A PLAIN MAN’S HAMMER for Wind Band by MARTIN DALBY (Scotland, 1942 – 2018)
- May 11
- 3 min read
[#355] May 11, 2026
Scotland | 1984 | Wind Band | Grade 5 | 13’ | Tone poem
Publish by Novello, available purchase at Wise Music Classical
Plain Man’s Hammer, by Scottish composer, music administrator and founding member of the Scottish Music Centre, Martin Dalby, is our Composition of the Week.
A Plain Man’s Hammer was written in 1984. It was commissioned by the Dunbartonshire Wind Ensemble, with the financial help of the Scottish Arts Council. It is dedicated to Trevor Green with affection and admiration.
The work has a duration of 13 minutes, it is scored for standard wind band setting.
“First the title: in Baden-Baden in 1955 Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau sans maître was heard for the first time. The work quickly established itself as one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth century and it is still regarded so today. I had for some years fancied the idea of writing some sort of opposite to Le Marteau sans maître, and the Dunbartonshire Wind Ensemble's invitation provided the opportunity to do so. Hence Marteau translate to Hammer. Le Marteau is a highly intricate and rhythmically complex work to perform, requiring the skill of highly adept and dedicated professional musicians. Hammer, on the other hand, is directed towards the exuberance and enthusiasm of amateur performers (which is not to say that it is necessarily all that easy to play). Equally, Le Marteau is an esoteric, elusive work to grasp though increasingly less so as the years pass. Hammer's style and material, tunes if you like, are intended to be direct and forceful (and that is not to say that its construction lacks complexity). So, mine is a Plain Man's Hammer. As for the form of the work: the whole shape owes something to classical sonata form. Put over-simply, this is a two-part form of which the first is an exposition containing two tonally contrasted subjects and the second contains a development section where harmonies move rapidly towards a recapitulation of the two original subjects, this time the contrast being reconciled in the home key. The first large section of A Plain Man's Hammer is an exposition containing two main ideas and other material associated with them. Development is replaced by a parade of incomplete parodies: a waltz almost in the style of Chopin; a sort of Tango; a Mahlerian march; something close to Janacek; a cheap imitation of a Flamenco; a corruption of Oranges and Lemons; a pop song; a military march which gets somewhat out of hand; a Viennese Waltz to set your feet tripping, and an even cheaper imitation of a Flamenco. At the end of the work the associated material of the opening reappears in maturity; the major ideas play a subservient rôle, reappearing only in the final coda.” Program Notes by Martin Dalby
Martin Dalby was born in Aberdeen in 1942. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and in 1960 he won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London where he studied composition with Herbert Howells and viola with Frederick Riddle. In 1963 the Octavia Prize and a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship enabled him to spend two years in Italy where, besides, he played the viola in a professional chamber orchestra. In 1965 he was appointed as a music producer to the BBC's newly formed Music Programme (later to be Radio 3). In 1971 he became the Cramb Research Fellow in Composition at the University of Glasgow and in 1972 he returned to the BBC as Head of Music, Scotland. In 1991 he relinquished this post in order to pursue a more creative role. In 1993 he retired from the BBC and now composes full time.
Martin Dalby has written a large amount of music: for orchestra; for chorus; for brass bands and wind bands; for the church; many songs and song cycles, and chamber music ranging from duos and trios to octets and nonets. Most of it has been commissioned: from festivals such as Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Cardiff, Orkney and Peterborough, or from orchestras and ensembles. His music has been performed widely throughout the world notably at such festivals as the Warsaw Autumn Festival and the 1991 Henry Wood Proms in London for which he wrote The Mary Bean for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. This composer has a profound interest in Scotland - he produced BBC Radio Scotland's massive Radio History, Scotland's Music for which he won a Sony award.
Other works for winds include:
• Lively Man (1988) for Brass Band
• Flight Dreaming (1990) for Wind Band
More on Martin Dalby
