The trio of works that will be used at the 2024 British Open Spring Festival were announced at the 169th British Open Championship in Birmingham on the weekend.

The 102nd Spring Festival is scheduled to take place at The Winters Gardens in Blackpool on Saturday 11th May.

Grand Shield
'A Brussels Requiem' (Bert Appermont)

The contest organisers have decided to utilise 'A Brussels Requiem' by Bert Appermont. It was originally scheduled for use in 2020 after being performed at the British Open in 2018, but could not be due to Covid-19.

The work was originally commissioned by Brass Band Oberosterreich from Austria as their own-choice work for the 2017 European Brass Band Championships and has since been performed at elite championship level throughout the world.

Presented in four interlinked movements, it is a primary reflection on the shocking terrorist attack that occurred in Brussels in 2016, although its wider context encompasses the aftereffects felt globally following subsequent attacks in Paris, Nice and Berlin which led to an increase of fear and misunderstanding.

At this time people began asking questions of how cultures that spoke openly of tolerance and peace had apparently grown so far apart that they could no longer understand each other.

Bert Appermont's composition is a personal tribute to the victims of the attacks — although it does not seek to describe what happened in Brussels in narrative form. Instead, it sets out to reflect on the experience and to express the complex emotions triggered by the terrible events.

The four movements are linked by the underlying children's song 'Au Claire de la Lune', which in the first movement is used as a cipher for the loss of innocence.

It then moves through a militaristic second section of brutal disturbance as hell descends, before a minor-coloured chorale leads into a paean of grief and pain.

However, the work closes in hopefulness; a search for meaning, optimism and even childlike fun as the nursery tune is recalled before a fierce, passionate climax.

Iwan Fox

Senior Cup
'The New Jerusalem' (Philip Wilby)

Commissioned by the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and first performed in 1990, a revised contest version was subsequently used as the set-work for the 1992 National Championships of Great Britain.

It has since become one of Philip Wilby's most revered compositions and has been performed throughout the contesting world.

Although initially inspired by a quotation from the Revelation of St John — "And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth; for the first Heaven and the first Earth were passed away….", in the composer's mind it subsequently took on an almost allegorical dimension — much like Eric Ball's 'Journey into Freedom'.

Revised against a backdrop of huge political change following the demise of the Soviet Union and the domino effect of collapse that occurred throughout former Eastern Block communist countries, for Wilby it came to represent "the triumph of the human spirit over oppression".

As he himself wrote: "For a moment, the prophecy of St John's Revelation was suddenly highlighted in a new and quite unexpected way. The off-stage fanfares*, the turbulent nature of a large proportion of the band music and above all, the piece's life affirming end may all be seen as an optimistic vision of that social and religious rebirth".

*The contest organisers will issue directives for this element of the work.

Iwan Fox

Senior Trophy
'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' (Peter Graham)

Peter Graham's work was originally written for the Black Dyke Band to perform at the 2005 European Brass Band Championships.

It is inspired by Jules Verne's 1864 adventure novel 'Voyage au centre de la terre' — a literary 'Voyage Extraordinaire' in the form of recounted diary entries of Axel, the young nephew of Prof Otto Lidenbrock, who joins his expedition to reach the core of the earth
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The incredible tale is recounted in a series of nine interlinked chronological 'symphonic scenes for brass and percussion' — from the brooding entry into the extinct Icelandic volcano of Snaefells which leads to the unknown.

Their adventure sees them encounter 'Wonders of the Terrestrial Depths' before they can enjoy a dream-like sequence of rest.

Exploring further, Axel is separated in a labyrinth. Seemingly lost and without hope, his escape is engineered by an acoustic phenomenon where he follows the sound of the whispering voices of his colleagues — although they still must negotiate a terrifying 'Battle of Antediluvian Creatures'.

However, reunited in belief and endeavour the expedition drives ever upwards — an ascent that results on a climatic release from the Stromboli volcano in southern Italy and a triumphant return home with a tale unlike any other to tell.

Iwan Fox