Tom Davoren Music Publishing - Music Store
Wind Orchestra
Solo Instrument
Brass Band
Embers - Brass Band - 4mins - Grade 3
Composed in 2015 Embers is a short, lyrical concert work which evokes the subtle glow of a camp fire just after the final flame has withered.
The piece received it’s official premiere in Gothenburg on 7th November 2015, performed by Windcorp Band at their 10th Jubilee concert and conducted by the composer. An original sketch for this piece was composed for Belgian conductor, bass trombonist and friend of the composer, Geert Van Looy.
Difficulty: 3
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Publisher: Tom Davoren Music
Catalogue Number: TD0005
Email: [email protected]
Legacy - Brass Band - Full Set - Grade 4
The idea for 'Legacy' was originally conceived in 2018 as a short work celebrating the life and achievements of Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan and the 70th Anniversary of the British National Health Service. The work was commissioned by Tredegar Town Band, supported by funding from Ty Cerdd, and premiered in the Speaker's Room of the Houses of Parliament featuring their soprano cornet soloist, Ian Roberts. This test piece version, created for the 2020 Regional Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, was born from my desire to tell a more complete version of Bevan's story.
In three continuous sections 'Legacy' is not only symbolic of Bevan's aspirational politics and character, but also of the experience of anyone whose life has been impacted by our NHS; something of which I can speak of personally. The primary goal of the piece is to present bands with music that offers them the opportunity to create a performance with feeling as its driver. Whilst a sound foundation in technique is obviously required to achieve this convincingly, creating a complete emotional picture should be the primary concern of bands and conductors.
The opening represents a need waiting to be filled. Whilst the pace, rhythmic content, colour and dynamic layout of the music seeks to create an atmosphere of foreboding, the choice of interval, style and phrase length of the melody is designed to offer a constant sense of underlying assurance. The central section is very much the core of the piece, representing the balance of hope and adversity as experienced by anyone who has been touched directly by our NHS. Again, it's a pacing of tension through dynamic, orchestration and in intensity of execution, that seeks to create this feeling. The final section is a march to progress, representing Bevan's relentless championing of social justice. Hopefully fittingly, the music here is generated entirely from material born in the earlier sections of the piece.
'No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.' (Aneurin Bevan, 1952)
Tom Davoren (Cardiff / Brooklyn, 2019)
Difficulty: 4
Duration: c. 12 minutes
Publisher: Tom Davoren Music
Catalogue Number: TD0038
Email: [email protected]
Proclamation - Brass Band - 4 minutes - Grade 4
Proclamation is based on the popular hymn tune, ‘Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus’. It was commissioned by the New York Staff Band of the Salvation Army, for performance at their 131st Annual Festival.
Difficulty: 5
Duration: c. 8 minutes
Publisher : Tom Davoren Music
Pure of Heart - Brass Band - 4mins - Grade 4
Pure of Heart was commissioned for the Burry Port Town Band by the organisers of Cydweli 900, a community initiative set up to celebrate the history of the town of Kidwelly in it’s 900th anniversary year, 2015. Generous support for the commission was given thanks to legacy funding from the now disbanded Mynyddygarreg Silver Prize Band.
The piece itself is popular in style, celebrating the long established connection between Kidwelly and Mynyddygarreg, whose rail linked coal mine and tin plate works were symbiotic during their industrial heyday.
The sound of an industrial landscape and railway are referenced through the band’s percussion section, who at one stage play a selection of metal bars, piping and anvils. The hymn tune ‘Calon Lan’, written by well known West Wales composer John Hughes (1872 - 1914), was chosen as the main source of thematic material as a reflection of the connection between community music making and heavy industry in Wales and beyond. Interestingly, John Hughes himself had a
background as a steel worker as well as being a church organist and hymn tune composer.
The composer and Burry Port Town Band congratulate the town of Kidwelly on this milestone
anniversary.
Difficulty: 4
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Publisher: Tom Davoren Music
Catalogue Number: TD0003
Email: [email protected]
Revelry - Brass Band - Grade 5 - 6mins
Revelry was commissioned by the Brighouse and Rastrick Band as the finale of the Brass in Concert programme, based on Norse gods and mythology, in 2019.
Opening with a moment of reflection for off stage trombone trio and Eb bass, tribute is paid to fallen comrades. As the full band enters sounds of magic fill the air, as the gods of Asgard bless the battlefield with their magic, leading to a grand and raucous celebration of victory.
