Le flash-back est un phénomène psychologique. Des événements du passé imprimés dans la mémoire à long terme resurgissent comme une réponse inconsciente et soudaine à un stimulus lié à une expérience antérieure.Cette œuvre a été composée à l?occasion du cinquantième anniversaire de l?Orchestre de Fanfare National des Jeunes des Pays-Bas une formation talentueuse dont Jan de Haan fut lui-même membre au cours des années 1960. Jeune musicien il éprouvait un profond respect pour le chef d?alors Piebe Bakker (1929-2002) un homme passionné avec un style de direction très stimulant. En revenant sur cette période quarante ans après Jan de Haan a revécu lesnombreuses interprétations de la pièce Deep Harmony. La mélodie scintillante - extraite d?un cantique anglais - lui est alors apparue comme un flash-back et c?est comme un éclair mental qu?il a choisi de lui redonner vie dans le passage final de cette œuvre.

Who doesn’t remember this international 70’s hit for Emmylou Harris with it’s special ‘barber shop’ style harmony. The three parts are given to the cornets as soloists with subtle band accompaniment featuring a great part for your vibraphone player. Everyone will leave your concert humming this great tune.

Music of the Spheres was commissioned by the Yorkshire Building Society Band and first performed by them at the European Brass Band Championships in Glasgow May 2004.The piece reflects the composers fascination with the origins of the universe and deep space in general. The title comes from a theory formulated by Pythagoras that the cosmos was ruled by the same laws he had discovered that govern the ratios of note frequencies of the musical scale. (‘Harmonia’ in Ancient Greek which means scale or tuning rather than harmony - Greek music was monophonic). He also believed that these ratios corresponded to the distances of the sixknown planets from the sun and thatthe planets each produced a musical note which combined to weave a continuous heavenly melody (which unfortunately we humans cannot hear). In this work these six notes form the basis of the sections Music of the Spheres and Harmonia.The pieces opens with a horn solo called t = 0 a name given by some scientists to the moment of the Big Bangwhen time and space were created and this is followed by a depiction of the Big Bangitself as the entire universe bursts out from a single point. A slower section follows called The Lonely Planet which is a meditation on the incredible and unlikely set of circumstances which led to the creation of the Earth as a planet that can support life and the constant search for other civilizations elsewhere in the universe. Asteroids and Shooting Stars depicts both the benign and dangerous objects that are flying through space and which constantly threaten our planet and the piece ends with The Unknown leaving in question whether our continually expanding exploration of the universe will eventually lead to enlightenment or destruction.