A test piece was a single piece of music that every band at competitions across the
country would play so judges had an equal platform for judging.10 Prior to any original test
compositions, pieces were drawn from the same pool of arrangements made up from the
repertoire of the time. In 1913, John Iles11 commissioned Percy Fletcher to compose the first
original test piece, titled Labour and Love.12 This piece, and newly composed test pieces similar
to it, would eventually become the “symphonies of the brass band repertoire.”13 These works
were appealing due to the challenge they presented brass musicians.