Composer Spotlight | Edward Gregson
From Royalty to Rejoicing: Celebrating the Brass Band Music of Edward Gregson
Who is Edward Gregson?
For most of us in the brass band and indeed the wider musical world, Edward Gregson is someone who needs very little introduction. But for those of us who haven’t been acquainted, here’s a quick overview.
Gregson was born in Sunderland in 1945. He studied piano and composition at London’s Royal Academy of music, graduating in 1967. He went on to become an internationally-renowned, award-winning composer who has written for a range of ensembles, including orchestras, chamber ensembles and choirs and has composed for theatre, film and television. Within the brass band community, Gregson’s musical contributions have been instrumental (pardon the pun), as he has created some of the most notable and beloved works for the brass band medium.
My Top 5 Favourite Major Works For Brass Band by Edward Gregson
With such a long list of incredible works to his name, it felt like an impossible task to narrow down and rank a top five to cover in this blog. So, I’ve picked five of my favourites (which was almost as difficult) to explore. So, in no particular order, let’s take a look through some of my favourite Edward Gregson pieces.
The Plantagenets (1973)
This was the first Edward Gregson piece that I ever played, back in 2011 for the Fleetwood Contest with Old Hall Brass.
The piece was written specifically for the 1973 National Brass Band Championships. As the title suggests, The Plantagenets aims to capture the the mood and character of the House of Plantagenet; a royal era that lasted from the middle of the 12th century to the end of the fourteenth. It’s an incredibly descriptive piece of music with fanfare motifs and lush swathes of chordal textures that perfectly capture the majesty of the Plantagenet era. Despite its illustrative nature, Gregson emphasises in his composer note that The Plantagenets isn’t a piece of programme music. Instead, it’s intended to embody the feelings of that particular age.
The piece begins with a fanfaric, rhythmic section. It conjures images of knights marching their horses through a busy castle keep; banners flying, trumpets sounding, sun glinting off armour. It then moves into a more melancholic, slow movement with tender solo moments from euphonium and cornet. The piece then heads towards the end with a vivace fugue lead by cornet, flugel and euphonium, building up a canon-style texture. I always pictured the bubble of conversation and the pomp and circumstance of a royal court - ruffs, petticoats and gossip. The piece then builds into an absolute stunner of a maestoso finale, featuring the themes found throughout the piece. It’s a big, emotive, warm ending to what is a cinematic, vibrant masterpiece.
Variations on Laudate Dominum (1976)
I was introduced to this work in 2012 when Old Hall prepared it for a contest at Preston Guild Hall. Featuring big homophonic, chordal moments, detail-rich technical sections and beautiful melodic passages, it’s a very enjoyable piece for both player and audience.
The piece was commissioned for the 1976 British tour of the London Citadel Band from Canada. Originally, the work was made up of an introduction, 5 distinct variations and a finale. In 2007, Gregson revisited the piece to add two more variations - a waltz and a tarantella. Each movement has its own distinct character, building towards a triumphant, majestic finale. It’s a fun, yet powerful work that shows what can be done with a humble hymn tune.
Essay for Brass Band
I was introduced Gregson’s ‘Essay for Brass Band’ when it was chosen as the set work for the first section at the 2016 Regional Championships. It’s a work of contrasting moods, featuring some stunning solo moments. I admit, I wasn’t really a fan of this piece when I first played it, but nearly ten years later, I now appreciate how clever it is and its one of my firm favourites. I clearly needed to grow up a bit!
Essay was commissioned in 1971 for the short-lived WD&HO Wills Championship at the Royal Albert Hall. The piece is made up of three movements all named after literary elements.
The first, Dialogue, is made up of a series of ‘conversations’ between instruments around the stand. These conversations are constructed out of an opening theme introduced by cornets and euphoniums followed by a second theme introduced by the flugelhorn a little later on in the movement.
The second movement is entitled Soliloquy and is dedicated to the composer, Gilbert Vinter, whom Gregson regards as a composer who ‘did so much in the 1960s to bring the brass band into the modern world’. It’s a moving section of the piece that is quite melancholic in nature with a sprinkling of beautiful solo lines and detailed melodic moments.
Epigram is the final movement that brings the piece to a close. It springs into action with a bold introduction into the main theme of this movement from the trombones. It’s a rhythmic, lively close to a piece of such contrasting moods, with fast-paced technical sections, loud dynamics and an exciting feel throughout.