Difficulty: 4
Duration: c. 6 minutes
Publisher : Tom Davoren Music
Riding to Olwen - Brass Band - 4mins - Grade 4
The brass band version of Riding to Olwen was composed in 2016 for the Brassband Buizingen and their director Dr. Luc Vertommen.
The piece falls into a specific area of Tom Davoren’s output focusing on stories from ‘The Mabinogion’, a book of Welsh folklore and earliest recorded prose literature in the British Isles. Olwen is the beautiful daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr. A spell of infatuation for Olwen is cast on Prince Cullwch son of Cilydd, who is then charged by the giant with completing a series of impossible tasks to win her hand. This music is Tom’s imagining of the riding of Cullwch and his knight’s on their first quest; rampant, adrenaline field and laced with anticipation.
The opening theme (Olwen’s theme) and subject matter is also the focus of Tom’s trumpet sonata, ‘Trails for Olwen.’
Difficulty: 4
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Publisher: Tom Davoren Music
Catalogue Number: TD00014
Email: [email protected]
Valaisia Variants - Brass Band - Grade 5
Valaisa Variants was commissioned by the renowned European and Swiss national champions Valaisia Brass Band for their performance at the Gala Concert of the 2019 European Brass Band Championships in Montreux, Switzerland.
The music itself is a balance of sweeping cinematic style melody and driving rhythm, with features for solo cornet, tenor horn and euphonium.
Difficulty: 5
Duration: c. 4 minutes
Publisher : Tom Davoren Music
Ascension - Trumpet, Euphonium and Brass Band - 8mins - Grade 5/6
Ascension takes it’s name from the inspirational phenomenon that was Felix felix Baumgartner’s 2012 ’Red Bull Stratos Jump’; the first free fall sky dive made from inside the stratosphere. In an age where the stimulation of mass media is so prevalent, it is a rare thing for a single event to captivate the global consciousness. However, the sheer magnitude of human endeavour shown by the ‘Stratos’ project achieved just this.
The piece is structured in two continuous sections, representing both the ascending and descending stages of the jump through a gradually unfolding meditation and adrenaline fuelled scherzo. In line with this contrast, the progressive expansion of technical difficulty and intensity of solo lines tries to capture the physical experience felt by Baumgartner himself during the jump.
Ascension was jointly commissioned by the Central Band of the Royal Air Force (UK) and Brass Band of Battle Creek (USA) for performance by soloists Steven Mead and Ben Godfrey.
Difficulty: 5/6
Duration: c. 8 minutes
Publisher: Tom Davoren Music
Catalogue Number: TD0010
Email: [email protected]
Score Only
Legacy - Brass Band - Score
The idea for 'Legacy' was originally conceived in 2018 as a short work celebrating the life and achievements of Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan and the 70th Anniversary of the British National Health Service. The work was commissioned by Tredegar Town Band, supported by funding from Ty Cerdd, and premiered in the Speaker's Room of the Houses of Parliament featuring their soprano cornet soloist, Ian Roberts. This test piece version, created for the 2020 Regional Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, was born from my desire to tell a more complete version of Bevan's story.
In three continuous sections 'Legacy' is not only symbolic of Bevan's aspirational politics and character, but also of the experience of anyone whose life has been impacted by our NHS; something of which I can speak of personally. The primary goal of the piece is to present bands with music that offers them the opportunity to create a performance with feeling as its driver. Whilst a sound foundation in technique is obviously required to achieve this convincingly, creating a complete emotional picture should be the primary concern of bands and conductors.
The opening represents a need waiting to be filled. Whilst the pace, rhythmic content, colour and dynamic layout of the music seeks to create an atmosphere of foreboding, the choice of interval, style and phrase length of the melody is designed to offer a constant sense of underlying assurance. The central section is very much the core of the piece, representing the balance of hope and adversity as experienced by anyone who has been touched directly by our NHS. Again, it's a pacing of tension through dynamic, orchestration and in intensity of execution, that seeks to create this feeling. The final section is a march to progress, representing Bevan's relentless championing of social justice. Hopefully fittingly, the music here is generated entirely from material born in the earlier sections of the piece.
'No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.' (Aneurin Bevan, 1952)
Tom Davoren (Cardiff / Brooklyn, 2019)
A Midwestern Suite - Wind Orchestra - Score
A Midwestern Suite was commissioned in 2020 by a consortium of 16 universities and high schools from the midwestern states of the USA. In three separate movements, Prairie, Storm, and Sunset, the suite seeks to represent in music aspects of the midwest noted for their respective grandeur and beauty. The thematic material of each movement is based on the classic western folk song , ‘Home on the Range’, and a number of popular midwestern tunes are hidden through the work in an incidental manner.
