SKU: PE.EP72822
ISBN 9790577011769. 232 x 303mm inches. English.
I have only visited Damascus once, twenty years ago, on the way to Palmyra. I had a purpose (I was writing music for a play about Palmyra’s Queen Zenobia) but essentially I was a tourist. Like any visitor, I was thrilled to step out of the noisy modern city into the magical ancient world of the walled Old City, its vibrant souk leading to the magnificent mosque, and a labyrinth of winding, narrow streets filled with the smell of unleavened bread.
In Palmyra, I was met with extraordinary kindness everywhere. On one occasion, a little Bedouin boy noticed that I was risking sunstroke wandering bare-headed among the spectacular ruins: he showed me how to tie a turban, then took me to have tea with his family in their tent.
Since then, I have watched helplessly as these places of wonder have been devastated and their inhabitants scattered and killed. When the Sacconi Quartet suggested that I might choose a Syrian poet for our collaboration, I welcomed the idea.
I searched for a long time to find a contemporary poet whose work might gain from any music I could imagine. I felt it was important to find first-hand accounts of the Syrian experience – but, of course, I was always reading them in translation. In an anthology called Syria Speaks, I was astonished to read something that looked like prose, but was full of poetry. It was Anne-Marie McManus’s fine translation of Ali Safar’s A Black Cloud in a Leaden White Sky – an eloquent, thoughtful, contained yet vivid account of life in a war-torn country, all the more moving for its restraint.
In setting these words, I have not attempted to imitate Syrian music. However, there is what might be called a linguistic accommodation in my choice of scale, or mode. Several movements are in a mode that I first discovered while writing a cantata commemorating the First World War: it has a tuning that I associate with war, its violence and desolation. This eight-note mode is similar to scales found in Syrian music. I did not choose it in the abstract: it emerged from the harmonies I was exploring in the earlier work, and emerged again as I was looking for the right musical colours to set Ali Safar’s words. In this work, its Arabic aspect is more prominent. - Jonathan Dove
SKU: PR.114406980
UPC: 680160010806.
Shulamit Ran’s second string quartet, subtitled “Vistas,†occupies a large canvas that is cast in a traditional fourmovement mold, where the outer movements present, explore, and later return to the work’s principal musical materials, surrounding a slow movement and scherzo-type third movement with a trio. In addition to tempo-based titles, the individual movements have subtitles that are evocative of each movement’s character, as follows: I. Concentric: from the inside out II. Stasis III. Flashes IV. Vistas.My second string quartet, “Vistasâ€, is a work cast in a traditional four-movement formal mold, with the outer movements, presenting and later returning to the work’s principal musical materials, surrounding a slow movement and a scherzo-type third movement.While the four movements’ “proper†names -- Maestoso con forza, Lento, Scherzo impetuoso, and Introduzione; Maestoso e grande – give some indication of the general character of the individual movements, I have also subtitled, less formally, each movement as follows: 1) Concentric: from the inside out 2) Stasis 3) Flashes 4) Vista. The images evoked by these titles tell one, I think, a bit more about the inner workings of the quartet.In the first movement, a prominently presented opening pitch (E) reveals itself, as the movement unfolds, to be a center of gravity from which ever-growing cycles of activity gradually evolve. While various important themes come into being as the movement progresses, their impact on the listener has, I believe, a great deal to do with their juxtaposition and relationship to the initial central point of gravity.Stasis is, as the name implies, a movement where activity seems, at times, almost suspended. Being also, as Webster’s Dictionary reminds us, “a state of static balance and equilibrium among opposing tendencies or forces,†it develops various materials, including ones from the first movement, without bringing them to points of resolution.Flashes is short and very fast, evoking in my mind the quick shimmer of fireflies, a “sudden burst of lightâ€, but also a “brief timeâ€. Perhaps, even, a “smileâ€?Finally, the last movement, Vista, is not only “a view or outlookâ€, but also “a comprehensive mental view of a series of remembered or anticipated events.â€Â After a brief recall of the opening of the second movement, this movement brings back all the important themes of the first movement in their original order. But just as going back can never really mean going back in time, the movement is much more than recapitulatory. By cutting through previously transitory passages and presenting the main ideas in a fashion more direct yet more evolved, it also sheds new light on earlier events, offering a retrospective, synoptic view of the first movement as it brings to culmination the work as a whole. “Vistas†was commissioned by C. Geraldine Freund for the Taneyev String Quartet of what was then Leningrad. It was the first commission given in this country to a Soviet chamber ensemble since the 1985 cultural exchange accord between the Soviet Union and the United States.
SKU: PR.11441825S
UPC: 680160643745. 9 x 12 inches.
