SKU: PR.114417830
UPC: 680160636860.
With support from Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, Pann's Second String Quartet was written for the Takacs Quartet to honor the contributions of NancyBell Coe as president of the Music Academy of the West. The Takacs, hailed as one of the world's greatest ensembles, performed the work as part of a weeklong series of masterclasses at the Academy's Summer Festival 2015. The Second String Quartet is made up of six descriptive movements: I. L'Extase, II. Precipitato, III. Passacaglias, IV. Commute, V. Adjusting the Torque, VI. Escher's Rounds. For advanced performers.
SKU: PR.11441783S
UPC: 680160636884.
SKU: PR.11441626S
UPC: 680160620067. 9 x 12 inches.
The String Quartet No. 10 was written in 2013 for the 50th anniversary of the Bowdoin International Summer Music Festival and is dedicated to the Cassatt Quartet who premiered the work during the 50th anniversary celebration in July 2014.  The work was written with a generous grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.The 10th String Quartet is in one continuous movement but divided into four sections.  The first section is a slow introduction which presents the basic harmonic material of the entire work.  This is suddenly interrupted by a very agitated movement forming a great contrast to the calm of the beginning.  This rhythmic drive comes to a stop and is relieved by the third section which is a variation of the beginning, but is a bit longer and more developed.  This is followed by the final section which again captures the agitation of the second section and brings the work to a wild and most aggressive end.—Samuel Adler.
SKU: PR.114415860
UPC: 680160612963. 8.5 x 11 inches.
Nicholas Yasillo's wife was much taken with medieval-era decorated volumes of prayers and religious scenes, known as the Book of Hours. As such, he commissioned Garrop for a work in her honor. Garrop appropriately uses her String Quartet No. 4 to describe not just five scenes from The Hours by Catherine of Cleves (c. 1400's), but a reading of the book and personal discovery of each illustration (Illuminations). The work was written for the Cecilia Quartet, who gave the premiere in September, 2011. For advanced perfomers. Duration: 19'.
SKU: PR.11441387S
UPC: 680160585694.
Having performed Garrop's String Quartet No. 2: Demons and Angels with much success, it is only natural that the Biava Quartet would handle the premiere of String Quartet No.3: Gaia. In an email interview with Pittsburgh New Music Net, Biava violist Mary Persin says, in part, We received many very enthusiastic responses from audience members who were struck by the interesting form, as well as the sonorities created by using a good deal of dissonance as well as harmonics. Watch for a recording by the Biava Quartet to be made available soon. For advanced performers. Duration: 32' 30.
SKU: PR.11441586S
UPC: 680160612987. 8.5 x 11 inches.
SKU: PR.11441382S
UPC: 680160585847.
Another prize-winning composition from Needham is his String Quartet No. 1, which sprang from an afternoon's exposure to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Says the composer, The work itself is about cycles. Nature cycles (day to night, seasonal, moon, tides, etc.), life cycles, and even cycles in music make their way into the piece, both consciously and subconsciously. The work is a homage to nature and to the affective spirit found in the music of Vivaldi..
SKU: HH.HH462-FSP
ISBN 9790708146711.
Cicada larvae live underground for years, creeping about slowly and peacefully in the darkness until that sudden, beautiful brief moment when, one warm, damp summer’s eve, they emerge, metamorphosed into a highly mobile life form. Gaily they dance in the sunshine, singing ardently to the trees in all their greenery --- but only for a short while, for, just as suddenly, they are gone. The same process repeats year upon year. The life cycle of this string quartet resembles that of the cicada. Initially, two embryonic cells remain hidden within dense, gloomy note-clusters; over time they evolve into buds, grow and then blossom. They appear for the first time in their adult form in the fast middle section, where they assume the shape of two very popular Chinese folk melodies, Jasmine and Old Six Blows, albeit in wholly chromaticized and defamiliarized variants. After their grand efflorescence, these forms gradually dissolve into transparent wisps of sound.
SKU: PR.114413820
UPC: 680160585830.
SKU: FG.55011-291-9
ISBN 9790-55011-291-9.
This commission from the Jyvaskyla Summer Festival was dedicated to Matti Rautio, a fellow composer. There is a romantic undercurrent vibrating under the neoclassical surface of this work in four movements. The total duration is ca. 23 minutes.
SKU: FG.55011-292-6
ISBN 9790-55011-292-6.
