Sparke, Philip - Watch Your Step!

Watch Your Step! was commissioned by Stadtmusik Biel from Switzerland and is dedicated to the mayor of Biel/Bienne, Erich Fehr. The title was chosen to represent Biel as the watch-making capital of Switzerland. Watch Your Step! is one part of a series of ‘up tempo’ Sparke marches such as Slipstream, The Bandwagon and Jubiloso. After a bright opening, a syncopated first theme is played, firstly by clarinets and saxophones, and then by the full band. A ‘bass strain’ is followed by a contrasting second subject, which is played twice. The bass melody returns to herald a truncated version of the main theme, before the opening fanfarereappears as a coda.