In 2011, Barbara Garrop, my mother, commissioned me to write a piano trio in memory of Norman Garrop, my father, who passed away about thirty years ago. When I started brainstorming about topics for the piece, I found it difficult to recall many moments of my early life involving my father. Too many years had passed, and the memories that I could summon were of achild looking up to her father, not an adult relating to an equal. However, while collecting stories of my father from various family members, along with discovering a number of objects that had once belonged to him and that I had stored away in boxes decades ago, I began to realize that this piece wasn't so much about my father as it was about my re-discovering the man that he was: a loving husband and dad who cared deeply about his family and his passions (which included bike riding, collecting coins, strumming our guitar, playing baseball, watching football games, entertaining people, helping to run local theater and puppet productions, and carving objects out of wook); an accountant who dreamed of a better future: a treasurer of our local synagogue; an early advocate for computers (we owned an Apple II+); and a pranster with a great sense of humor. Ultimately, I decided to musically tell the story of my search for these memories. In the first movement (Without), a child calls out in a sing-song voice, searching for her lost parent. This search intesifies over the course of the movement through a series of themes, including a stepping motif in which a two-note progression steadily climbs higher, a pseudo-jewish folksong, and a passionate longing theme. The child's search becomes increasingly intense throughout the movement, calling out fervently and repeatedly to the parent; the movement ends in a moment of great tnesion and uncertainty. The second movment (Within) quietly opens with the lost parent finally answering, represented by a solo cello; the child (now personified by the violin) has found the parent within the sanctuary of her own heart. This movement highlights the joy and solemnity of this beautiful discovery. -S.G.
SKU: PR.114418250
UPC: 680160640959. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: PR.16400272S
UPC: 680160588442. 8.5 x 11 inches.
My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change. I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla. Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional. II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts] This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture. This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream. III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts] The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this. Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1. String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.
SKU: PR.164002720
UPC: 680160573042. 8.5 x 11 inches.
SKU: BR.EB-9074
ISBN 9790004179499. 9 x 12 inches.
World premieres:I version for flute: Wiesbaden, 1972II version for piano: Nyon, 1972III version for var. insts.: Cologne, May 29, 1976VI version for accordeon: Fribourg, June 25, 1987VIII version for violoncello Tokyo: October 14, 1989X version for organ: Stuttgart, March 28, 2018This work (A Breath of the Untimely) was first written for solo Flute and dedicated to Aurele Nicolet. Its bears the subtitle Lament on the Loss of Musical Thought - some Madrigals for Solo Flute or Flute with any other Instruments. This serves as a playing instruction but doubles at the same time as an outmoded programme: it refers back to the musical origin of the opening lamenting motif, a tradition which was once of its time but is not of our time - namely the Lamento genre which gave the title to the Chaconne in Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas. Almost simultaneously I wrote a second version for Piano (for Piano one-and-a-half hands), which already formulates possible approaches for the performer, in some detail, to the indicated, quasi-canonic version of the piece in the programme. The multiple version Ein Hauch von Unzeit III realizes a concrete version of a formal state which floats between strict canon and aleatoric principles: each of the musicians who are spread throughout the hall introduces their own idiomatic translation of the flute part. And so the music exists, omnipresent, not only spatially throughout the hall, but also formally in a sort of fluctuating simultaneity. For that reason, it was my express wish to any potential interpreter that they should construct entirely their own version of the piece. A healthy number of musicians have responded to my suggestion - versions of the piece have now been made for guitar (Cornelius Schwehr, Gunther Schneider), accordion (Hugo Noth), double bass (Fernando Grillo), violin (Hansheinz Schneeberger), viola, violoncello, and double bass (trio basso, Koln), violoncello (Michael Bach), trombone (Andrew Digby) and, created by myself, a sung version for voice (to words by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel und Max Bense), and for viola.The most important requirement for the whole piece is absolute stillness, which should as far as possible emanate from the performer. The pauses are occasionally in this respect the most important element. These may, if one can find the necessary stillness, become very long.Ein Hauch von Unzeit (A Breath of the Untimely) - time almost dissolves!(Klaus Huber, 1989/2014 - translation: David Alberman)CD:Jean-Luc Menet (Bass flute)CD Traversieres 120.270Jean-Luc Menet (fl)CD STR 37039Bibliography:Zimmermann, Heidy: Zeitgestaltung im Kompositionsprozess bei Klaus Huber - dargestellt anhand von Skizzen, in: Mnemosyne. Zeit und Gedachtnis in der europaischen Musik des ausgehenden 20. Jahrhunderts, hrsg. von Dorothea Redepenning und Joachim Steinheuer, Saarbrucken: Pfau 2006, S. 90-109World premiere: VIII version for violoncello Tokyo: October 14, 1989.
