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Alexander McCall Smith is the bestselling author of over sixty books including the celebrated No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. His 44 Scotland Street Series, which appears in the Scotsman newspaper and is published in full by Polygon, has also been enjoying considerable success. The light-hearted series concerns itself with the comings and goings of an eclectic group of Edinburgh residents and has received wide critical acclaim.
This work is the result of a collaboration between author and composer, McCall Smith's specially created narration, which captures the personalities and foibles of the Scotland Street residents, providing the inspiration for the following set of character variations:

Domenica Macdonald (anthropologist - represented by an "exotic" tango)
Bruce Anderson (notorious narcissist - represented by a pompous march)
Pat McGregor (love sick flatmate of Bruce - represented by a love theme)
Bertie (6 year old jazz-loving saxophone-playing prodigy - represented by a cakewalk)
Irene Pollock/Dr Fairbairn (Bertie's pushy mother and her co-conspirator, Bertie's psychoanalyst - represented by Wagner)
Cyril the dog (the only dog in Scotland with a gold tooth)

"The result is immense fun, beautifully envisaged by Graham’s lively score, and performed with such gusto and humour by the talented young performers of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. I am grateful to all of them for helping me to see my characters afresh."

Alexander McCall Smith

Note: The narration can be spoken/acted or if preferred printed/projected as a programme note to accompany the variations

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Extracts performed by The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Wind Orchestra and Alasdair Hankinson, narrator. Conductor Nigel Boddice MBE. Full recording available from Nimbus Alliance NI6175

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This trumpet and trombone feature was written to celebrate the re-opening of the Preußenflügel at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany on the 27th April 2005.

Premiered by the Folkwang Brass Band, conductor by Heinrich Schmidt.

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Scotland's greatest storyteller, Robert Burns, was born in Alloway, near Ayr in 1759, and died in 1796. This arrangement of three of his best songs includes an optional part for speaker (Scots accent preferred!)

The first song is a portrait of Duncan Gray, who rides into the village to woo Maggie. After some initial misgivings on Maggie's part, wedding bells are in the air, and both live happily ever after. The second portrait is of Mary Campbell, who lies asleep by the gently flowing Afton Water. This is one of the most beautiful of Burns' settings, and in this arrangement the flugel horn is featured. The final song, The De'il's awa wi th' Exciseman, sees the scourge of the village, the customs man, spirited away by the Devil in a flurry of dust and hooves. They leave behind some very happy villagers who waste no time in celebrating their good fortune with jigs, drums and fun galore.

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Call of the Cossacks is part of the series of “travelogue” features by Peter Graham, following in the footsteps of Cry of the Celts and Windows of the World. The Cossacks were a nomadic people whose ethnic makeup included Ukrainians, Tartars, Poles and Jews. A similarly wide range of Eastern European folk music features in this work, from Gypsy to Klezmer.

Movement 1, Procession of the Tartars is cast in the old-style band “patrol” and adapts a Klezmer folk song Fun Tashlach.
The second movement, Doyle's Lament, is an original melody featuring solo alto saxophone while the final movement, Cossack Wedding Dance, is deep in Fiddler on the Roof territory - a pot pourri of Klezmer, Gypsy and Cossack styles.
Each movement can be programmed separately.

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Originally written for percussionist Evelyn Glennie's Grammy-nominated Album 'Reflected in Brass', this wind band version is arranged in the style of Scott Bradley, for long the doyen of composers of music for animation. His `Tom and Jerry' scores reference a wide range of music, from Liszt to Schoenberg via Tin Pan Alley. Sharp-eared listeners will catch similar quotes in Cartoon Music. (Recorded on DOYCD 132)

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Catnap is part of Cats Tales (see below) which pays tribute to four wonderful musicians who shared a love of jazz and New York City. New York born George Gershwin provides the inspiration for Catnap which is a jazz “contrafact” treatment of one of his most familiar songs. (Features solo trombone).

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Cats Tales pays tribute to four wonderful musicians who shared a love of jazz and New York City.

Film composer Elmer Bernstein is remembered in 1) Catalonia before a musical gear change that references the work of his contemporary colleague, “Bernstein East”, aka Leonard Bernstein. The presence of West Side Story looms large here.

Henry Mancini's most famous composition (which concerned a cat of the pink variety) provides the inspiration for the 2nd movement, 2) Catwalk before saxophone legend Sonny Rollins’s jazz standard Airegin is given a contrafact treatment in 3) Scat! allowing a number of instrumental soloists to shine.

