Rhian Samuel – Taliesin (brass band)

The composer's note:

Charlotte Guest's 1848 translation of the story of Taliesin was published alongside that of the Mabinogion, the mediaeval Welsh stories that in part inspired Tolkien's Hobbit. The account of Taliesin's birth is fantastical, magical and playful; this is the world that I've wished to conjure up in Taliesin, which moves from majestic calls between various brass groups invoking the world of these tales, to a wistful melody, emphasising our distance from them. This happens twice; then a gleeful, hypnotic dance picks up aspects of the melody, seeming to wash such cares away. The call of the solo soprano cornet abruptly returns us to the sad melody itself, but we have little time to contemplate it before the piece concludes merrily.