10091 Fantasia on British Sea Songs

Traditional/Henry Wood/Roger Harvey

10-piece brass ensemble

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Price: £30.00

Programme note:
Henry Wood arranged his selection of Sea Songs in 1905 to celebrate the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and it has been an almost permanent fixture in the programme of the Last Night of the Proms ever since providing the audience with an opportunity to join in with singing, clapping and other antics.
This arrangement is a slightly refreshed version using the original Wood selection of melodies and, as in Wood's version, features various members of the ensemble in solo capacities.
The tunes are:
The Saucy Arethusa
Tom Bowling
Jack's the Lad (Sailor's Hornpipe)
The Spanish Ladies
Home Sweet Home
See, the Conquering Hero Comes
Rule, Brittania.

Performance note:

Trumpet 1 requires a smaller trumpet for some passages.
Trumpet 4 requires a flugel
Trombone 3 requires a Euphonium
The solos, Tom Bowling, Spanish Ladies and Home Sweet Home can be played very sentimentally with rubato, hammed up slightly if wished.
The trumpet cadenza (which is in 2nd trumpet but also cued in 1st trumpet) can be extended and improvised as much as desired for comic effect; the other players can become increasingly bored or impatient with the indulgent soloist.

The original Wood harmonisation of Spanish Ladies is appended in case this is preferred to the new version.