Gregson’s early Essay for brass Paul Hindmarsh continues his Regional test-piece previews with the challenge set for the 1st Section. The spring of 1971 was a landmark time major concertos - Gregson, then Horovitz Essay remains essentially tonal music. for the 25 year-old Edward Gregson. On (euphonium) and Tomlinson (cornet) - and The theme winds itself down to end on Saturday 13 March in the Queen’s Hall, particularly Thomas Wilson (Refrains and E flat (concert), which is the tonal root Wigan, Black Dyke Mills Band gave the Cadenzas for the Cheltenham Festival) of the work, however much the writing first performance of his Concerto for setting new benchmarks for composers veers away from it especially in this first French Horn under the baton of Geoffrey new to brass bands. Brand took particular movement. As yet there isn’t a defined Brand, with Ifor James (soon to take on interest in Edward Gregson, having character, just a rather unstable collection conducting Besses o’ th’ Barn Band) as the admired his prize-winning Brass Quintet of pitches that will require precise and soloist. The anonymous reviewer of British (1967), taking him under contract at R. pure presentation. Mouthpiece (was it the redoubtable Smith in 1969 with a small retainer to Gregson uses a concise sonata form Ted Buttress, I wonder?) commented on provide four new works a year. This golden framework in this opening movement, the novelty of this combination of brass opportunity for an emerging composer and his musical argument is tight and instruments and the ambition of the lasted until 1975 and effectively launched remarkably assured. As a young man, two work itself, writing: ‘It certainly took the Gregson’s composing career within the of Gregson’s musical idols were Brahms audience very much by surprise... Perhaps brass band community. Voices of Youth, The and Hindemith - on the surface at polar the ardent pundits of our movement will Pacemakers (another Wills commission), opposites in terms of style, but whose not agree, but it is true to say that we Partita and, especially, The Plantagenets approaches to disciplined thematic have got to accept the trend of modern (1972) have remained cornerstones of metamorphosis (Brahms), fourth-based composition.’ their areas of banding literature. Essay has counterpoint and extended tonality A few days later, on 3 April at the Royal not turned up as often, unquestionably (Hindemith) were hugely influential on Albert Hall in London, Gregson’s brand because it is the more difficult to bring off the young Gregson. The title Dialogues new Essay for Brass Band was performed by in purely musical terms. suggests a conversational approach to the the bands competing in the Championship Gregson retains a soft spot for his Horn development of this theme. As with all Section of the short-lived WD & HO Wills Concerto and for Essay: “I like Essay more conversations, the character, energy and Championship. This contest ran for just than The Plantagenets,” he comments, emotional content seems constantly in a four years at what was, with the benefit “which for me is far more conventional. state of flux throughout, yet every note has of 45 years perspective, a pivotal time for It was written as a more straightforward its place within the argument and needs brass bands in this country. The 1970-71 sequel to the abstractions of Essay, the to be delivered with precision and clarity. World Championship experiment had got first movement of which is much more After the theme is announced, the off to an inauspicious start and the set test interesting in its expansion of tonality.” middle of the band, followed by a pair in 1971, Robert Simpson’s Energy, failed to As originally conceived, Essay and The of solo cornets, take a jaunty tangent, ignite the spark. This rather conservative, Plantagenets were both symphonic softening the stark fourths and fifths Beethovenian work, in the context of studies. The latter’s descriptive title with interlocking thirds, but this is symphonic music, was perhaps just one was added as an aid to understanding abruptly crushed by abrasive bi-tonal step too far removed from the usual run the music’s heraldic character. Essay is chords (written G flat against C, a tritone of band test-pieces at that time. The essentially a miniature symphony, with dissonance) that set up a determined but increasingly influential Geoffrey Brand, by two fast movements framing a central, fractious repost on unison trombones. The then the Editor of British Bandsman and dramatic elegy. By giving the work literary basses then calm this first subject down Managing Editor of R. Smith & Co., secured connotations, Gregson is reflecting the by returning to the original theme. Listen ownership of the National Championships way in which the music ‘behaves’. It’s how this ends. We are back on the root the following year and under his not ‘about’ anything other than what pitch, but the instability caused by the way ambitious direction and fresh creative the notes on the page might suggest. it is approached, via the perfect fifth on G outlook, the future for composers for brass Throughout the history of the brass band flat, continues into the next section as a bands in general seemed very bright. As test-piece, abstract musical argument harmonic background while the written a former radio producer, Brand possessed has often proved problematic. The title F root