Product Description
This fanfare was written to enter the Arts Active's Fanfare Competition, in celebration of St. David's Hall 40th Birthday. In writing this piece, I researched the musical history of St. Davids Hall. Unfortunately, it has proven very difficult to find specific songs/pieces from some of the key events (the only clip I could find was the Cory Band playing John Miles Music), so I focused on brass bands and Wales.
The pieces incorporates Men of Harlech (Rhyfelgyrch Gwŷr Harlech), Land of My Fathers (Hen Wlad fy Nhadau) and Philip Sparkes The Year of the Dragon. Growing up with brass band, I heard Men of Harlech a lot and it has always been my go to Welsh piece. Land of My Fathers is the unofficial anthem of Wales. As for The Year of the Dragon, it was used both times that St. Davids Hall has hosted the European Brass Band Championships: it was used as the set test pieces in 1986 for Desford Colliery Dowty Bands historic victory (under Howard Snell) and as the own choice test piece in 1992 as part of Britannia Building Society (now Fodens) Bands winning performances (again under Howard Snell). The Year of the Dragon is also a popular piece of music in the brass-band world and has much significance to me personally.
The name of piece comes from the GPS location of St. Davids Hall (51.48022° N, 3.17653° W), rounded to the nearest integer: the actual location of 51° N, 3° W is just off of the A378 in North Curry in Taunton, Somerset, England.
The competition stipulated that the fanfare was to be composed for a maximum of five standard brass band instruments and so was written for 2 Cornets, Tenor Horn, Trombone or Euphonium and Eb Bass. An additional score and parts have been provided for a more traditional brass quintet set up.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.