SKU: BR.EB-9260
World premiere: Stockholm (Festival O/MODERNT), June 19, 2017
ISBN 9790004185605. 9 x 12 inches.
When Hugo Ticciati asked me to write a new piece for his quartet, I was immediately enthusiastic about this project. I love how Hugo and his O/MODERNT String Quartet unite old and new music in a completely natural way. So, I was absolutely excited about Hugo`s idea of having my piece based on two of my idols, Bach and Beethoven, deconstructing the one and constructing the other. With all my respect for these great composers I gave to the piece a very personal inner part consisting of my own music that influenced and inspired the other parts. For the whole piece I felt very close to Beethoven, who said: To make a fugue is not art, which [is something] I have made dozens of times in my study. But the imagination will assert its rights and must come today, in light of the old traditional form, to another truly poetic element. De/Con is a travel into different centuries with different sound-languages. For me, it was like having a wonderful constructive discussion with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, each of us trying to speak our own language, approaching the others step by step. The piece could be defined as a Love Letter to two of the greatest composers ever. De/Con could be preceded by (parts of) Johann Sebastian Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue) and succeeded by Ludwig van Beethoven's Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue). Ideally, then, all parts should be played attacca. It could, but it hasn't to be played with these two pieces. (Manuela Kerer)World premiere: Stockholm (Festival O/MODERNT), June 19, 2017.
SKU: BR.EB-9259
ISBN 9790004185599. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: BT.YE0001
It was a chance visit to a second hand bookshop in Nottingham that set me on the trail of Rossini's now well-known Duetto for cello and double bass. But the story begins earlier than that. In the 1960s I was studying the double bass at the Royal College of Music with Adrian Beers, who was at that time principal of the English Chamber Orchestra, on the front desk of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and a member of the Melos Ensemble of London (then one of the leading ensembles of the world). I was working on the 'Dragonetti Concerto', as most young players do, and I wanted to find out a bit about it. My teacher said he thought the autograph manuscript might be in the British Library,which was all the encouragement I needed to secure a pass to the Reading Room so I could go and see for myself. There, sure enough, I found a large collection of Dragonetti's autograph manuscripts, together with other bound volumes relating to his life. The papers had been lovingly collated and annotated by Vincent Novello, one of Dragonetti's closest friends, then deposited in the library before his departure to Italy in 1848, two years after Dragonetti's death. One of the volumes included a lot of letters about various engagements and music festivals, copies of orders for strings Dragonetti wanted from Italy, details about paintings he wanted to buy, and numerous invitations to private functions. The manuscript of the 'Dragonetti Concerto', of course, wasn't among the papers â?? we now know it to have been written by Edouard Nanny a century or so later. One name that came up regularly in the documents was that of Sir George Smart. Smart had been a violinist in Salomon's orchestra and had played for Haydn at his London concerts in the 1790s. As a child he had learnt much about music from his father, who had in turn been present at many of Handel's rehearsals when he was preparing some of his major works for the first time. Smart was also a fine keyboard player, becoming organist of the Chapel Royal in 1822. As a conductor.
SKU: PR.14440218S
UPC: 680160027170. 9.5 x 13 inches.
The concerts and exhibits of the Cleveland Museum of Art were an important formative influence for me during my student days. So when the invitation came to create a new work celebrating this institution on its seventy-fifth anniversary, I was not only happy to accept, but knew immediately that I wanted to write a piece that would somehow relate specifically to the museum. I decided to make the work a reflection on a painting in the museum's collection: Zurbaran's The Holy House of Nazareth. My quartet is not program music in a narrative sense, but rather a kind of meditation that takes its tone from this painting's remarkable integration of intense affect, mysterious repose and secret geometry. Besides Zurbaran's painting, the piece is occupied with a purely musical object of contemplation: the hymn tune Picardy, best known with the text Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. This tune permeates the harmonic and melodic life of the quartet, sometimes appearing in a very simple, straightforward fashion, but often hidden amidst more complex structures. I was attracted to the melody for its musical qualities, but later realized that the hymn's text also resonates with the mood of the painting; the words speak of a reverent awe, of cherubim with sleepless eye, and of the mystery of the Incarnate Word who must suffer: King of kings, yet born of Mary...
SKU: PR.144402180
UPC: 680160027156. 9.5 x 13 inches.
SKU: HL.49033214
ISBN 9790001135283.
When some time ago I looked at works by the painter Egon Schiele whom I admire very much, I thought which paintings would have been painted by this artist, had he not died much too early. I envisioned the works he had never painted. Isn't it impressive with what modest means he achieves maximum emotional effect? It was this thought, too, that accompanied me during my work on this piece - though painting techniques cannot be directly reflected in the music, of course. Tatjana Komarova.
SKU: BT.DHP-1115204-070
9x12 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.
