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Commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes for the
Millennium National Brass Band Championships of Great
Britain
This work was first performed on 21 October 2000
in the Royal Albert Hall,
London
At 8.00pm on the 22nd of October 1707, the
Association, flagship of the Royal Navy, struck rocks off the Scilly
Isles with the loss of the entire crew. Throughout the rest of the evening the
remaining three ships in the fleet suffered the same fate. Only 26 of the
original 1,647 crew members survived. This disaster was a direct result of an
inability to calculate longitude, the most pressing scientific problem of the
time. It pushed the longitude
question to the forefront of the national consciousness and precipitated the
Longitude Act. Parliament funded a prize of £20,000 to anyone whose method or
device would solve the dilemma.
For carpenter and self-taught clockmaker John
Harrison, this was the beginning of a 40 year obsession. To calculate longitude
it is necessary to know the time aboard ship and at the home port or place of
known longitude, at precisely the same moment. Harrison’s dream was to build a
clock so accurate that this calculation could be made, an audacious feat of
engineering.
This work reflects on aspects of this epic tale,
brilliantly brought to life in Dava Sobel’s book Longitude. Much of the
music is mechanistic in tone and is constructed along precise mathematical and
metrical lines. The heart of the work however is human - the attraction of the
£20,000 prize is often cited as Harrison’s motivation. However, the realisation
that countless lives depended on a solution was one which haunted Harrison. The
emotional core of the music reflects on this, and in particular the evening of
22nd October 1707.
Peter Graham
Cheshire
Instrumentation
British Brass Band
Percussion (3 players):
Timpani
(3
Temple blocks, Bass drum)
Percussion 1 (Bass
drum, Snare drum, Bongo, Wood block, Vibraphone, Tam-tam,
Glockenspiel
Percussion 2 (Wood
block, Suspended cymbal, Vibraphone, Snare drum, Tam-tam, Xylophone, Bass drum,
Tubular bells)
In addition, a number of
the brass players play a small handheld bell (eg. an individual wind chime or
suspended metal piece).
©
Copyright 2000 by Gramercy Music (UK)
PO Box
41
Cheadle
Hulme
Cheshire
SK8 5HF
England
Web:
www.gramercymusic.com
Email:
info@gramercymusic.com
Harrison’s
Dream – Peter
Graham
Full
Score:
ISMN M-57017-000-5
Study
Score: ISMN
M-57017-001-2
Parts:
ISMN M-57017-002-9