A Road Less Travelled By (Philip Sparke)

Anglo Music | 16 minutes

A Road Less Travelled By was commissioned by Palangos Orkestrasfor the Championship Section of the 2020 European Brass Band Championships held in Palanga, Lithuania.

The composer writes:

The title alludes to a poem by American author, Robert Frost, which appeared in his 1916 collection, Mountain Intervals. In common with most of my larger works, the piece is not programmatic, but purely abstract; there is no extra-musical story. The choice of title chimes with my view of how composers can often develop. There can be no ‘destination’ in a composer’s career, but rather a continuing journey to an unknown place. From piece to piece a composer needs to decide his or her next steps, never really knowing where they might lead. As Frost so eloquently describes, these sorts of instinctive decisions guide all our lives.