De Haske's best-selling Pops for String Quartet series offers excellent arrangements for intermediate string quartets who want to bring some classic pop to their performances.Have you ever played Queen with your string quartet? Now you can treat the audience to music from this iconic band. Onder de naam Pops for String Quartet heeft de Haske een nieuwe serie ontwikkeld voor strijkkwartetten die zich eens buiten het klassieke pad willen begeven. Een collectie van uitstekende arrangementen in gemiddelde moeilijkheidsgraad!Brian May (gitarist van Queen) : Killer Queen was the turning point. It was the song that best summed up our kind of music, and a big hit, and we desperately needed it as a mark of something successful happeningfor us... I was always very happy with this song. Maak uw publiek en uzelf ook blij met deze uitgave!Unter dem Titel Pops for String Quartet hat De Haske eine Notenreihe ins Leben gerufen, die Streichquartette, die sich einmal abseits der ausgetretenen klassischen Pfade bewegen wollen, mit ausgezeichneten Arrangements im leichten bis mittleren Schwierigkeitsgrad versorgt.Haben Sie schon einmal Queen im Streichquartett gespielt? Mit dieser Ausgabe können Sie sich (und Ihrem Publikum) dieses Vergnügen gönnen! La collection Killer Queen pour Quatuor Cordes. Pops for String Quartet: una collana per tutti i violinisti desiderosi di suonare qualcosa di diverso dal repertorio classico.Avete gi suonato un brano dei Queen con un quartetto di archi? Un brano che delizier sia voi sia chi vi ascolta!
SKU: HL.14008374
ISBN 9781846096150. UPC: 884088435202. 8.25x11.75x0.105 inches.
The Full Score for Peter Maxwell Davies' fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company, first performed by the Maggini Quartet on 20th August 2004 at the Chapel of the Royal Palace, Oslo, Norway, as part of the Olso Chamber Music Festival. Composer Note: The fourth Naxos quartet was written in January and February of 2004, with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than its predecessor, an unpremeditated and spontaneous reaction to the illegal invasion of Iraq. I returned to the well-known Brueghel picture of children's games (1560, now in Vienna), which had been the inspiration for my sixth Strathclyde Concerto, for flute and orchestra. These illustrations liberated my musical imagination, but I feel it would limit the listener's perception to be too specific about which game relates to exactly which section of the work. Suffice it to say that there is vigorous play - leap-frog, bind the devil with a cord, truss, wrestling - alongside quieter pastimes - masks, guess whom I shall choose, courting, odds and evens. The single movement juxtaposes these activities as abruptly and intimately as they occur in Brueghel. Rather as the eye is taken into different perspectives and proportions of scale within the picture, taking liberties which would never be present in, for instance, Brunelleschi architectural drawings, so here, with a constant sequence of transformation processes, I have distorted the neat, precise implications of modal progression, expressed in the unison opening phrase (from F to B through A sharp/B flat), so that the ear is led, en route, into the sound equivalents of strange passageways and closed rooms: sicut exposition ludus. As work on the quartet progressed I became aware that I was reading into, and behind the games, adult motives and implications, concerning aggression and war, with their consequences. It was impossible to escape into innocent childhood fantasy. The nature of the F to B progression underlying the whole construction derives from a passage in the development of the first movement of Mahler's Third Symphony, and the opening of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet. However, unlike in these models, here a real - if temporary - sense of resolution occurs at the close of the quartet: as when the curtain falls on the reconciled Count and Countess in 'Figaro' one wonders how long the F/B truce will hold, and games break out again. The quartet is dedicated to Giuseppe Rebecchini, Roman architect, and friend since the nineteen-fifties.
SKU: BO.B.3664
Cuarteto San Petersburgo (The Saint Petersburg Quartet) was written between January and March 2011. It owes its name to the fact that Saint Petersburg has been a very significant city for me. I was invited there in 1988 to take part in a big contemporary music festival, but my uninterrupted bond with the city started on 2002, thanks to the negotiations of my friend and pupil Albert Barbeta. Since then, I have constantly travelled there in order to record a considerable part of my repertoire: seventeen pieces. In addition to the concerts we went to, I took the opportunity during my trips to visit the well-known conservatoire where so many great personalities from the world of music composition once taught, and the place that launched the most important violin school in the whole of Russia: the school of Leopoldo Auer. Spending a long time in Auer's classroom writing my concert for violin and orchestra was an unforgettable experience for me. His large portrait motivated me even further.Cuarteto San Petersburgo evokes many of the most cherished and moving moments that I have had in this city. It is structured in four movements. The first one, Allegretto-Allegro, opens with an introduction that sets forth the two main themes, amid a soft and elastic atmosphere. The Allegro starts vigorously and in it we find changes in the tempo and moments of mystery, as well as certain seclusion, returning then to the emphatic theme where the counterpoint finds its place. The movement ends placidly.The Scherzo-marcato that follows is marked by a persistent rhythm of triplets that carries on from beginning to end. The tempo does not change, but brief and decided themes are introduced, as well as passages of counterpoint. Brief and dissonant chords are heard throughout the movement, which ends vigorously.The third movement, Ut, is a very special one. For a while already I had been playing with the idea of writing a movement that was to have the tonality C as a leitmotiv. This one is made up by two slow and static parts. In the first one, the first violin plays pizzicatti-glissandi. In the second, the first violin and particularly the violoncello settle on C while the other two instruments produce descending chromatic harmonies.Finally, the Introduccion-Presto (the Introduction-Presto). It starts with some bucolic passages which remind us of the introduction to the first movement. A fast and energetic Presto suddenly erupts. A kind of moto perpetuo which alternates with two expressive passages and, towards the end, a viola and violoncello tremolo, all of great mystery and expectation, make way for a resounding finale marcato.
