SKU: HL.48025055

ISBN 9781784547042. UPC: 196288024316. 9.0x12.0x0.235 inches.

The full range of traditional fiddle repertoire is now at your fingertips! Using these generous collections, you can create your own ceilidh, barn dance, jazz club or Sarajevo street-café. Some of this music is familiar, some more exotic, but all of it is absolutely authentic, faithfully arranged and, above all, hugely enjoyable. Each title in the series is available in two formats: the violin edition (with an optional easy violin part and guitar chords); or the complete edition, which also includes both keyboard and violin accompaniments. Either format is hugely flexible, which means themusic can be played as solos, duets or trios as well as with larger ensembles. Edward Huws Jones has travelled extensively researching fiddle-playing traditions. In each book he explains the background of the particular musical style, giving his own suggestions for a lively performance.

SKU: PR.114419280

ISBN 9781491132357. UPC: 680160676125.

Inspired by Chinese tradition, this concerto-like dance suite includes: 1. Lion Dance, 2. YangKo, and 3. Muqam. Each movement draws from melodies and rhythms characteristic of various regions of China many centuries ago. CHINESE FOLK DANCE SUITE is available for violin with full orchestra, or as a recital work with piano.
Supported by a major commissioning award from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, Chinese Folk Dance Suite is written for solo violin and orchestra; it was premiered by The Women’s Philharmonic with violin soloist Terrie Baune, conducted by Apo Hsu, on March 10, 2001, at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts Theater in San Francisco.Inspired by various Chinese traditional folk dances, the suite has three movements:I. Lion Dance. Traditionally, people dance with richly decorated hand-made lions, accompanied by percussion ensemble, to celebrate happy occasions and major festivals throughout the country. In this composition, I use Chinese drum and other percussion instruments in the background, to form a dynamic and rhythmic texture responding to the solo part, which imitates the tunes played on the suona (traditional Chinese trumpet). The pitch materials came from the traditional Guangdong tune “Dragon Boat Racing,” and the Chaozhou tune “Lion Playing Ball.”II. YangKo. Originating in northern China, this is a major folk dance form in mass performance popularized in the country. In YangKo performance, people play rhythmic patterns on the drums hung around their waists while singing and dancing. In the second movement, I imagined a warm scene of YangKo dancing in distance. The solo violin plays a sweet and gracious melodic line while all members of the orchestra sing non-pitched syllables in different layers as the soft background, to imitate the percussion sound which produces the ever-going pulse.III. Muqam. This large-scale music and dance form, from the Uygur nationality in Xinjiang province, originated in the 15th century. My third movement use a 7/8 meter and the melodic style of Muqam music. The fiery dancing gesture culminates in the sustained climax section at the end of the work, after a colorful violin cadenza in both improvisational singing style and polyphonic writing with woven lines.

SKU: HL.48024317

ISBN 9780851626932. UPC: 888680748180. 9.0x12.0x0.35 inches. Ed. Edward Huws Jones Book/CD Pack.

Edward Huws Jones' popular series of traditional fiddle repertoire, now available with expertly-recorded audio CD. Containing colorful instrumental backing tracks and full demonstrations, the new audio resource will aid and inspire your private practice and public performance alike. These generous collections of authentic music, some familiar, some more exotic, but all of it faithfully arranged, enable you to create your own ceilidh, bluegrass club or charanga band. The violin edition includes optional easy violin part and guitar chords, while the complete edition also includes both keyboard and violin accompaniments. Either format is highly flexible, which means the music can be played as solos, duets or trios as well as with larger ensembles. Edwards Huws Jones has travelled extensively researching fiddle-playing traditions. In each book he explains the background of the particular musical style, giving his own suggestions for a lively performance.

SKU: BR.EB-9168

World premiere: Halle, February 16, 2002

ISBN 9790004184806. 9 x 12 inches.

Waldschrats Nachtlied is a concert piece that is practically guaranteed to make a major impact. In the dark of night, a hobgoblin and his companion are whisking about the forest. The tempo is brisk, and the permanent change of meter ensures productive turbulence. At the beginning, the roles of the two instruments are distributed rather traditionally; then the violins and the pianos upper part are briefly led in genuine parallel motion in the monolithic section. Afterwards, the virtuoso chase through the woods continues as before.

World premiere: Halle, February 16, 2002.

SKU: PR.414411630

ISBN 9781491114551. UPC: 680160089956. 9.5 x 13 inches.

EXCURSIONS is a one-movement work exploring two “characters.” A rhapsodic, descending passage is introduced by the cello, followed by a  static, chorale-like phrase for the violin and cello. Their individual developments are separated by a slow, contrasting middle section. The composer has written: “This is analogous to situations in life: we stand by a crossroad, choosing one option and forfeiting the other. But in art, the realm of the imagination, we can perhaps afford to pursue more than one route to its ultimate destination… or can we? It is symbolic that in this work both roads eventually lead to the same place.”.
Excursions for violin, cello and piano, is a one-movement work of tripartite structure in which materials explored in the first of three large sections are brought back in the last section.  The traditional statement-contrast-restatement form, which is readily suggested by such a description, is, however, not at all in the mold in which the work is cast.  Rather, my aim was to subject the essential materials of the piece (two “characters” –the rhapsodic, descending passage played by the cello in the very opening and, later, a static, slow moving, chorale-like phrase for the violin and cello) to two entirely different developments separated by a slow, contrasting middle section.  This is analogous to an exploration of the ramifications that two divergent choices made by the same person might lead to.  In life, as we stand by a crossroad, choosing one option usually means having to forfeit the other.  But in art, the realm of the imagination, we can perhaps afford to pursue more than one route to its ultimate destination…or can we?  It is, I believe, symbolic that in this work both roads eventually lead to the same place: in composing Excursions, it seemed absolutely inescapable that at the end the slow, contrasting middle sections – both more resigned and peaceful than the battling spirits of the outer parts – should return briefly to end the work. The piano trio combination (once highly favored, but to this composer still as challenging today) is approached here as a collaborative effort of three equal soloists – partners.  Of the available pairings, the two strings find themselves occasionally approached as a team pitted against the piano.  The cello-piano combination is also not uncommon here, and there is an extended violin cadenza toward the end of the piece.  The writing for the three instruments is closely and at times interlinked, but the players are all instructed to play from scores. Excursions was first performed at Brandeis University in 1982.

SKU: HL.49019900

ISBN 9790001193375. 9.25x12.0x0.213 inches.

In this sonata, calm passages alternate with extremely lively ones in traditional style. The piano plays in chordal style most of the time as real accompaniment, with polyphonic ensemble playing not being given special emphasis. The sonata is characterized by melodious cantilenas of the violin, intricate rhythms and almost symphonic tonal eruptions alike. The piece demands great technical skills while actually seeming to be easy to grasp.Mustonen is one of the virtuoso pianists-composers of the younger generation. In his works, he often refers to the history and culture of his home country Finland. He performed the world premiere of his Violin Sonata with the young Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto in London in April 2013.

SKU: HL.48021306

This publication paves the way for intimate chamber music and recital playing. The popular melodies are taken from the early volumesof the Colourstrings Violin ABC. The violin part is printed in two ways: with coloured notes and with traditional note writings. Theparts for violin and piano are available in two separate books.