Band

Dating from the first decades of the 20th century and originating in vaudeville and the music hall, the Soft-Shoe shuffle was danced by tap dancers, wearing soft-shoes instead of their normal tap shoes. In this usually comic dance, the shoes were rubbed on the surface of the stage producing a characteristic swish. Soft-Shoe Shuffle can be made into a percussion feature by bringing the sand paper blocks to the front of the stage with added choreography, if required! A wonderful piece of musical humour for your concerts.

This is a little salute to the wonderful music of Duke Ellington, taking Mood Indigo as its model. Something Borrowed, Something Blue will allow the young band to approach this masterpiece's laid-back style, using chords and harmonies that they may be hearing for the first time. Flexible instrumentation in the tenor and bass lines make this work ideal for bands without the full quota of players. Bring the world of jazz to life with this smooth chart for concert band.

100 years ago English composer Vaughan Williams visited Norfolk (an area on the east coast of England) to collect and notate folk songs from people of all trades and callings. Accompanied by a local clergyman, he visited The Tilden Smith, a pub that was a favorite haunt of the Northenders and local fishermen, and in less than a week the composer had notated 61 songs. Vaughan Williams incorporated the best of these songs into his own music, most notably in A Norfolk Rhapsody and the Sea Symphony. Philip Sparke has composed this new suite based on five of these folk songs together with King's Lynn, a folk song which Vaughan Williams adapted into a popular hymn tune. Why not bring a piece of traditional English heritage to any concert with this melodious, new work.

The Ukrainian Bell Carol is part of a large choral work entitled Shchedryk by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Dmytrovich Leontovych (1877-1921). It was first performed by students of Kiev University in December 1916. The tune is an adaptation of an old shchedrivka, a song traditionally sung on Ukrainian New Years Eve (January 13th), which hopes for good fortune in the year to come. In Shchedryk, Leontovych added his own the lyrics which concern the legend claiming that when Jesus was born, all the bells on earth started ringingin his honour. The tune has since been the inspiration of at least four different Christmas carols, but Philip Sparke has sourced the original Ukrainian melody to create this stirring arrangement.