Weaving Patterns

Weaving Patterns for Brass Band & Electronics

Aug 2023

Brass Band & Playback, 14:10

Funded by Vale of Glamorgan Festival

Working with Tredegar Town Band & created as part of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival 2023, alongside mentoring with composer David John Roche. Special thanks to Amgueddfa Cymru/St. Fagans National Museum of History.

Following a series of in-person workshops with Tredegar Town Band, composers were invited to create a bespoke piece for the group. One of ‘the most successful & famous brass bands in the world’, the band is made up of a mix of professional & amateur players & has a long history of being a predominantly male-led music group. This work is based around the weaving patterns of William Jones, Holt, N Wales (c 1785). Six patterns are available to view online as part of People’s Collection of Wales, with the whole book kept at St. Fagans, Cardiff.

The music score includes midi-translated versions of some of the patterns coupled with extended techniques, vocalisations & wool embroidered graphic scores. It also references the Welsh folk tune ‘Tit for Tat’, held within the fiddle tune book ‘Alawon John Thomas’, an 18th century Welsh fiddler’s tune book.