Of Distant Memories (2012)
The subtitle of this test piece is ‘Music in an Olden Style’ and this piece does just that, paying homage to the writing styles of composers, such as Percy Fletcher, Gustav Holst, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells and John Ireland. The piece was commissioned by Black Dyke Band and the Worshipful Company of Musicians to commemorate the centenary of the 1913 National Brass Band Championships, which exhibited the performance of the first original test piece for brass band - Labour and Love by Percy Fletcher. When writing this work, Gregson wanted to pay homage to not only Labour and Love, but some of the other early test pieces that were written in the early decades of the last century. In his programme notes, he writes:
“I decided to write a work which paid tribute, not only to that particular work, but also to some of those other early test-pieces written in the first few decades of the twentieth century, and which still form the backbone of the brass band repertoire.”
As a fan of the composers Gregson pays tribute to in this piece, obviously it makes sense that this makes my list of favourites.
Let’s start with the format of the piece. Similar to many of those early pieces, Of Distant Memories is written as a tone poem with more modern percussion than what would have been used in those earlier days of banding, although still modest by today’s standards. The solo moments in this work are STUNNING for the listener, but quite tricky in areas for the soloists.
However, it isn’t any one component that makes this piece one of my favourites, rather it's the very essence of the piece. Gregson has managed to capture the character, emotions and vibe of these early works that made up the foundation of our movement. It makes me nostalgic for a time I never experienced, which sounds weird I know, but as a lover of brass bands and brass band history I love this musical tribute to our heritage. If there was ever a movie made about brass band history, this would be a triumphant soundtrack for that.
The World Rejoicing (2020)
The banding world did rejoice when this piece was finally performed after delays caused by the pandemic. The World Rejoicing was commissioned by the National Brass Band Associations of Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the British Open for their respective competitions in 2020/2021, which were then postponed until 2021/2022. I had the pleasure of listening to the piece’s UK premiere at the 2022 British Open and then had the even bigger pleasure of performing it at the Grand Shield the following year.
In terms of format, the piece is written in a style that Gregson has used many times, which is the form of Variations, this time based on the hymn, Now Thank We All Our God. However, unlike a straight set of variations, such as his earlier work, Variations on Laudate Dominum, Gregson has taken phrases from the initial chorale used at the beginning of the piece and used them in different settings. The piece is played straight through the following sections
Prelude
Capriccio
La Danza 1
Processional
La Danza 2
Arias and Duets
Fuga Burlesca
Chorale
Postlude
This piece is, in my opinion, quintessentially, Gregson. As a bander who has grown up playing and admiring his music, I truly appreciated that little moment when I noticed a hint or quote from his other works. It’s like when you watch a Disney movie and you spot a little easter egg - I just loved it. Gregson does describe the work as partly autobiographical, saying in his programme notes:
"The World Rejoicing sums up a particular facet of my life as a composer, and reflects the admiration I have always had for what is surely one of the great amateur music-making traditions in the world.”
I have to admit that I got a bit teary when I read the above quote in the programme notes for this piece. In the world of fashion they say that you could tell that Christian Dior loved women as every stitch, cut and element emulated his admiration and desire to empower women. The same can be said for Edward Gregson - in a brass banding context! You can hear, sense and feel in every note of Gregson’s work the love he has for our medium and as a performer to play music by a composer where there is a mutual admiration between them and us is incredibly empowering.
Edward Gregson: A Brass Band Legend
With a musical portfolio as extensive and revered as Edward Gregson, there are so many more pieces I could have explored with you, such as Connotations, Of Men and Mountains Rococo Variations and Dances and Arias (we will be covering this in the run up to the Spring Festival) but we would be here all day. So, I do apologise if your favourite didn’t make the list. There’s always the opportunity to explore those in the future though!
For now, all that’s left to say is here’s to you Edward Gregson and your wonderful music.
I’m so looking forward to hearing more of Gregson’s music, both old and new at the 2025 RNCM International Brass Band Festival.
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Disclaimer
The image of Edward Gregson is by Simon McComb from https://edwardgregson.com/ and is included here for educational and commentary purposes under the principles of fair use. This blog aims to celebrate and promote the work of Edward Gregson, providing analysis and insight for the brass band community. If there are concerns regarding the use of these images, please contact me at itsnotatrumpet@gmail.com, and I will address them promptly.
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