NB: The suite can be extended by including the trombone solo Catnap (see above) and the Toccata (see below), available separately (.

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From Call of the Cossacks (see above), Cossack Fire Dance, based on the folk song Mazeltov, brings to mind part of the Jewish wedding ceremony. Introduced by a Klezmer clarinet call, the music gives reign to the virtuosity of a variety of soloists.

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The finale from Call of the Cossacks (see above).

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By huge demand this spectacular concert suite is now available for wind band. Contains 5 movements: 1) Nightmare, (includes Lord of the Dance and Stolen Kiss) 2) Suil a Ruin, 3) Breakout, 4) Lament, and 5) Victory. Featured by the Royal Norwegian Navy Band. (Recorded on DOYCD 083)

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The latest in a series of "world music" features by Peter Graham (including Cry of the Celts, Windows of the World and Call of the Cossacks), the concert band version of Day of the Dragon was commissioned by the Welsh Amateur Music Federation for the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales with additional funds from the Arts Council of Wales and PRS Foundation.

The first performance was given by the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales, conductor Frank Renton, in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, on April 7 2005.

The five movements are based on traditional Welsh Folk Songs and feature solos for flute, trombone (or bassoon), horn, flugel, euphonium : 1) Overture (Ar lan y mor, Hunting the Hare) 2) Lullaby (Suo Gan) 3) Welsh Clog Dance 4) Ballad (By Kell's Waters) 5) Triumph (Men of Harlech)

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Harrison's Dream was commissioned by the USAF Band in 2000 and won the American Bandmasters Association/Ostwald Prize in 2002. Since its publication by Warner Bros in 2003 it has quickly become a standard repertoire piece for advanced concert bands.

This extract allows a wider range of bands to share in the moving central theme, described by the composer as “the emotional core of the music”.

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Gaelforce follows in Cry of the Celts style, and using three traditional folk tunes exploits the colour and variety of the modern wind band. Firstly, the slip jig, The Rocky Road to Dublin features the woodwind section. The Minstrel Boy, and the final reel, Tossing the Feathers, have both recently enjoyed renewed popularity courtesy of The Corrs. The Minstrel Boy here features the solo flugel horn in contrast with woodwind choir and mellow voices, while Tossing the Feathers is something of a tour de force for drums, woodwind, and eventually the whole band.

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This beautiful maori melody made popular by Hayley Westenra and others is now available in arrangement for wind band. Features flugel (or trumpet) to begin, rises to a full band climax and fades into the distance.

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The famous Canon by 16th century English composer Thomas Tallis provides the basis for this prelude. Following a stirring introductory fanfare, the theme is passed between brass and woodwind before the entire ensemble brings the work to an exciting conclusion.

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2005 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne, and the event inspired Peter Graham to write a musical tribute to the author described as the "father of science fiction."

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is one of Verne's best known works. The novel takes the form of a sequence of diary entries by Axel, nephew of Professor Otto Lidenbrock. The pair follow coded instructions in a old document guiding them to Iceland where, together with their guide Hans, they enter the open crater of an extinct volcano Snæfells and pursue a trail to the centre of the earth. There follows “hair-breadth ‘scapes and ventures perilous” as the intrepid explorers encounter a vast interior world.

Peter Graham has taken some of the key scenes from the book and set them as a sequence of symphonic extracts. The subtitles are; (I) Snæfells, (II) Descent, (III) The Wonders of the Terrestrial Depths, (IV) The Day of Rest, (V) Lost in the Labyrinth, (VI) The Whispering Gallery, (VII) Rescue from the Abyss, (VIII) Battle of the Antediluvian Creatures and Ascent, (IX) Homecoming.

The wind band transcription of Journey to the Centre of the Earth was commissioned by Yukihiro Higuchi and the premiere recording given by Osaka Municipal Symphonic Wind Band (Japan), conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama in February 2006.

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Jules Verne's novel (in translation) can be downloaded from www.gutenberg.org

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Lady Stewart’s Air was originally commissioned for Brass Band by David King on behalf of the Federation of Australasian Brass Bands as a tribute to Lady Adrienne Stewart. This wind band arrangement was made in 2014.
Lady Stewart has been a long-standing supporter, promoter, fund-raiser and patron of most arts organizations in New Zealand and has strong links with the brass band community in both New Zealand and Australia.

