Enter the Galaxies
Enter the Galaxies paints a musical picture of the experiences and excitement space exploration has to offer. The music begins with a 'space-like' whirlwind of triplets and semiquavers from the cornets and glockenspiel which accompanies a fanfare from the 'middle' of the band. This quickly leads into a presto section introducing the lyrical principal horn as the soloist. The horn is followed by the euphonium as the flowing melody lines are passed around, juxtaposed by a virtuosic counter-line from the principal cornet.
The journey into the unknown is taken up a gear as the music modulates through a variety of keys before featuring the back row cornets playing the central melodic motif. From this point the music grows in intensity before the euphonium and soprano cornet 'lift off' into the finale with glissandi to concert Cs.
Following a brief coda, the music comes to a climactic end using the melodic intervals heard throughout the piece with an augmented 5th resolving to the dominant 5th and finally onto a brilliant F major chord to close.
Enter the Galaxies is dedicated to Cory Band and received its première in November 2008 at The Sage, Gateshead, as part of the band's winning programme at the Brass in Concert Chamionships. The piece has subsequently been featured as the title track to a CD to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Cory Band.