Hymn of the Highlands, written by Phillip Sparke, was commission for the Yorkshire Building Society for band by David King for the first performance at the European Brass Band Championships in Brussels in 2002. The piece was made for the purpose of producing an extended and themed piece that can act as a half concert to feature soloist when played in full. There are many different arrangements of the piece, mainly for the purpose of time. The full piece consists of 7 movements and is about 35 minutes, Different arrangements include a wind ensemble suite (3 movements) , brass ensembles, and soloists (euphonium, horn, cornet, flugelhorn horn).
The seven movements are based off of places in Scotland. The seven movements are; Ardross Castle, Summer Isles(Euphonium solo), Flowerdale (Soprano Cornet solo), Strathcarron (Sword Dance), Lairg Muir (Cornet solo), Alladale (Flugel Horn, Horn and Baritone trio), and Dundonnell (Finale). The first movements is named after a small village near Ardross in Easter Ross. It starts with calls in the distant from brass before the idea of the bagpipe is introduced. Summer Isles and Flowerdale are two solo movements; coming from a small group of islands off the northwest coast of Scotland famous for wildlife, and a forest is Western Ross with a famous waterfall. Strathcarron is a sword dance coming from the village at the head of Loch Carron, which is near the Isle of Skye. This movement features the entire band, alternating between slow and fast tempos imitating a sword fight. The cornet solo is based on the village of Lairg on Lock Shin and surrounded by heather moors. This is then followed by the well known brass trio, featuring a percussion accompaniment, Alladale. The river Alladale is a tributary of the Carron which leads out into the Dornoch Fifth of the east coast. The final movement, Dundonnell (one of my favorites) is named after a cute little village at the head of Little Loch Broom, which lead out to the ocean near Summer Isles. The final movement starts out in a martial mood, but then breaks out into a fast presto. The bagpipe theme from the first movement returns once again before the presto crashes.
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