Paul Patterson - Three Symphonic Wind Band Works
- Little Red Riding Hood (Wind Band version), Opus 73c (1992) Symphonic Wind Band. Narrator/Picc.2.2.6.2/4Sax/4.4.3.1/Euph/Str Brass/3Perc/Timp, 33'. Also available for narrator and wind quintet or narrator and nine instruments. Published by Weinberger
- Mighty Voice, The, Opus 71 (1991)
Symphonic Wind Band. Picc.2.2.6.2/3Sax/3Cor/2Tpt/4Hn/3Tbn/Euph/Tba/Str Brass/3Perc/Timp, 16' - Westerly Winds (Wind Band version), Opus 84b (2006)
Symphonic Wind Band. Picc.2.2.6.2/4Sax/4.4.3.1/Euph/Str Brass/3Perc/Timp, 11'
Little Red Riding Hood
World premiere at Royal Northern College of Music 6th April 2001 by Chethams Wind Orchestra in the BASBWE Conference.
Lasting a little under half an hour, this setting is for three speakers (or one) and orchestra. The words are spoken freely against the orchestral background, without any attempt to notate exact rhythms for the verse - something Dahl disliked in previous settings of his words. The orchestra at the beginning becomes an Enchanted Forest, through which the Narrator makes his way to begin the story. Thereafter it illustrates the narrative, with themes to match the characters and the action, in the popular tradition of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Poulenc's Babar the Elephant.
THE MIGHTY VOICE by Paul Patterson
Commissioned by BASBWE with funds made available by North West Arts
World Premiere given at the Free Trade Hall on Thursday July 18 by the Baden Wurttemberg Youth Wind Orchestra conductor Motti Miron.
The Mighty Voice was inspired by Wordsworth's poem "Sonnet to Liberty" and I am grateful to George Whyte for suggesting it to me.
"Two voices are there - one is of the sea
One of the mountains - each a mighty voice
In both from age to age, thou didst rejoice
They are thy chosen music, Liberty!"
The work is cast in five contrasting sections.? It opens with a grandiose movement, conveying images of the sea; starting on low instruments and answered by a series of triplet fanfares.? After a considerable build up a rhythmic movement follows, scherzo-like in its wit and vitality.? A more sombre mood forms the central span whilst in the 4th movement images of mountains are evoked with alpine horn calls and echo effects.? The triumphal finale brings together several of the earlier ideas in a virtuosic display of rejoicing.
WESTERLY WINDS by Paul Patterson
Browse on title for wind quintet version of movements 3 & 4. Also arranged for Wind Band, 1st performance Cornwall Youth Wind Orchestra conducted by Janet Easton, 10th April 2006
Westerly Winds, commissioned by the Galliard Ensemble in 1999, is a recasting for wind quintet of the orchestral Four Rustic Sketches. It is essentially a sequence of four short fantasias based on West Country folk tunes.
The third movement, Lazy Lawrence, is the slow movement proper, and it uses the Dorset folk tune Linden Lea. The calm opening portion of the movement is offset by a more agitated central section which briefly disturbs the peaceful atmosphere. Eventually, Linden Lea restores everything to order with a grand, dignified statement before fading away to a quiet close.
The concluding movement, The Looe Bar Lady, turns its gaze towards Cornwall, with the Helston Floral Dance taking centre stage. Its dominance, however, is not uncontested, as another West Country tune, The British Grenadiers, aided and abetted by Farmer Giles and Linden Lea, repeatedly barges in and threatens to hog the limelight. However, the Floral Dance succeeds in having the last say as the music makes its last frantic dash to the finishing line.
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