Brass Band: Concertino Kenneth Downie

TEST PIECES (Major Works)
This music, in its original four-movement form, entitled “Concerto for Brass Band”, was commissioned by Geo-Pierre Moren and the Swiss Brass Band, Treize Etoiles. For its use as the test piece for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain in 2008, it has been specially published without the second movement scherzo.

This is not programme music, but a piece of absolute music. The first movement, Allegro spiritoso, introduces a series of short, thematic ideas in the course of the opening bars. They provide the material from which the whole movement is developed, much of it in contrapuntal style. There is nothing impromptu or improvisatory about the approach. The aim is for the musical argument to be held together in a highly organised, organic fashion. There is a conscious acknowledgement of Wilfred Heaton’ s wonderful, creative methods in this movement.

If the first movement is cerebral in approach, then the second is unashamedly romantic. The restless, nervous, mood of the opening movement gives way to calm lyricism, although it is occasionally tinged with a bittersweet quality. Here there is scope for sensitive solo work and artistic accompaniments.

The finale is a relentless, agitated Vivace, with a near-continuous stream of semiquavers from start to finish. Strongly articulated rhythms frequently make venomous interjections, before a slightly whimsical theme arrives on soprano comet. The prevailing mood is still agitated however, with metrical changes and displaced accents adding to the frenzy. A reprise of earlier material leads to a closing section which reintroduces the opening theme from the first movement. The tempo finally slows down and the work finishes with an epic coda.