SKU: BT.EMBZ14768
Not many people know that Franz Liszt arranged some of his piano pieces for the cello, with piano accompaniment, and that these versions of the works appeared in print during the maestro's lifetime. Ãrpád Pejtsik selected two of these for this volume compiled to mark Liszt's jubilee: Elegies I and II. The other compositions by Liszt that appear in the collection were likewise originally works for piano: the Ave Maria and Cantique d'amour (pieces from the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses cycle) were transcribed by a pupil of Liszt, Robert Pflughaupt the cello version, transposed into G major, of the E Major Consolation is by Jules de Swert, solo cellist in the Weimar orchestraof those days that of the Angelus (the opening piece in Volume 3 of the cycle entitled Years of Pilgrimage ) is by Lothar Windsperger, a German composer who lived at the turn of the 19th-20th century. The Valse oubliée No. 1 was transcribed by Liszt s virtuoso piano pupil Ferruccio Busoni Notturno, which became famous as the third piece in the Liebesträume series, is a transposed version of the original song ( O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst ) made by the editor of this volume. Not many people know that Ferenc Liszt arranged some of his piano pieces for the cello, with piano accompaniment, and this version of the works appeared in print during the maestro's lifetime. Ãrpád Pejtsik selected two of these forthis volume compiled to mark Liszt's jubilee: Elegy I and Elegy II. The other compositions by Liszt that appear in the collection were likewise originally works for piano: the Ave Maria and Cantique d'amour(pieces from the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses cycle) were transcribed by a pupil of Liszt, Robert Pflughaupt; the cello version, transposed into G major, of the E major Consolation is by Jules de Swert, solo cellistin the Weimar orchestra of those days; that of the Angelus (the opening piece in Volume 3 of the cycle entitled Years of Pilgrimage) is by Lothar Windsperger, a German composer who lived at the turn of the 19th-20thcentury.Nur Wenigen ist bekannt, dass Liszt einige seiner Klavierstücke auch für Violoncello mit Klavierbegleitung bearbeitet hatte, und dass diese Version der Werke noch zu Lebzeiten des Komponisten in Druck erschien. In diesem Band nahm Ãrpád Pejtsik zwei dieser Stücke, die I. und II. Elegie auf. Die anderen Liszt-Kompositionen in der Sammlung sind auch ursprünglich Klavierwerke: der Bearbeiter ist beim Ave Maria und Cantique d'amour (Stücke aus dem Zyklus Harmonies poétiques et religieuses) der Liszt-Schüler Robert Pflughaupt. Von Jules de Swert, der damals Solocellist des Weimarer Orchesters war, wurde die in G-Dur transponierte Violoncelloversion der E-Dur Consolation, und vonLothar Windsperger, dem an der Wende zum 20. Jahrhundert lebenden deutschen Komponisten, das Angelus (das Eröffnungsstück des III. Bandes des Zyklus Pilgerjahre) bearbeitet.
SKU: BR.EB-9244
ISBN 9790004185445. 9 x 12 inches.
