Where Eagles Sing, Paul Lovatt-Cooper. Brass Band

Where Eagles Sing, Brass Band set+score by Paul Lovatt-Cooper 

Instrumentation: Brass Band
Duration: 00:04:00

Description
This work was commissioned by Philip Biggs for the Great Northern Brass Arts Festival 2006 and was written for Black Dyke Band and first performed by them in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on 2nd September 2006.

The inspiration for this piece came from a recent trip to Florida and to the Bird Sanctuary in Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom.  I was lucky enough to be in the audience to see the rare bird's show where I witnessed some fabulous looking and endangered birds that were trained to perform different tricks that wowed the audience.   The highlight for me was the conclusion of the show where the most awesome sight greeted us as an American Bald Eagle soared over the audience.  That particular breed of Eagle has been a very rare bird of late.  With so few in numbers, it nearly became a member of the sad group of animals that are extinct.

The host of the show took great delight in informing the audience that the fantastic creature is now officially safe and no longer classed as endangered.  This made a great impact on me as the Eagle is an amazing bird, huge in size and power and yet so graceful in flight.

When Philip Biggs invited me to write a piece for the Great Northern Brass Arts Festival, I had no doubt about my inspiration and wanted to create a piece that paid homage to the American Bald Eagle.  This piece is everything associated with the Eagle; bold, powerful and graceful and now free to soar and sing in the American homelands.

Paul Lovatt-Cooper (August 2006)