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Classic test-pieces revisited No 3: A Moorside Suite

Prof Stephen Allen takes an in depth look at one of the classic works for the brass band medium — 'A Moorside Suite' by Gustav Holst

Holst
  Prof Stephen Allen looks at Holst's 'A Moorside Suite'

In the third of a new series on 4BR, Prof Stephen Allen takes an in depth look at another classic work of the brass band medium to examine it in a wider context away from the contesting stage.

This time it is 'A Moorside Suite' by Gustav Holst, written for the 1928 National Championships of Great Britain.

It came just six years before the composer's death in 1934, with Holst, a former trombone player attending the event and remarking that he had "listened to musicians conducted by musicians".

Stephen places the work in the wider social context of the time as well as looking at the sophisticated structures within its three movements.

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