Duration: 30 Pieces
Price: £150 (20% off – £120 if you own ‘A Standard Background’)
Difficulty: Grade 5-8 Students // Professionals to sight-read
Instrumentation: Brass Quintet (Standard)
(2 Trumpets in Bb, French Horn, Trombone and Tuba)

After the thrilling continued success of ‘A Standard Background’ – an hour of Jazz/Latin/Ballad readable arrangements for Brass Quintet background gigs, my colleagues and customers have motivated me to the creation of a new thematic set.

After a particularly difficult Church service where the quintet I was guesting with were scrambling for appropriate (and sight-readable) pieces, difficult tatty sheet music was handed out in old folders with items missing for the main event. Plus we were swapping transpositions and trumpets far too frequently for it to be comfortable. I figured that I wanted to create a new set to simplify these regular occasions, and thus the Chapel Collection was born!

30 pieces and nearly 90 minutes of music, this set is split into 4 easy to navigate parts:

Processionals
Chorales
Angelic Melodies
Joyful Sacred Music

+ The National Anthem of the UK ‘God Save the Queen’ with the official Jacobs Fanfare/Harmonisation

1) Processionals:
These 6 classics are big openers, wedding aisle music and triumphant proclamations for any cathedral service of importance. They are all arranged into brass-friendly keys to avoid a piccolo trumpet bust-up when there’s potentially hymns, anthems, descants and other big items to play in your service. This sections includes a comfortable yet flashy ‘brilliant’ sound that anyone can perform to make a big impression.

Charpentier – Prelude, Te Deum H.146
Stanley- Trumpet Voluntary Op.6.5
Purcell – Trumpet Tune in D
Mouret – Rondeau from ‘Sinfonie de Fanfares’
Mendelssohn – Bridal March from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Op. 61
Wagner – Bridal March from ‘Lohengrin’ WWV 75

2) Chorales:
The 9 items are perfect for ‘Oh, could the brass just play a bit before the service?’. Gorgeous and warm mood-setting sacred music of varying musical periods, arranged sensitively with bars rest, comfortable keys and breaths/leading/cues all fully marked in. I’ve also avoided too much fugal material which takes extra concentration on a sight-reading event.

De Lassus – Kyrie – ‘Mass of Sweet Memories’
De Lassus – Agnus Dei – ‘Mass of Sweet Memories’
Byrd – Ave Verum Corpus
Mendelssohn – Psalm 43 Op. 78
Bruckner – Locus Iste WAB 23
Stanford – Justorum Anime Op. 38
Elgar – Nimrod (Lux Aeterna) Op. 36
Mahler – ‘Resurrection’ Chorale from Symphony No. 2
Duruflé – Ubi Caritas et Amor Op. 10

3) Angelic Melodies:
In case a spotlight is being put on the group for an offertory, register-signing or service solo item, these 8 gorgeous audience-favourites are built to require no rehearsal and sound truly glorious in a larger acoustic.

Handel – Eternal Source of Light Divine HWV 74
Mendelssohn – O For the Wings of a Dove WoO 15
Fauré – Pie Jesu – Requiem Op. 48
Vaughan-Williams – O Taste and See How Gracious the Lord Is
Franck – Panis Angelicus Op. 12
Wagner -Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral – ‘Lohengrin’ WWV 75
Caccini – Ave Maria
Schubert – Ave Maria Op.52

4) Joyful Sacred Music
Perfect for end of service fun, recessionals, celebrations, the group won’t have to worry about keeping a lid on the volume as the congregation talk over your exceptional playing.

Handel – Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Handel – Hallelujah Chorus
Bach – Gloria from ‘B Minor Mass’
Schubert – Gloria from ‘Mass No 1’
Vivaldi – Gloria in Excelsis
Mozart – Exsultate Jubilate

5) The UK National Anthem
Just in case your event gets a bit patriotic (apologies to my overseas customers whom I love dearly) the classic introductory fanfare will rouse the public to their feet for a standard 1 verse rendition with the Gordon Jacob Harmonies – so it will also fit if the organ has this official version.

Helpful arranging guarantees for those with no rehearsal:
The following have been considered with careful scrutiny. I approach every part as a player first, composer second, and so I know what it feels like to be betrayed by the page in front of you.

Page Turns
Either none at all or with plenty of time!

Durations
Just in case you get the ‘nod’ from management that there’s only a minute or 2 left

Key choices
So repertoire sits on your instrument in the perfect range.

No instrument swapping
Trumpeters, leave the piccolos and sops at home, you can do it all on your Bb comfortably!

No mutes
They’re always annoying to remember and embarrassing to drop on the hard chapel floors…

Breaths, cues and ‘lead’ marks
For those who don’t know the piece they are playing.

Rehearsal Marks
In all those obvious cadences/sections or quick pre-service blowthroughs.

I hope, for approximately one single gig fee, that this incredible collection (the largest I’ve ever amassed) can give your quintet something truly winsome for your events. I know ASBackground has done that for my groups, we always have it ready on the iPads, and now this set will sit with it!

Ryan Linham
Summer 2022

Kensington Brass Perform Fauré – Pie Jesu

Kensington Brass perform ‘A Chapel Collection’ LIVE at Winchester Cathedral

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