SKU: BT.ALHE31212

French.

Composed by Darius Milhaud, Valaisian Quatrains is a piece for SCBT a capella, based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. This piece features five different parts, each one from a poem, whose lyrics are inspired by the Valais area inSwitzerland. The composition includes polytonality and polyrhythms that make it highly lyrical, cheerful and nice to sing. The five poems selected are: 1. Pays, arrêté a mi-chemin / Country that stops half-way... 2. Rose delumiere / Rose of Light 3. L'année tourne / The year revolves 4. Chemins qui ne menent nulle part / Paths that take you nowhere 5. Beau papillon / Lovely butterfly Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) was a composer and a teacherwho was also known to be part of Les Six. His composition were known to use politonality and to include some characteristics drawns from the jazz genre.

SKU: BT.DHP-0991451-050

English.

Pacific Dreams describes the experience of Miguel, a traveling composer from Spain who, feeling somewhat alienated from his homeland, is wandering through an area of Sydney known as The Rocks. At a small outdoor market in a typical street of this oldcolonial neighbourhood, he discovers a print of William DeShazos painting Pacific Dreams Portrayed in the painting is the surf of one of the exotic islands in the Pacific. Next, with the impressive Sydney Harbour Bridge looming over the narrowstreets of The Rocks, he envisions sultry Pacific beaches. Suddenly a theme he once composed about the lakes in Japan comes to him. Is it the Asian influences present in cosmopolitan Sydney that bring this theme to mind? Or perhaps the waters aroundSydney, over which he could sail to Tahiti? He is uncertain. Could this same theme be used to create a new composition about his feelings for the metropolis Sydney? How then to work his Pacific Dreams into the mix? Miguel is certainly no fan ofHawaiian music. Mayby he could use the vocabularies of islands like Hawaii and Tahiti, their beautiful vowel combinations being sung ad libitum by a mixed choir.With these ideas and his newly purchased print of Pacific Dreams, he boards the Metroat Circular Quay. He has a final glimpse of the harbour and the Sydney Opera House as the train races into the ground. On to the hotel! To work! He must compose!Maestoso : Miguel is impressed as he gazes upon the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And yet, hewants to go away from this city. Away, to an exotic island in the Pacific.Steady Rock : In the Rocks, musicians are playing at a square. Miguel basks in the atmosphere but at the same time he is fantasizing about Hawaii and Tahiti.Andante Lamentoso :In his hotel room, Miguel is feeling sad and lonely in this big city. He takes comfort in his Pacific Dreams.Allegro : Miguel boards the boat that takes him from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay. In his mind he is traveling on to Hawaii. Or is ithome, where the bolero is playing? He is pulled back to reality by the skyline of Sydney.

Wir schlüpfen in die Haut von Miguel und reisen mit ihm nach Australien. Einigermaßen entfremdet von seiner spanischen Heimat schlendert er durch das Viertel The Rocks in Sydney. Auf einem kleinen Markt entdeckt er einen Druck des Gemäldes Pacific Dreams von William DeShazo. Das Bild stellt die Meeresbrandung auf einer exotischen Insel im Pazifik dar. Während die eindrucksvolle Harbour Bridge von Sidney vor ihm auftaucht, ist er in Gedanken bei den heißen Stränden im Stillen Ozean. Auf einmal kommt ihm das Thema in den Sinn, das er einst über die Gewässer Japans komponiert hatte. Liegt es an den asiatischen Einflüssen, die im kosmopolitischen Sydney so vielfältig vertretensind? Oder sind es die Wasser rund um Sydney, über die er nach Tahiti segeln könnte? Er ist sich unsicher. Könnte er genau dieses Thema für eine neue Komposition über die Metropole Sydney verwenden? Wie sollte er seine Träume vom Pazifik, seine Pacific Dreams, in diese Mixtur einbringen? Vielleicht könnte er den Wortschatz von Inseln wie Hawaii und Tahiti für seine Komposition verwenden. Und einen gemischten Chor die schönen Vokalverbindungen ad libitum singen lassen. Mit diesen Ideen im Kopf steigt er in die Metro am Circular Quay. Auf ins Hotel und frisch ans Werk! Jetzt muss er einfach komponieren....

SKU: GI.G-8955

UPC: 785147895503. Latin. Text Source: From the Liturgy of the Hours for Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

My setting of this well-known prayer is largely based on a piece of 16th-century visual art of the same name,Salvator mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Though many artists have created similar paintings depicting Christ in this fashion, Leonardo’s is of the small minority in which the orb that Christ holds in his left hand lacks any sort of ornamentation or indeed any kind of religious symbol at all. The orb, as it appears in other depictions, is referred to as a globus cruciger (cross-bearing orb). This term does not apply in this instance, as the orb lacks a cross, existing purely as an unblemished globe, calm and serene, mirroring the expression that is present on Christ’s face. This piece should be sung in largely the same way that the painting appears on the canvas: subdued and reverent. The dynamic contrasts in measures 22–28 represent a very human supplication to Christ, but they should not be overstated or dramatic in any way. Such is the case with the entire work, it is a very introspective take on the prayer’s text, and as such it should feel quietly restrained and reflective throughout. The piece ends with four double-barred repetitions of the word “Deus,” representing the four points of the cross. Listen to The Same Stream perform Salvator Mundi from Songs of the Questioner.

SKU: ST.W182

ISBN 9790220207617.

Antony Herschel Hill's Ave Verum Corpus for unaccompanied SATB is one of a number of liturgical works by this gifted composer. Written for Prebendary John Pearce and the choir of St Simon Zelotes, Chelsea, London, Hill's setting projects the awe and mystery of the text through a rich variety of harmony that particularly exploits the lower registers of the individual voices to great effect. If you have a really good choir, take advantage of this and buy it. For pure musicianship little else has equalled it recently; the sense of architecture is superb, the climaxes are clean, controlled and never contrived, and the final section, 'miserere mei', uses a wonderfully restrained sense of chromaticism. What a magic piece.

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