It was the practice of Khoomii (throat singing) - following several workshops with Michael Ormiston - that first attracted me to Tuvan music. Composing this Songbook, the first in a series commissioned by the Ligeti Quartet, I took the chance to reflect on compositional questions around transcription and arrangement of existing music, and frequently found myself asking: where is the boundary between the source material and the new substance? Of course the relationship varies from piece to piece, and moment to moment: sometimes we seem to glimpse the pure source, but most of the time there are differing degrees of distance, working towards or away from it. This new version for string orchestra corresponds closely to the original quartet version, with an additional part for double basses.The traditional Tuvan songs that I have transcribed and recomposed are all known to me from the Ay Kherel CD The Music of Tuva: Throat Singing and Instruments from Central Asia (2004, Arc Music). According to the notes from that CD, this is what the songs are about:1. Dyngylday: If you have come on a horse in blue, it doesn't mean that you are the best. My heart tells me something else: my sweetheart doesn't have such a beautiful horse, but he is my darling.An alternative interpretation from Alash Ensemble (alashensemble.com): The word dyngylday is a nonsense term with no translation. The song makes good-humored fun of somebody for being a good-for-nothing.2. Eki Attar (The Best Steeds): The horse is the basis of our life. It is a magic creature. Even its step is full of music and rhythm. You may not be a horse rider, but when you hear this song you will always remember horses.3. Kuda Yry: This wedding song glorifies the strength of the groom and the beauty of his Horse.4. Ezir-Kara ('Black Eagle'): This was the name of a horse, who became a legend through his remarkable strength and speed.It is not just overtones that abound here: there are galloping rhythms aplenty, and though I am no horse rider I tried to keep the horses galloping in my imagination while composing these pieces.Christian Mason (with quotes from Ay Kherel and Alash Ensemble)World premiere of the original version: London/UK, May 10, 2016, World premiere of the string orchestra version: Clermont-Ferrand/France, October 8, 2020.
SKU: BR.EB-9243
ISBN 9790004185438. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: FG.55011-484-5
ISBN 9790550114845.
In January 1999, Nieminen worked with his oboe piece Elegy for Agatha. The work kept running through his mind. Its musically intimate and intriguing setting seemed to include sufficient elements for explicating a bigger whole. The poem by Hannele Huovi was the inspiration of the sequel: Kuulen virtaavaa valoa ja se on pimeys (I can here streaming light and it is darkness). In his work, Nieminen also looks back on his days in military service. The mental pictures created decades ago on guard during winter frost amid silence combined with Huovi's poem took a musical shape. I Hear Streaming Light (1999) for the String Quartet was created out of these ideas, which together with Elegy for Agatha constitute a whole called I Can Hear Northern Lights. All musical material and melodic themes of the string quartet piece originate from Elegy for Agatha but they do not appear in their original forms.
SKU: BT.EMBZ14779
The arranger of this work (a well-known Hungarian composer living in Romania) writes: This piece has always excited my imagination, from several points of view. First of all, its name. The German title, the obstinate one, may refer to its ostinato character. This is close to Liszt's programme concept, but the French word 'obstiné' is closer in meaning to stubborn. There is just a shade of difference, but to me it is important, because the latter suggests the description of a type of behaviour, the emotional state of a dancer's inner frame of mind abstracted into movements, expressed in dance movements, and this is a fascinating interpretation. The demonstration ofstubborn resistance and defiance to the point of exhaustion was not a frequently occurring phenomenon with Liszt. Secondly, at the beginning of the seventies Zoltán Kocsis played the piece in Transylvania. At that time, I asked the composer, Is the character of the continuous staccato in the left hand sharp, short, or an accompanying background like a constant shadow? Is it a weighty Brahmsian staccato, an ominous knocking? - and so on. Then there are the Bartókian false relations that keep recurring in the work, the B-E flat-G, etc. That foreshadows Debussy, creating harmonic thrills that, when I hear the work, keep my continuing interest alive for it. Finally, my immediate reason for arranging the work was of a family nature: in connection with Liszt's jubilee year, my daughter, who is a cellist, wanted a 'more energetic' piece to play at a bicentenary concert an addition to the existing slow, lyrical, or sombre works written by Liszt for the cello. The arranger of this work, the well-known Romania-based Hungarian composer Cs ky Boldizsár writes: This piece has always excited my imagination, from several points of view. First of all, its name. The German title, the obstinateone, may refer to its ostinato character, this is close to Liszt's programme concept, but the French word 'obstiné' is closer in meaning to stubborn. There is just a shade of difference, but to me it is important, because the lattersuggests the description of a type of behaviour, the emotional state of a dancer's inner frame of mind abstracted into movements, expressed in dance movements, and this is a fascinating interpretation. The demonstration of stubbornresistance , defiance to the point of exhaustion, was not a frequently occurring phenomenon with Liszt. Secondly, at the beginning of the seventies Zoltán Kocsis played the piece here in Transylvania (Romania).Der Bearbeiter des Werkes, der renommierte ungarische Komponist aus Rumänien, schreibt: Dieses Stück reizte immer schon meine Phantasie, sogar in vielerlei Hinsicht. Als erstes sein Name. Der deutsche Titel ‚Hartnäckiger' kann auf den ihm innewohnenden ostinativen Charakter hinweisen, was der Liszt'schen Programm-Konzeption näher kommt, das französische ,obstiné' steht jedoch eher dem Wort ‚dickköpfig' nah. Das sind nur geringfügige Unterschiede, mir ist das dennoch wichtig, weil aus Letzterem die Darstellung eines Verhaltens, der in Tanzgesten ausgedrückte, zur Bewegung abstrahierte innere emotionale Zustand eines Tänzers durchscheint, und das ist eine überaus beeindruckendeErklärung. Die Demonstration des bis zur Erschöpfung reichenden Trotzes, der störrischen Kraft erscheint bei Liszt selten. Der zweite Aspekt: Zu Beginn der 70er Jahre spielte bei uns Zoltán Kocsis das Stück. Schon damals (und seitdem) frage ich den Komponisten:.