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Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction epic Metropolis is considered to be a masterpiece of cinematic vision and a high point of German Expressionist filmmaking. Set in a future dystopian world the film introduces the viewer to two contrasting communities living in the vast city of Metropolis. Those above ground live a life of privilege and pleasure serviced by the underground-dwelling drone workers whose role is to maintain and operate the banks of machines which provide the city's power.

Lang's film, which can be considered a type of 20th century morality play, draws upon a range of themes and influences from Marxist ideals and social satire to overt religious symbolism.

The music does not attempt to precis the plot, such as it is, but simply reflects my musical responses to Lang's noirish visual style and set designs – the brooding machine rooms, the decadent nightclubs, the gothic cathedral and so on – paradoxically a world of terrifying beauty.

This version of Metropolis 1927 was commissioned and premiered by "The President's Own" US Marine Band, conducted by Major Michelle A. Rakers

Peter Graham

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Northern Landscapes is scored for professional brass quintet and grade 3/4 wind band and was written as part of an education project sponsored by the Ulster Brass Quintet. The piece is designed to allow advanced players (the quintet) to perform with young musicians (the wind band). In the case of the Ulster Quintet the performance followed master classes and coaching sessions, Northern Landscapes providing the finale to the day's events.

The four movements provide musical mood pictures of various aspects of working life in Northern Ireland. 1) Industry opens the suite with the bustle of factory machinery, followed attacca by 2) Seascapes, which evokes the calmness of local waters during a fishing expedition. 3) Earth Dance references the mining industry where the blackness of the environment is mirrored by the darkness of the music. 4) Flight evokes the path of an aircraft on its maiden journey in this tribute to the aircraft industry.

Northern Landscapes was commissioned by the Ulster Orchestra Society, with funds provided by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Recorded by The Royal Norwegian Navy band, conductor Nigel Boddice on Gaelforce DOYCD132

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“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”
Letter from Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676

The art of brass playing embraces a range of diverse approaches and styles. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the musical melting pot of the USA. On the Shoulders of Giants pays tribute to this diversity and to the great American brass virtuosi whose legacy has provided the foundation for countless brass giants of today.

The opening movement, Fanfares, reflects on the legendary Chicago Symphony Orchestra brass section. It has been suggested that the much-admired and distinctive style of the CSO Brass was initially driven by the Germanic repertoire favoured by the early music directors. Here the opening bars from the finale of Bruckner’s 8th symphony provide the departure point for the musical journey.

The work continues (attacca) with an Elegy. America’s role as the birthplace of jazz and two of her leading brass lights are remembered here – Miles Davis (through the sound world created for him by Gil Evans) – and the father of lyrical trombone playing Tommy Dorsey. In acknowledgement that jazz owes its origins to Negro spirituals, the gospel song Steal Away underpins the movement.

The finale, a Fantasie Brillante, pays homage to the turn of the century brass virtuosi of Sousa Band fame. The centrepiece of the movement finds Herbert L. Clarke, Arthur Pryor and Simone Mantia stepping from the mists of time to deliver snippets from their greatest solos (together with passing references to Sousa’s highest paid soloist, drummer August Helmecke). Moments of individual virtuosity lead to a series of ensemble power chords - giant footsteps in musical imagery - which bring the work to a dramatic conclusion.

On the Shoulders of Giants was commissioned by The Cory Band and The National Youth Brass Band of Wales with additional funding from Ty Cerdd – Music Centre Wales. The transcription for winds was made for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Wind Orchestra, conductor Nigel Boddice, and was first performed by them at the Stevenson Hall Glasgow on October 21 2011.

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Full recording available: On the Shoulders of Giants (Nimbus Alliance NI6175) performed by The RCS Wind Orchestra, conductor Nigel Boddice MBE.

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Commissioned by the West Lothian Schools Wind Band, Pentium was premiered by the group at the 1999 BASBWE Conference held in Manchester, England. Described by conductor Brian Duguid as "a short ride on a PC", Pentium displays some common traits with the minimalist techniques of John Adams. A five-note figure, first heard in the clarinets and saxophones after the opening swirl and flourish, provides the essential building block for the rondo-like movement. Pentium takes it's name from the "silicon glen" where computer chips are manufactured, near the West Lothian Schools Wind Band base.

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The Red Machine was commissioned by the London-based Band of the Coldstream Guards. Among the band's duties is the famous changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace where their reputation for precision marching has led to them being described as the “Red Machine”.

