Chorale (from Piano Improvisations) (2012)

SKU: GI.WW1733

UPC: 785147016069. Traditional Sesotho.

Here is another fantastic South African arrangement from Barrett and Schmitt! Modimo is a song of praise and celebration. Improvised percussion and a traditional Sesotho melody make for a grounded and deep sound your singers will immediately connect with. A quick learn with a huge impact.

SKU: PR.114422520

ISBN 9781491134788. UPC: 680160683833.

After decades as a renowned oboe virtuoso, Katherine Needleman was improvising at the piano during the quarantine summer of 2020 when her ideas congealed in a powerful way. Within a week she completed a 16-minute oboe sonata inspired by the world’s overlapping crises. This riveting three-movement sonata bears the title qua resurget ex favilla, drawn from the Dies Irae text referring to rising back from ashes. Needleman won the International Double Reed Society’s Inaugural Commissioning Competition by entering her own recording of this work, performing as both oboist and pianist from her living room. As a result, IDRS commissioned her to compose a new work for English horn and piano which was premiered at their 2021 Virtual Symposium and programmed for the live 2022 convention.
I’m not exactly sure how, in a life consumed by music, I never put anything on paper between the time I stopped at age 10 and the age of 42. I mean, I have some ideas why, but that could easily dissolve into a feminist manifesto or a condemnation of my musical education and the overwhelming culture of American oboe playing, the vehicle through which I’ve made a living my entire adult life. Rather than go there, I will just say this is the first piece I put on paper in my adult life.Six months into COVID-19 lockdown in the US, the world was feeling pretty weird. I had familiarized myself with the music notation program, Sibelius, for recent arranging projects. I had written some mockeries of A.M.R. Barret oboe etudes in response to an assignment I was given (and did appropriately first). When I descended into a dark chorale in the middle of the fourth mockery, I realized I needed a new vehicle. I wrote a short, ridiculous piece for my husband’s birthday, and then, the next night, when improvising at the piano, like I’ve done since I was seven years old, this piece came to me. However, this time, I sketched it out into Sibelius. Over the course of the next week, I found notating and picking permanent, official notes to enter into the computer challenging. But it was all done on paper in seven days, and I took another few for dynamics and articulations thinking they might be useful for someone else, if I would ever be lucky enough for someone else to play it.I don’t have much to say about the music of qua resurget ex favilla itself. It’s a personal statement couched in the feelings of that time. The US presidential election was looming large and ugly in my mind, well, that and the end of life as we knew it, but I also had some bizarre feeling that everything would be okay.

SKU: CA.970100

ISBN 9790007086589.

A different take on Christmas: well-known Christmas numbers in beat, jazz, pop, soul, and swing styles! Vom Himmel hoch mutates into a stylish jazz waltz and Stille Nacht (for some, almost a nightmare in the original) becomes atmospheric, disguised mood music. Thomas Gabriel has composed eight exciting, sophisticated arrangements for choir and piano accompaniment, some with an added melody instrument, and with lots of opportunities for improvisation.

SKU: CA.2800600

ISBN 9790007171346. Language: Latin.

The title Pastoral Mass originated from my children's song Shepherd Song, as this melody is played by the saxophone at the beginning of the work. The sound of this instrument is reminiscent of a traditional Lithuanian folk instrument known as a birbyne, played by shepherds in the country. The character of the music varies between popular and Romantic styles, and the text is taken from the traditional Latin mass in six movements. At certain points, the instruments are able to improvise freely - this is predetermined by the conductor and soloists. The soprano saxophone part can also be played on any other woodwind instrument with an appropriate range. (Vytautas Miskinis).

SKU: CA.2800503

ISBN 9790007170622. Text language: Latin.

The Latin text of the mass is venerable, universal, and unites people. For the German Protestant Church Congress 2015, this ancient text was set in contemporary style by Tilman Jager under the title Missa Pacis. Impressive sounds, mystic-meditative moods, Latin American rhythms, catchy melodies and a Dona nobis pacem for everyone to join in combine in the Missa Pacis to form a convincing whole. The hour-long composition is scored for 4-8 part chorus with optional soloists and accompanying band. The work is generally tonal, but offers a breadth of different styles ranging from classical choral-symphonic to rhythmic choral movements with influences from gospel, jazz, and pop. Parts for the accompanying band are fully written out. In some sections of the mass the instrumentalists can also improvise. Score available separately - see item CA.2800500.

SKU: PR.11440785S

UPC: 680160012091.

The composition of the work began as a few improvisational thoughts on a short phrase from a Beethoven piano sonata, which eventually developed into a six-minute fantasia that ultimately bears little audible relation to the original Beethoven phrase. The work is in four sections, of which the first and last are nocturnal, prelude, and postlude respectively. The main second section grows from a simple imitative idea to a chordal climax that subsides into a chorale and soliloquy which is elegiac in nature.