Of Myths and Monsters was commissioned by The Glasgow Wind Band (conductor, Kevin Price) to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2012. They gave the world premiere on June 9th that year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
The Glasgow Wind Band, one of the UK’s most ambitious and forward-looking concert bands, has achieved great success at the National Concert Band Festival and had played Sparke’s Music of the Spheres there in 2010. Sparke wanted to continue the ‘space’ theme for this 40th anniversary commission and initially looked at featuring well-known constellations as subjects for the various movements. As many of the constellations are named after characters from Greek mythology, this led the composer to look into the stories behind the myths and decided to use these as the basis for the suite. The subtitle – An outrage for concert band – was chosen because the myths were used only as an initial inspiration for each movement, which were allowed to then find their own musical course.
- ISMN: 9790570293209 (M570293209)
