March from the Moorside Suite
Gustav Holst, arr. Ben Tordoff
Composed:
1927 Arranged:
2021 Grouping:
sSAATTBb Duration:
03:55
Gustav Holst was a trombonist as well as a composer and no stranger to writing for military or concert bands. It is odd then that the "Moorside Suite" was his only direct composition for brass band, written for the 1928 national brass band contest. It is still used as a test piece for brass bands today.
The triumphant concluding march from the Moorside Suite looks deceptively simple, but is difficult to play well at speed. It achieves colour by using different mixtures of upper and lower parts and features moving phrases across the parts, making for some tricky ensemble playing. Here we reduce the all-brass original down to an all-saxophone octet, ideally with sopranino and bass to get the full range but with soprano and baritone alternatives if required.
© 2021 Ben Tordoff
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