The Lost Circle -- British Open Brass Band Challenge!!

You couldn't make this up. "The Lost Circle" has now been set to music by Belgian composer Jan Van Der Roost as a test piece for the British Open Brass Band competition.


https://www.4barsrest.com/news/60636/british-open-announces-2024-test-piece

This is hilarious on one sense. But it is also a stark reminder of the manner in which wild speculations and dodgy science can turn fantasies into myths and in turn into something seen by others (such as Belgian brass band composers) as established truth. The commissioning sponsors have clearly all been swept up in the media frenzy about Waun Mawn, and probably just loved that famous TV documentary fronted by Alice Roberts.  One cannot doubt that in good faith our friend Jan the Composer has accepted that the "Lost Circle" at Waun Mawn did actually exist -- before going on to explore musically what the "how and why" might have been.

So are MPP and his merry men feeling guilty about misleading gullible members of the public so comprehensively? I doubt that very much...........

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Here is the blurb:

British Open announces 2024 test-piece

'The Lost Circle' by Jan Van Der Roost will pose questioning musical challenges for bands wishing to construct a British Open winning performance at Symphony Hall this year.

The composer explored both why and how the Bluestones of Stonehenge came to their final resting place

A new commission by the critically acclaimed Belgian composer Jan Van Der Roost has been announced as the set-work for the 2024 British Open Championship.

'The Lost Circle' is his fifth major contest composition and has been commissioned through an international consortium of organisations, including the British Open alongside the national bodies of Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

It will receive its world premiere at the 170th British Open Championship at Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Saturday 7th September.

The work sees the composer return in inspiration to Stonehenge — the ancient site on Salisbury Plain in the UK that has held fascination to humans for millennia. It is, as the composer says, "a monument that has been the subject of questions, guesswork, doubts and speculations from time immemorial."

However, although 'The Lost Circle' is linked thematically in musical inspiration, it is not an "explicit successor" to his earlier 'Stonehenge' composition written in 1992.

Instead, as Jan Van Der Roost writes in his foreword to the 16-minute score, it is a work rich in thematic symbolism. It questions both how and why the inner circle of megalithic Bluestones were brought by ancient people on a 240-kilometre journey from deep in the Preseli hills in West Wales to their final resting place.

Speaking exclusively to 4BR he said: "I am honoured to write 'The Lost Circle' for the British Open and the national associations of Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and Austria where it will subsequently be performed at their National Championships.

It follows 'Excalibur', 'Stonehenge', 'Albion' and 'From Ancient Times' in being used at major events, and I will be delighted to hear it performed at the magnificent Symphony Hall in Birmingham for its world premiere."

He added: "It is definitely a challenging and demanding work, but one I hope will be enjoyed by the conductors, performers and audiences alike in the months to come in the UK and Europe."

In making the initial contest announcement, British Open Championship Artistic Advisor, Dr Robert Childs told 4BR: "Jan Van der Roost is rightly regarded as one of the foremost composers writing for the brass band medium.

'The Lost Circle' is a magnificent work — and one which I am sure alongside our colleagues throughout Europe will provide a wonderful musical test for competing bands, and a thoroughly rewarding musical experience for listeners."

British Open Contest organisers Martin and Karyn Mortimer added: "It will be the first time Jan Van Der Roost has written a work to be used at the British Open Championship. We are thrilled to be able to provide the stage for its world premiere. Our thanks got to him and to our consortium friends for making this wonderful piece possible."