Ritual Fire Dance

Scored for 3 trumpets • flugel horn in Bb • horn in F • 3 trombones • bass trombone • tuba

De Falla's 'Ritual Fire Dance' from the ballet 'El Amor Brujo' (Love the Magician), is probably his most popular work, made famous by the pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887 - 1982), who used it as an encore. The composer, frustrated with Spanish musical life, had moved to Paris in 1907, rubbing shoulders with the city's finest musicians and absorbing new ideas, only returning to Spain at the outbreak of war in 1914. Finished in 1915 and described as a 'gypsy ballet' set in Granada, de Falla uses not only flamenco influences, but some of the more radical techniques he had learned in France. With its trills, ornaments and overt exoticism, the 'Ritual Fire Dance' describes the wild frenzy of the heroine in front of a fire, desperately attempting to drive out the thoughts of her dead lover.

This arrangement was recorded by The Symphonic Brass of London on their album 'A Bridge Over the Pyrenees' which composer Joby Talbot described thus: "Superb playing from living legends of the London orchestral brass scene. In these fantastic arrangements it's sometimes hard to believe these pieces weren't originally scored for brass. The musicianship throughout is second to none & the sound is an absolute treat."

Parts for Horn in Eb, Trombones in Bb treble clef and Eb Bass are also included in this set.