Brookes, Phillip

Brookes, Phillip – Little Suite, op. 54 for orchestra (first print)

(b. 10 December 1952, Allbrook, Hampshire)

Pastoral p.1
March p.11
Thoughts p.19
Elephants p.24
Celebration! p.31

Preface
‘Pantomime’ is a traditional Christmas/New Year entertainment in Britain, usually consisting of a fairytale in modern guise with songs and contemporary satirical humour. In 1983 Phillip Brookes was asked to write music for the Home Office Pantomime, called Cinderella in Space. In the event the production never went ahead, but not before Brookes had written a large amount of music. Several of the numbers had already been played and recorded by students at the Royal College of Music. Over the next few years many of the items were incorporated into other compositions.

In 1996, the composer made this suite out of four of the pieces, writing a new movement (Thoughts) in the process. It is for small orchestra, and is very straightforward, although the fourth movement (Elephants) does require a number of unusual and exotic instruments. Pastoral, March, Thoughts and Celebration! were all performed in 1997 by the Market Drayton Orchestra conducted by the composer.

For performance material please contact Musikproduktion Höflich (www.musikmph.de), Munich.