitary bugle call or something.

The fact that these themes (among others) return again and again throughout the piece really bring a sense of fluidity between each section. The themes often show themselves in different variants and forms too, and if you tried hard enough, most of the piece could probably be related to one of the many recurring themes.

The Challenges

The obvious challenge is the sheer speed of the triplet work in the fast sections. Whilst most of the finger patterns are natural and simple, the odd trap is put in in the form of the odd jump, which is easy to miss when reading at high speeds. These triplet runs stretch across the entire band from the cornets all the way down to basses. This poses even more of a challenge as everybody in the band has to be on exactly the same wavelength.

The other main challenge, is stamina. It's a killer. In rehearsals, we quickly found out that trying to get out more than two full performances in one night is essentially a death wish. This made it tricky to rehearse, as halfway through our 90 minute rehearsal, we'd all already worn out our lip.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Of Distant Memories is a piece full of tricky runs, pretty solos, recurring themes, and so much more. I, and the rest of the band have thoroughly enjoyed working on this piece, and we've definitely improved as a result. I'm looking forward to seeing what effect this will have on my playing moving forward, and I'm hopeful that it will put me and the band in a good place for the area next March, following our promotion to Championship Section.

Stan Welbourn