Grimethorpe Band cond. Frank Renton.
published by Camden Music

The world première of 'Castle in the Sky' by Robin Fiedler on 1st December 2023 at Regent Hall, London. This is performed by the joint forces of the Camden Youth Brass Band and Regent Brass, conducted by Alan Duguid.

This work was made possible through Making Music's 'Adopt a Creator' scheme.

Programme Note: 

Castle in the Sky was written for Regent Brass and Camden Brass Band
for Adopt a Music Creator 2023, using materials from two workshops led
with the bands within the Scheme. Thinking of brass band as a medium,
I wanted to paint the image of something heavy and somewhat imposing,
yet floating and moving flexibly. I associate brass instruments with having
found (or returned to) one’s core as a person and being able to act
and engage with life from a grounded place. The castle, in its role as
the base and centre of a ruling force or entity, is meant as a metaphor for
this core, but it needs to defy gravity and float in order to remain flexible
and open as we grow and go through life. Within the workshops, Regent
Brass was set a task to improvise around images of extraordinary,
alien-looking animals, whereas Camden Brass were imagining themselves
to be superheroes, composing their own theme tunes. Castle in the Sky
means to be an affirming synthesis and representative of the belief that
as people, somewhere between dreaming big and embracing our quirks
and strangenesses, we can become something that defies anything that
pulls us back. (Robin Fiedler, London, August 2023)

Castle In The Sky

Regent Brass conducted by Alan Duguid at the 2009 London and Southern Counties Regional Contest (1st Section)

Pentacle

Regent Brass conducted by Alan Duguid at the 2013 National Finals (Championship Section)

Of Distant Memories

Commissioned by a consortium of five school wind bands and first performed by all five conducted by Clark Rundell at the 1994 BASBWE Conference in Manchester, Flying God Suite is in three contrasting movements the last of which refers more to an old American marching rhythm than what we might think of as a Quickstep. The title is an obscure literary reference!

Roma (Valerie Coleman)

Alan Duguid

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