SKU: AP.36-52703614
ISBN 9781581069761. UPC: 654690687517. English.
This collection of folk songs from Latin America (Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala) are meant to expand young player's knowledge of music from other cultures or give them pride in the music of their own heritage. The music is mostly in 1st position with only Violin 1 and Violoncello wandering briefly into other positions. Players will use pizzicato and a variety of bowing styles.
Program Notes:
These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.
SKU: PR.16400222S
UPC: 680160037841.
This work follows my Quartet No. 1 by five years. In terms of style and aesthetic aim, however, it seems light years away. Where the first work, a 28-minute, four-movement piece, took aim at cosmic conflicts and heroic resolutions, the present work is intended as a kind of divertissment. Harbor Music lasts a mere eleven minutes, is cast in a single movement with six sections, and should leave both performers and listeners with a feeling of good humor and affection. The title comes from my experience as a guest in the magnificent city of Sydney, Australia. One of its most attractive features is its unique system of ferry boats: the city is laid out around a large, multi-channeled harbor, with destinations more easily approached by water than by land. Consequently, inhabitants of Sydney get around on small, people-friendly boats that come and go from the central docks at Circular Quay. During a week's visit in 1991, I must have boarded these boats at least a dozen times, always bound for a new location - the resort town of Manley, or the Zoo at Taronga Park, or the shopping district at Darling Harbour. In casting about for a form for my second string quartet, a kind of loose rondo came to mind. Each new destination would be approached from the same starting-out point (although there are subtle variations in the repeating theme; it's always in a new key, and the texture is never the same). The result, I hope, is a sense of constant new information presented with introductory frames of a more familiar nature. The embarkation theme, which begins the piece, is a sort of bi-tonal fanfare in which the violins are in G major and the viola and cello are in B-flat major. It is bold, eager, and forward-looking. The first voyage maintains this bi-tonality, beginning as a 9/8 due for second violin and viola in a kind of rocking motion -much as a boat produces when reaching the deeper water in the harbor. A sweet, nostalgic theme emerges over this rocking accompaniment. This music is developed somewhat, then transforms quickly into a much faster and lighter episode, filled with rising and falling scales (again, in differing keys). A scherzando interlude in short notes and changing meters provides contrast, and the episode ends with a reprise of the scales. The second embarkation follows, this time in A major/C major. It leads quickly into a very warm and slow theme, in wide-leaping intervals for the viola. This section is interrupted twice by solo cadenzas for the cello, suggesting distant boat-horns in major thirds. The end of the episode becomes a transition, with boat-horns leading into the final appearance of the embarkation music, this time in trills and tremolos instead of sharply accented chords. The nostalgic theme of the first episode makes a final appearance, serving now as a coda. The rocking motion continues, in a lullaby fashion, leaving us drowsy and satisfied on our homeward journey. Harbor Music was written for the Cavani Quartet, and is dedicated to Richard J. Bogomolny. Commissioned by his employees at First National Supermarkets as a gift, it represents a thank you from many of the people (including this composer) who have benefitted from his vision and generosity. An ardent advocate of chamber music (and a cellist himself), Mr. Bogomolny has for many years been Chairman of the Board of Chamber Music America. -- Dan Welcher.
SKU: BO.B.3542
Staeliana was commissioned by the Fundacio Caixa de Catalunya in 2007 for the inauguration of an exposition of the work of Nicolas Staël at La Pedrera, Barcelona. In this work I wanted to compose homage to a painter who knew how to join together in his unique works both the traditions of the past along with the vanguard of his time. Beginning with figurative works which lead toward abstraction, his body of work can be defined as a contrast between these two concepts which, with extreme simplicity, define his entire artistic conception. Staeliana, an expressive chorale, at times both luminous and dramatic, dissolves into the most minimal expression. From the first joining together of the voices it concludes with utter simplicity of expression. The suicide of the artist in 1955 is representative of the dissolution of his existence as well as of his artistic works. This contrast between figurative and abstraction is reflected in the music by the contrast between stability and tension. I believe that this duality may be found both in his work and in his life, always oscillating between living a creative life or opting for death, which may be seen as a fusion in nothingness with the plenitude of purest simplicity.
