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Comedy Overture

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Genre: Band
# of Players: Standard
Level: 5 | Duration: 10:30
Publisher: G & M Brand | Copyright: 1987

Download mp3 | Click on images to left for score sample

Price:
$130.00
Item #:
R10004
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Notes & Instrumentation
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  • Notes & Instrumentation

    A slow introduction gives way to the "chirpy" theme which is developed, inverted, and accents displaced across the bar line to give a 3/2 feel against the written meter. Restlessness leads to a tranquillo presented by the flute and clarinet, weaving a flowing counterpoint around the melody until the original slow introduction returns. A triumphant recapitulation of the main theme brings the wonderful Comedy Overture to an end.

    Genre: Band | # of Players: Standard
    Level: 5 | Duration: 10:30

    Instrumentation
    Piccolo
    1st Flute
    2nd Flute
    1st Oboe
    2nd Oboe*
    1st Bb Clarinet
    2nd Bb Clarinet
    3rd Bb Clarinet
    Eb Alto Clarinet*
    Bb Bass Clarinet
    1st Bassoon
    2nd Bassoon*
    1st Eb Alto Saxophone
    2nd Eb Alto Saxophone
    Bb Tenor Saxophone
    Eb Baritone Saxophone*

    1st F Horn
    2nd F Horn
    3rd F Horn
    4th F Horn
    1st Bb Cornet
    2nd Bb Cornet
    3rd Bb Cornet
    1st Bb Trumpet
    2nd Bb Trumpet
    1st Trombone
    2nd Trombone
    Bass Trombone
    Euphonium
    (TC Baritone)
    Tuba

    String Bass*

    Percussion 1 (snare drum, suspended cymbal)
    Percussion 2 (bass drum, suspended cymbal, triangle)
    Timpani

    Parts marked with an asterisk (*) are NOT ESSENTIAL, although their presence will obviously enable a fuller realization of the composer's intention to be achieved.

    Program Notes
    Originally composed for Brass Band in 1934, Comedy Overture is, despite its name, a serious piece of writing. The term Overture does not imply that there is anything else to follow; it is used in the 19th century sense of Concert Overture (like Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave" - in other words, a miniature Tone Poem).

    The 1930's was a period of Ireland's mature writing - yielding the Piano Concerto (1930), the Legend for piano and orchestra (1933), and the choral work "These Things Shall Be" (1936-1937). We are fortunate therefore to have both "Comedy Overture" and "A Downland Suite" (1932) written for band medium at this time.

    As with "Maritime Overture" (written in 1944 for military band) Ireland approaches his material symphonically. The opening three notes state immediately the two seminal intervals of a semitone and a third. These are brooding and dark in Bb minor. It is these intervals which make up much of the thematic content of "Comedy," sometimes appearing in inverted form, and sometimes in major forms as well.

    The concept that some musical intervals are consonant , some dissonant, and some perfect is perhaps useful in understanding the nature of the tension and resolution of this work. The third is inherently unstable, and by bar 4, the interval is expanded to a fourth - with an ascending sem-quaver triplet - and then expanded to a fifth. The instability of the third pushes it towards a "perfect" resolution in the fourth or the fifth.

    The slow introduction is built entirely around these intervals in Bb minor and leads through an oboe cadenza, to an Allegro moderato brillante in Bb major.

    Once again, the semi-tone (inverted) and a third (major) comprise the main, chirpy, theme-inspired by a London bus-conductor's cry of "Piccadilly." (Much of the material in "Comedy" was re-conceived by Ireland for orchestra and published two years later under the title "A London Overture.")

    The expansion of the interval of a third through a fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh now takes place quickly before our very ears at the outset of this quicker section.

    Immediately the theme is developed, inverted, and accents displaced across the bar line to give a 3/2 feel against the written meter. But this restlessness leads to a tranquillo built around an arpeggio figure and presented by flute and clarinet. Ireland weaves his flowing counterpoint around this melody until the original slow introduction returns leading to a stretto effect as the rising bass motifs become more urgent, requesting a resolution of the tension of that original semitone and minor third.

    Yet resolution is withheld at this point as the music becomes almost becalmed in a further, unrelated tranquillo section marked pianissimo. It is almost as if another side of Ireland's nature is briefly allowed to shine through the stern counterpoint and disciplined structure.

    This leads to virtually a full recapitulation of the chirpy "brilliante," with small additional touches of counterpoint, followed by the first tranquillo section-this time in the tonic of Bb major. But the instability of the third re-asserts itself, this time demanding a resolution. And a triumphant resolution it receives, for it finally becomes fully fledged and reiterates the octave in a closing vivace. The opening tension has at last resolved itself into the most perfect interval of all.

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