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Listen: Dances and Arias

This work was commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes Band Festivals (with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain) for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 7th October 1984.

Dances and Arias is in one continuous movement, but as the title suggests is a series of alternating fast and slow sections as follows: Dance-Aria I - Dance(scherzo) - Aria II - Dance. The opening dance is energetic and introduces a four-note motif (on trombones) which is the basis for much of the melodic material in the work. Throughout, there is a continuous process of thematic cross-reference and transformation.

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