Sketchbook 3

June Armstrong's Strangford Sketchbook contains eight pieces for the Piano, inspired by the Irish sea inlet of Strangford Lough.'The Ards Peninsula and Strangford Lough have always been one of my favourite parts of Ireland. These eight pieces explore the expressive and atmospheric ranges of the Piano, and also seek to evoke the beauty of the landscape through resonances of Irish music.' - June ArmstrongThe pieces in this collection are of moderate difficulty, around grades 6-7 standard, and each of them is designed to introduce different elements of technical development. The Strangford Sketchbook presents a wide variety of styles and musical challenges. / Piano

Sketchbook for Music and Notes. Format 235 mm x 310 mm, 32 pages/ Accessoire / Cahier de Musique/Bloc/Feuilles

Symphonic Etudes. Par SHCHEDRIN RODION. Many of Rodion Shchedrin’s compositions are distinguished by deeply Slavonic feeling and thrilling virtuoso displays. Even though Shchedrin has won recognition all over the world for his work, he remains an essentially Russian composer who has not broken off his ties to Russian musical folk traditions and poetry. It is thus not surprising to learn of his profound admiration for his compatriot Shostakovich (Shchedrin writes: “He is like a God to me.”) The “dialogues” in this one-movement orchestral piece give expression to this admiration; they describe and offer a musical commentary on the character of Shostakovich’s music and of the man himself. / Études et exercices / Répertoire / Orchestre

The Grade By Grade series draws on the rich and varied Boosey and Hawkes catalogue of classical, contemporary and educational repertoire, highlighting composers including Serge Prokofieff, Dmitri Shostakovich, Karl Jenkins, Carol Barratt and Christopher Norton, alongside arrangements of traditional music from around the world by Peter Wastall, Vera Gray and others. Carefully selected by Janet Way, this practical anthology provides the complete repertoire resource for the aspiring Grade 3 saxophonist and creates the perfect package for teaching, exam preparation and performance. Each volume contains:19 pieces and short studies, each complemented by a useful practice and performance tipgrade-appropriate scales and arpeggios linked to the repertoire through bespoke text and exercisesbrand new sight-reading activitiesnewly-commissioned aural awareness tasksa piano accompaniment bookletPackaged with a CD of full performance demonstrations, piano backing tracks, and grade-appropriate aural awareness resources. Janet Way is an experienced performer and teacher. She is a tutor for the LRAM woodwind teaching course at the Royal Academy of Music, and has worked as a mentor and diploma examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. She is founder and director of the internationally-acclaimed Oxford Flute Summer School. / Hautbois Et Piano

The Grade By Grade series draws on the rich and varied Boosey and Hawkes catalogue of classical, contemporary and educational repertoire, highlighting composers including Serge Prokofieff, Dmitri Shostakovich, Karl Jenkins, Carol Barratt and Christopher Norton, alongside arrangements of traditional music from around the world by Peter Wastall, Vera Gray and others.Carefully selected by Iain Farrington, this practical anthology provides the complete repertoire resource for the aspiring Grade 4 pianist and creates the perfect package for teaching, exam preparation and performance.Each volume contains:a diverse collection of pieces, each complemented by a useful practice and performance tipgrade-appropriate scales and arpeggios linked to the repertoire through bespoke text and exercisesbrand new sight-reading and improvisation activitiesnewly-commissioned aural awareness tasksPackaged with a CD of full performance demonstrations and grade-appropriate aural awareness resources.Iain Farrington has an exceptionally busy and diverse career as a pianist, organist, composer and arranger. He has performed across the world, notably at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, and has worked with many leading musicians, including Bryn Terfel and Sir Paul McCartney. As a composer, Iain's music has been performed, recorded and broadcast worldwide, and his wide-ranging catalogue of arrangements receives regular international performances. / Piano

The Grade By Grade series draws on the rich and varied Boosey and Hawkes catalogue of classical, contemporary and educational repertoire, highlighting composers including Serge Prokofieff, Dmitri Shostakovich, Karl Jenkins, Carol Barratt and Christopher Norton, alongside arrangements of traditional music from around the world by Peter Wastall, Vera Gray and others.Carefully selected by Iain Farrington, this practical anthology provides the complete repertoire resource for the aspiring Grade 3 pianist and creates the perfect package for teaching, exam preparation and performance.Each volume contains:a diverse collection of pieces, each complemented by a useful practice and performance tipgrade-appropriate scales and arpeggios linked to the repertoire through bespoke text and exercisesbrand new sight-reading and improvisation activitiesnewly-commissioned aural awareness tasksPackaged with a CD of full performance demonstrations and grade-appropriate aural awareness resources.Iain Farrington has an exceptionally busy and diverse career as a pianist, organist, composer and arranger. He has performed across the world, notably at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, and has worked with many leading musicians, including Bryn Terfel and Sir Paul McCartney. As a composer, Iain's music has been performed, recorded and broadcast worldwide, and his wide-ranging catalogue of arrangements receives regular international performances. / Piano

Par CHOSTAKOVITCH DIMITRI. Just back from a trip to Leipzig in the early autumn of 1950 where he heard Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier at the Bicentennial Bach Competition played by the Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolaeva, Shostakovich began his own series of 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, based on Bach's model. He composed them quickly, starting on October 10, 1950, and finishing on February 23, 1951. While his work would pay homage to Bach, Shostakovich's work would have several fundamental differences. First, the order of the individual pieces would be organized around the circle of fifths with a prelude and fugue in the relative minor following each major key piece rather than in ascending semi-tonalorder of Bach's work. Second, Shostakovich's pieces would be composed in order — that is, C major - A minor followed by G major - E minor followed by D major - B minor — and, more significantly, this order would have a sort of subliminal narrative sub-text, taking the music from the 'innocent' tonal world of the C major Prelude and Fugue to the profound and sublime severity of the concluding D minor Prelude and Fugue. Finally, Shostakovich's work, although conservative in its counterpoint and harmony — that is, there are no examples of invertible or reversible themes or counterpoint and the pieces are for the most part recognizably tonal in language — is still clearly the work of a modernist composer; his counterpoint and harmony may be conservative but the emotional and spiritual worlds of the preludes and fugues is at once sincere and ironic. The result is a work which can not only stand comparison with Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, it is both Shostakovich's masterpiece for the piano and one of the contrapuntal masterpieces of the twentieth century./ Répertoire / Piano

Par CHOSTAKOVITCH DIMITRI. Shostakovich’s fifteenth symphony differs substantially in many ways from his other late symphonies. The eleventh (1957), subtitled The Year 1905, and the twelfth (1960), subtitled The Year 1917, are both programmatic symphonies, relating to political and historical events within the year of which they are subtitled. The next two symphonies are sung texts, with vocal and/or choral parts: thirteenth (1962) and fourteenth (1969) symphonies. With the Symphony No. 15 In A Op. 141, Shostakovich’s last foray in the genre, the composer returned to a purely instrumental and non-programmatic composition, which inhabits a purely emotional andintellectual plane, quite removed from the world of politics and history. Available here is the pocket or study score of Shostakovich’s last symphony, the Symphony No. 15 in A Op. 141. This is an excellent Sikorski edition score, and is ideal for study and perusal purposes./ Répertoire / Orchestre