The music reflects the title and heritage of this fine group; from the aggressive, machine-type music of the opening, the contrasting nostalgic French-flavoured waltz through the recapitulation and vivace finale. Listeners may hear references to music associated with the band, from Holst (the Planets) through the opening phrase of the chorale Ein Feste Burg - familiar to British Guards Bands from the troop march Huguenots.

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Seize the Day was written for the London-based International Staff Band of the Salvation Army, conductor Dr Stephen Cobb, the title serving as the theme for the band’s USA West Tour 2010. This version for wind band was made for the Maidstone Wind Symphony in 2012.

As befits music being performed during a trip to the United States the work is based upon three traditional American spirituals. The first, The Gospel Train, is introduced following a carillon-like intrada in trombones and bells with supporting cornet flourishes. Ostinati drive the musical locomotive along until an abrupt halt ushers in another kind of vehicle, the celestial Sweet Chariot, featuring euphonium and trombone soloists.

The finale, Amen, celebrates the arrival at our destination with some tongue-in-cheek West Coast (and Swinging London!) references before a reprise of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot brings the music to a majestic and joyful conclusion.

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Sirocco was commissioned for the Doncaster Concert Band, Musical Director Karen Roberts, by the Hothouse Festival and was premiered at the Festival in March 2007. A Sirocco is a wind that originates in the Sahara and sweeps across the Mediterranean through North Africa to Southern Europe. Taking this route as his inspiration, Peter Graham has fashioned a tour-de-force for band that features three Mediterranean folk songs.

Two of the three movements are well known in their respective countries. Firstly, the fast and furious Tarantella is commonly heard as part of traditional Italian wedding celebrations whilst the Romanza can justifiably lay claim as one of Spain's most enduring melodies, synonymous with the Spanish guitar.

The final movement has its roots in traditional Greek dance music, being a mixture of slow and fast versions of the hasapiko. The best-known example of the form is the famous Zorba's Dance, and in the same manner the Sirtaki's sedate opening bars soon give way to a frenzy of activity as the entire ensemble whip up their own musical storm.

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This work has become something of a modern classic in it's original brass band format. By popular demand the concert band version is now available and is sure to thrill players and audiences alike with it's blend of drama, lyricism and famous blazing finale. Two Salvation Army Church songs are featured; The Candle of the Lord (Joy Webb) and The Light has Come (Chick Yuill).

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Featuring the trumpet and trombone sections, Summon the Dragon was written for The National Youth Band of Wales (Music Director James Watson) in the style of movie composer John Williams. From the opening brass fanfares, through lyrical woodwind passages to the majestic finale, Summon the Dragon is sure to delight audiences.

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Swedish Folk Song, has it's origins in an old Scandinavian melody first adapted by Stuart K. Hine in 1949 to his own sacred hymn, How Great Thou Art. From the quiet opening on the solo flute to the full orchestration of the final statement Graham balances us between echoes of the past and a vibrant present wherein we discover the beauty of the song or hymn, at various levels, once again.

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Three Jazz Pieces was written specifically for young bands of Grade 2 ability and features various popular Latin American and jazz rhythms.

Tuned In allows the whole ensemble to set a driving pace, while Midnight Blues presents a calmer mood evoking a “late night city” atmosphere. The suite concludes with Ready to Rumba, which allows the band to “let their hair down” and enjoy the moment.

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Toccata is part of Cats Tales (see above) which pays tribute to four wonderful musicians who shared a love of jazz and the New York City. New York resident “Bernstein East”, aka Leonard Bernstein, is the inspiration behind Toccata. The presence of Bernstein’s masterpiece West Side Story looms large here.

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Windows of the World, (wind version written for the Royal Norwegian Navy Band), provides solo opportunities for several principal players. Graham takes us first to Latin America, then to Japan, and onwards to sub-Saharan Africa. We get a gentle reprieve via a nostalgic hint of the British Isles before we land in the melting pot of all styles, the USA. In this final movement the driving swing section is abruptly stopped and a drum cadenza leads us back into the opening Latin music, with hints of the other styles as well. Described by Professor Ron Holz as "a global musical village", stylistic diversity is celebrated, and young musicians have fun while learning to master and embrace the performance practice requirements of each.

The six movements 1) Amazonia 2) Rainforest 3) The Rising Sun 4) Drums of Thunder 5) Celtic Dream and 6) Earth Walk can be programmed individually.

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