This work was commissioned for the 1971 Farnham Festival, for performance by the orchestra of Frensham Heights School conducted by Bryan Northcott. It is a large work that uses orchestration as the main intellectual driving force. (Parts only)Number of Players: 12Difficulty: Grade 5Instrumentation: Player I: Flute Player II: Oboe Player II: Bb Clarinet Player VI: Bb Clarinet Player V: Bassoon Player VI: Horn F Player VII: Bb Trumpet Player VIII: Bb Trumpet Player IX: Trombone Player X: Timpani Player XI: Percussion Player XII: PercussionIf one wished to cite what one meant by an all-round musician, the name of John McCabe would be the first of contemporary examples to present itself. Composer of works in many forms (except the large-scale opera), virtuoso pianist, writer, administrator (seven years as director of the London College of Music), organiser of fellow-composers, these add up to McCabe, born in Huyton, Liverpool, in 1939 and trained as a musician at Manchester University and the "old" Royal Manchester College of Music which he entered in 1960 as a piano pupil of the late and great Gordon Green and a composition student with Thomas B. Pitfield.
