‘Pandemic 1349’ was written during September and October 2016 and received its premiere on Sunday 20 th November at the 40 th Brass in Concert Championships at the Sage, Gateshead where it received the best new composition/arrangement award.
‘Pandemic 1349’ is a concert work that aims to capture the atmosphere of fear and terror as the plague spreads throughout the city. The cries and screams get louder and reach a chaotic climax, before a calmer and reflective passage takes over – although the chaos and fear never totally leaves as the melodic material is played against the backdrop of what has gone before.
London lost almost half of its population during the Black Death, making this one of the single most devastating events in the city’s dark history. The outbreak not only shaped the number of inhabitants in London but also changed their mind-sets with many turning to religion – even the English language was to be forever altered.