turns into the dominant fifth of the that BBC ‘nouse’ of knowing what music might suggest a work of impenetrable contrasting second subject (Ex. 2), which is ‘fitted’ where and how far to take his modernism. This was the period when the in a kind of modal B flat minor. audience and players along the continuum Schoenberg’s ultra-democratic method of How different this sounds to the of risk. Thus we had a succession of fresh organising the 12 equal semitones of the somewhat stark music we’ve heard until but safe options as new Royal Albert octave was being nudged aside by other now. This is another side of Gregson’s Hall tests - Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy and serial systems of organising pitch and musical personality - a modal melody, Robert Farnon’s Un Vie de Matelot - with rhythm. Look closely at the main theme sweeter, certainly more English in Heaton’s Contest Music held back for well- of the first movement of Essay and you character. It’s not sweet for long, however, documented reasons. might think that Gregson too was going as bitonal flutter tongues and percussion On the concert stage, Geoffrey’s re- down the Schoenberg route (Ex.1). All 12 subvert its clean lines. The horns attempt branding of possibilities began during semitones are at play here in a somewhat to restore order with lyrical triads, which, his Black Dyke days and was far more neutral announcement, senza vibrato, as the development section gathers ambitious and far reaching, with three as if to say, ‘this is my theme’. However, momentum, take the conversation into REGIONALS 2016

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BB 4-5.indd 4 16-02-16 16:36 more assertive mode with an important a series of lonely elegiac solos. It is bass quartet interjections provide further fanfare variant of the theme answered dedicated to the memory of Gilbert Vinter, ‘hat-tips’ to the Vinter style. At the heart by disorientating fanfare triads. Out of who had died the year before composition, of the movement, the mid-point of the the thematic and tonal confusion, the and whose transformative contribution to work, Gregson brings back his principal main theme is tentatively ushered in (poco brass band test-piece literature Gregson is theme, con forza. When the Soliloquy meno mosso) and what appears to be a paying personal tribute. “I went to my first melody returns on solo trombone, recapitulation of first and second subjects National Final in 1964, when Variations scalic embellishments create further begins. on a Ninth by Gilbert Vinter was the test- momentum to propel the movement to a But this is a false ‘dawn’, as almost by piece,” Gregson recalls. “I didn’t really sonorous climax that will require careful stealth the development-cum-reprise know a great deal about contesting music control and bags of stamina to lift off the turns back on itself, unwinding through before then, except for the scores my page convincingly. the triad fanfare (high euphoniums and brother Bram brought back from the Royal Gregson calls his more conventional finale, baritones and then horns) back to the Albert Hall each year. Vinter made such Epigram, which in literature is the name main theme a fourth lower (flugel and solo a difference to brass band music in just a for a short, often satirical poem of a few horn in a tricky unison). We only need to few short years.” lines in length. Sometimes it’s just a witty be reassured of its presence once, as it has The main melody, which although derived one-liner, as here, in the light-hearted way featured so prominently throughout the from the contour of the first movement in which Gregson contracts his material. movement in various contrasts, rather like theme, is intended to recall the gentle lilt The opening theme (Ex 1) is condensed to a Haydn first subject. It enables a smooth of Elegy from Vinter’s Entertainments suite a bitonal generating idea on trombones transition to the second subject, with (Ex. 3). Euphonium, solo horn, baritone and basses, and as a contrasting idea a scoring neatly and cleverly reversed. The and flugel all try out the opening bar semiquaver flourish (Ex. 4 a & b). As this conversation continues into an extended before the solo cornet takes flight in one extrovert, dance-like music unfolds, other coda, where principle theme, second of the most demanding and extended ideas are revisited, including the triad subject and fanfares triads all strive to of solos from that era of test-pieces, fanfares. The central section introduces assert their dominance over unpredictable gathering in intensity and tessitura, like further contrast in the form of a much tonality, the journey of which remains an operatic aria, to an elevated top C broader, modal melody, which this time unresolved right to the final bars, where climax. The dramatic central section, with isn’t undermined but is celebrated as this the main theme is asserted one last time, its layered fourths (in contrast to Vinter’s lively, technically very tricky but musically only to be cut off by an abrupt G flat to F layered thirds in Variations on a Ninth) and less challenging movement resolves the (written) full stop. double dotted articulation suggests some unanswered questions Edward Gregson The second movement, Soliloquy, includes cataclysm. The flurries of semiquavers and posed in his opening conversation.

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