A Cornish Festival
Todays blog takes a look at the First Section Test Piece ‘A Cornish Festival’ by the late great Goff Richards.
A CORNISH FESTIVAL
Goff Richards was commissioned by the BBC to write a piece for a Radio Two Listen to the Band Weekend in the Hall for Cornwall in Truro in 1998. He composed A Cornish Festival and he himself conducted the first performance, given by the Massed Bands of, Bodmin, Camborne, Mount Charles and St Austell on 14th June that year. The music was not published at the time and when thinking about a piece as a Tribute to Goff this year, the Festival Committee remembered the piece and following searches in his Archives by his wife, Sue, the manuscript score and parts were found. After preparatory work by Brian Minear, David Marshall of Bandleader Publications and a close friend of Goffís, prepared the music for publication in time for the Festival.
There are three movements, the first carries the title of the work Cornish Festival, the second is Munion pronounced by Goff as Moo–Nion and the final movement is Celebration. David Marshall describes it as, “wonderful, very evocative music that has the warmth and spirit of Goff in every bar.”