Mark Tanner’s music covers a wide variety of styles and instruments, and is popular with ABRSM, Trinity College and London College. Around 50 pieces have been selected for piano, brass and woodwind syllabuses. His five volume piano series entitled ‘Scapes’ was shortlisted for the Best Print Resource at the Music Teacher Awards, and Mark’s piano music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM.

Mark has perfomed extensively, having appeared on many occasions at London’s Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and St John’s Smith Square. In excess of 300 recitals have been given at sea on all of the Cunard, Saga and P&O lines, many with flautist Gillian Poznansky, and his recordings, which have made an especial feature of new commissions and previously unrecorded works, have achieved consistently glowing reviews: “Magnificent playing”, Gramophone.

As well as having published over 70 volumes of compositions, transcriptions and arrangements with various publishing houses, Faber have published six books/repertoire volumes, including The Mindful Pianist (also published in Chinese) and The Piano in Black and White, the latter pitched at the independent adult learner. Mark has published around 50 feature-length ‘Masterclass’ articles for Pianist Magazine and has written hundreds of reviews and articles for a number of leading music publications. He has also published two books on mindfulness for Leaping Hare Press: Mindfulness in Music (also published in Spanish) and Mindfulness in Sound. Mark holds a PhD and Honorary degree from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

He is a member of Mensa, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a veteran adjudicator for B.I.F.F. For ABRSM Mark has examined grades and diplomas for 20 years, having undertaken nearly 50 international tours to all continents. He has also adjudicated the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician.

Cornish Pastiche for Horn and piano is a set of 15 pieces, by Mark Tanner, who writes: As I sit myself down to write this… brief foreword, I ask myself can there be music more stirring than these old Cornish folk melodies? Though not Cornish myself (I confess to being born a little further up the road, in Bristol), I feel I have spent sufficient time in these ‘ere parts to resonate with the sturdy brass band tradition that continues to permeate this incomparably beautiful, rugged county. One can almost detect a French ‘accent’ when listening to the piano music of Debussy, and likewise, speaking as a lapsed brass player, there is undoubtedly something of the Cornish twang about Trelawny when played on a cornet or euphonium. Then again, one gets a different, yet entirely convincing effect upon hearing these melodies rendered on woodwind instruments; hence, with a little gamesmanship on my part, I am pleased to see my collection of these fifteen delectable ditties come to fruition in the form of arrangements for treble clef brass instruments (in B flat and E flat), trombone and tuba (bass clef), horn in F, flute, clarinet and bassoon. While many will find themselves humming the likes of Going up Camborne Hill, Lamorna or The Helston Furry Dance even before they have turned to the first page – for these are indelibly intertwined with Cornish culture – I wonder if I might draw your attention to The Cornish Squire, The Pool of Pilate and Cold Blows the Wind Today Sweetheart, which are quite simply sublime melodies, perhaps needing that extra bit of help in bringing them to mind nowadays. In the best tradition of musical hand-me-downs, Cornish folk music works equally ideally sung and played, and only by doing so on a regular basis can such traditions hope to continue forward with vigour and authority. A legitimate way of achieving this is to revitalise the harmonic scheme of these ancient tunes and bring them up to date for a modern audience; after all, it was such an approach that fuelled the imagination of Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams in decades past, while skilfully paying homage to the underlying charm and, for want of a better word, simplicity, of the original music. But this is only a start – for without an energetic response from younger generations, Cornish folk music is destined to wither on the vine in much the same way as is happening with the Cornish dialect. So, put your instrument to your lips and proceed, not with caution, but with enthusiasm and a smile, for your great grandparents (and perhaps even their grandparents) would surely raise a glass if they could hear you doing your bit to ensure the survival of this splendid heritage. Mark Tanner’s music covers a wide variety of styles and instruments, and is popular with ABRSM, Trinity College and London College. Around 50 pieces have been selected for piano, brass and woodwind syllabuses. Previously Published by Spartan Press Former catalogue number:  SP1216