SKU: HL.50512037
ISBN 9790080147795. UPC: 884088668723. 9.0x12.0x0.079 inches. Ferenc Liszt; Boldizsar Csiky.
The arranger of this work (a well-known Hungarian composer living in Romania) writes: +This piece has always excited my imagination, from several points of view. First of all, its name. The German title, the obstinate one, may refer to its ostinato character. This is close to Liszt's programme concept, but the French word 'obstine' is closer in meaning to stubborn. There is just a shade of difference, but to me it is important, because the latter suggests the description of a type of behaviour, the emotional state of a dancer's inner frame of mind abstracted into movements, expressed in dance movements, and this is a fascinating interpretation. The demonstration of stubborn resistance and defiance to the point of exhaustion was not a frequently occurring phenomenon with Liszt. Secondly, at the beginning of the seventies Zoltan Kocsis played the piece in Transylvania. At that time, I asked the composer, +Is the character of the continuous staccato in the left hand sharp, short, or an accompanying background like a constant shadow? Is it a weighty Brahmsian staccato, an ominous knocking? - and so on. Then there are the Bartokian false relations that keep recurring in the work, the B-E flat-G, etc. That foreshadows Debussy, creating harmonic thrills that, when I hear the work, keep my continuing interest alive for it. Finally, my immediate reason for arranging the work was of a family nature: in connection with Liszt's jubilee year, my daughter, who is a cellist, wanted a 'more energetic' piece to play at a bicentenary concert an addition to the existing slow, lyrical, or sombre works written by Liszt for the cello.+.
SKU: BT.DHP-1115206-070
ISBN 9789043149297. 9x12 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.
De Haske's best-selling Pops for String Quartet series offers excellent arrangements for intermediate string quartets who want to bring some classic pop to their performances.This lyrical ballad was released by Billy Joel in 1977 and has gained popularity recently when it was used for a John Lewis television advert. Onder de naam Pops for String Quartet heeft de Haske een nieuwe serie ontwikkeld voor strijkkwartetten die zich eens buiten het klassieke pad willen begeven. Een collectie van uitstekende arrangementen in gemiddelde moeilijkheidsgraad!Deze prachtige ballad uit de jaren zeventig van Billy Joel leent zich uitstekend voor een gevoelige interpretatie door strijkkwartet.Unter dem Titel Pops for String Quartet hat De Haske eine Notenreihe ins Leben gerufen, die Streichquartette, die sich einmal abseits der ausgetretenen klassischen Pfade bewegen wollen, mit ausgezeichneten Arrangements im leichten bis mittleren Schwierigkeitsgrad versorgt.Die lyrische Ballade von Billy Joel aus dem Jahre 1977 eignet sich vorzüglich für eine gefühlvolle Interpretation im Streichquartett! La collection Pops for String Quartet des Éditions De Haske présente des arrangements originaux de pièces stupéfiantes, sans jamais dépasser un degré de difficulté élémentaire. Laissez-vous surprendre par ces quatuors d'un genre nouveau !Cette merveilleuse ballade, écrite par Billy Joel en 1977, a été magnifiquement arrangée pour Quatuor Cordes. Pops for String Quartet: una collana per tutti i violinisti desiderosi di suonare qualcosa di diverso dal repertorio classico.La splendida ballata lirica di Bill Joel del 1977 si presta alla perfezione per essere interpretata da un quartetto di archi.
SKU: HL.49044838
ISBN 9790220134418. UPC: 841886027602. 9.0x12.0x0.067 inches.
Vier Seiten for violoncello is an attempt to present an event that in reality takes about two seconds in extreme slow motion, thus making even the micromovements visible or audible beyond the straight line of motion.When I composed the piece, the fatal accident of Ayrton Senna came to my mind again and again - an accident which was shown on TV in slow motion again and again until it became unbearable. The fast motion of the car immediately before the crash into a concrete wall, a motion which was no longer purposeful but out of control and which had the car pulled to and fro and from side to side, was followed by that crash. In this extreme slow motion, it is no longer shown as a crash but as the fast telescoping of carbon fibre, metal and human body parts.After this crash, as a postlude so to speak, everything suddenly slowed down, tyres and automotive particles floating in the air, the torso of the vehicle swinging until the motion stopped. It was not until this moment that I realized that the whole presentation of the incident had been accompanied by paralyzing silence.- Thomas LarcherVier Seiten is a response to Ayrton Senna's fatal car accident, portrayed in slow motion, as it was repeatedly shown on television at the time. In this poignant work, a violent fast section represents the crash, followed by a long epilogue, reflecting the apparent stillness of the immediate aftermath.