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Olympic Commission for PLC |
 The artistic brief for the commission was set to match the ambition of the London 2012 Inspire programme by delivering “an excellent, like-never-before project that inspires everyone to go that extra bit further”....His new piece entitled ‘Going the Distance’ is a unique work that is designed for any ensemble of any standard to play culminating in a massed bands performance with a difference. It will be used in conjunction with the Olympic Torch Relay Race where all the bands involved will perform their own relay race passing on the piece and a unique conductor’s baton. There are 5 versions of ‘Going the Distance’ each version representing one of the Olympic rings. Each piece has its own conductor’s baton to conduct it, with each baton in its own colour - matching the 5 different colours of the Olympic rings. The five pieces with their batons then travel on a great relay race around the UK being performed by hundreds of different bands in various different concerts. Once the bands perform their version of ‘Going the Distance’ they then pass on the piece and the baton to the next band to perform. Thus creating a huge relay race around the UK with the 5 different pieces. The climax of this event will be a huge massed bands concert where all of the bands involved in the relay race will then perform all the 5 different versions of ‘Going the Distance’ at the same time. Thus creating a new 6th version! Paul Lovatt-Cooper explains here how he set about meeting the challenge of the brief “I started by composing what I call the ‘Inception’ piece, the root from which everything else is derived. Then I created 5 distinct versions of the music, one for each baton relay, whilst taking care to preserve the original structure of the ‘Inception’ piece so that all 5 versions can be performed simultaneously for the project finale.” You can follow the progress of this massive event by clicking here http://mad4bb.ning.com/page/brass-the-baton-home |
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