Alan Bullard

Alan Bullard - link to his home page

Alan Bullard’s music is widely performed in Great Britain and many other countries, broadcast on television and radio, and appears on a number of CDs.

He has written many works for choirs and for instrumental ensembles, and a large number of pieces for young people – most recently over fifty easy piano pieces for the new edition of the OUP Piano Time Series and a set of sixty Saxophone studies for the Associated Board entitled ‘Sixty for Sax’. A CD of his music for youth and amateur choirs was recently released by the acclaimed Scunthorpe Co-operative Junior Choir and the Sine Nomine International Touring Choir.

Current commissions include a work for the Kingfisher Trio, the Quince Quartet, the Marenzio Singers, the Newstead Abbey Singers, and an adult piano tutor book and an anthem collection, both for Oxford University Press.

Alan taught at Colchester Institute for over thirty years, but now devotes most of his time to composition. He is also a music examiner for the Associated Board graded music exams.

Colne Valley Variations

(Piece specially commissioned for the 25th Anniversary of the CVYO in 2006)

I wrote this piece during the period November 2005 to April 2006. It is in six movements, all of which are variations on a five-note motto theme derived from the musical letters of the words ‘Colne Valley’, and is intended to provide enjoyable but challenging music in different styles and for the different age-groups and standards within the two Colne Valley Orchestras.

1. Prelude (Main Orchestra)

This movement begins by presenting the ‘Colne Valley’ motto in the brass, and develops it by making use of a number of contrasting orchestral sonorities, ending with the motto theme turned upside down.

2. Procession (Training Orchestra)

The Training Orchestra take the motto from the end of the 1st movement and turn it into a rhythmic theme with a middle section featuring a melody for the lower-pitched instruments,

3. Elegy (Main Orchestra)

The melody from the middle section of the previous movement is transformed into a slow and reflective interchange between solo wind instruments and string chords, building up to a climax and then ending as it begun. In the last few bars the notes A and F are repeated in flutes and clarinets as a memorial to Angela Fussell, an internationally-known clarinet teacher and performer who had many links with Colchester, who died while I was writing this movement.

4. Interrupted Serenade (Training Orchestra)

Based on the final phrase of the previous movement (the Colne Valley motto in a different rhythm), this folk-song-like pastoral movement is interrupted by a faster minuet based on an upside-down version of the motto.

5. Scherzo (Main Orchestra and Training Orchestra)

A fast-moving, scurrying movement for the main orchestra based on a long pattern of notes derived from the motto theme: every so often the Training Orchestra joins in with a more flowing melody.

6. Finale (Main Orchestra and Training Orchestra)

The Training Orchestra start, with a detached melody based on the ‘Colne Valley’ motto. They continue to play this throughout the movement, while the main orchestra adds some new ideas on top – including a rousing march, which turns out to be the flowing melody that the Training Orchestra played in the previous movement. A.B.