Viking Saga - Ray Farr

"Viking Saga" was inspired by my conducting engagements in Norway in the 1980s. Among them was a visit to the Flekkefjord Pike Korps who asked me to write a piece for them. I had just written "Adventures in Brass" which was very popular, particularly with younger bands, so I decided to pursue the creative energy. My teacher, at that time, was Professor Edward Gregson who encouraged me to develop my ideas into a full-scale work. The piece received a few performances in this version but neither I, nor my teacher, were satisfied so the manuscripts lay dormant. In the summer of 2002 a band from Switzerland- Cordula Brass Baden and Christoph Moor, who had played the piece under mydirection in the Swiss National Youth Band, commissioned me to finish the work and make the changes that, I felt, were needed. In 2016 the Tnsberg Wind Band, from Norway, commissioned a wind band version for their performance in the Norwegian Championships held in Trondheim 2017.

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