The Land of the Long White Cloud - Aotearoa

‘Aeoteroa’, or ‘The Land of the Long White Cloud’, was the name given to the North Island of New Zealand when the Maori navigators first saw signs of the new land in the formations of drawn out strands of cloud spreading across the horizon.

Dating from 1979, The Land of the Long White Cloud was Philip Sparke's first test piece; it was commissioned by the New Zealand Brass Band Association for their 1980 National Championships (their centenary year) and set for the European Brass Band Championships, held, that year, at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The work has no specific programme although many have seen pictures of the surging ocean in the opening bars. A faster dance-like section leads to a slow, haunting solo tor soprano comet; this is taken up by the whole band before earlier material returns‘ The dance-like tune is, this tame, given a fugal treatment and the opening bars return to close the work.

The various sections are :-

• Maestoso
• Molto Vivace
• Larghetto
• Molto vivace
• Meno mosso, ma accelerando poco a poco
• Maestoso
• Prestissimo