SKU: FT.FM873

ISBN 9790570487721. 21 x 30 cm inches.

Reflection for flute and piano is a contemplative and moody duet between the two instruments, which are of equal importance to the piece. As the title might suggest, it was written with themes of self-reflection, introspection and contemplation in mind. The listener is presented two different sides of this internal process via two opposing themes - with contrasting modal colours - successively presented and alternating in an extended binary form. The first represents a calmer, more sombre and hopeful version of this idea, whereas the second offers a realisation of anxiety and agitation. Taking inspiration from the often diametric and contradictory nature of one's thought processes, these ideas alternate, gradually intertwining and borrowing aspects from one another, until a chaotic flurry of anxious energy brings the rising tension to a fierce conclusion. In the aftermath of this climax, a dark and twisted version of the initial tranquillity presents itself as the inevitable union of these two patterns of thought. Thankfully (for the listener!) this instability breaks apart, so that the conclusion to the abstract debate can reach a quietly confident resolution, signified by the recapitulation of the initial theme.

SKU: HL.50563229

Inch....this work is likely to become a standart work very quickly and is to be recommended to all schools where recorder studies are undertaken inch. (Oliver James,Contact Magazine) A novel and comprehensive approach to transferring from the C to F instrument. 430 music examples include folk and national songs (some in two parts), country dance tunes and excerpts from the standard treble repertoire ofBach, Barsanti, Corelli, Handel, Telemann, etc. An outstanding feature of the book has proved to be Brian Bonsor's brilliantly simple but highly effective practice circles and recognition squares designed to give, in only a few minutes, concentrated practice on the more usual leaps to and from each new note and instant recognition of random notes. Quickly emulating the outstanding success of the descant tutors, these books are very popular even with those who normally use tutors other than the Enjoy the Recorder series.

SKU: P2.10020

The first part of the Chthonic Flute Suite commissioned by Areon Flutes in 2012. This suite has two main inspirations: ideologically it draws guidance from the book The Dream and the Underworld (1979)by James Hillman (1926-2011) and musically it explores the textural possibilities of a flute ensemble within the context of the heavy chamber music style I have developed with Edmund Welles: the bass clarinet quartet since 1996. This style draws virtuosic precision from the classical realm; innovation and texture from jazz; and power, rhythm and overall perspective from rock and metal. The term chthonic [thon-ik] generally means underworld. However, Hillman thoroughly elaborates that its true meaning extends below the earth and beyond it into invisible, non-physical and far distant psychic realms: the deeper mysteries of the invisible. The journey to the underworld is a solo undertaking of the self, towards the unknown, yet still rooted within. The low bass tones invoke mystery and point the direction. As an explorer, licensed teacher of and composer for the shakuhachi (an ancient Zen flute crafted from the thicker root-end of bamboo) I have become initiated into the sense-characteristics of playing a flute that has actual roots as part of its structure. Physically this changes the balance, sonically it presents certain deepening qualities, and aesthetically it alters your connection to the dead and dried piece of nature. I have composed 27 solo pieces and etudes for Taimu (a very thick, bass variant on the traditional shakuhachi flute) and tapped into the same dense, slow, timbral approach for this movement. However, the chromatic, metal, modern bass flute offers a whole new set of possibilities and so the movement explores a wide realm of sounds and tempos. Being rooted in the actual ground is an appropriate starting point for the underworld exploration of the whole suite that only goes deeper from this point downwards. The primacy of the root pitch in tonal music is another contributing facet to the root aspect of this title.

SKU: GI.G-RCP57

Edited by Edward Tambling Thomas Tomkins wrote no fewer than seven services: three full and four verse settings. The first two full services, as numbered in the posthumous publication of ‘Musica Deo Sacra’ (1668), are straightforward settings in the central Elizabethan style. The First Service is in the major mode, and the Second Service in the minor: the Third Service is a radical departure in style from these settings and is presented as a ‘Great Service’ in homage to Tomkins’ ‘ancient and much reverenced master, William Byrd’. The Fourth and Fifth are verse services, and a further two are present only in manuscript sources: the Sixth Service received its first modern publication in this series (CP17), edited and reconstructed by Peter James. The Seventh to date is unpublished, and survives only in the form of an organ part, the vocal parts having been lost to history. This numbering system of one to seven is misleading, however, as it confuses the chronology of the compositions: some attempt to clarify this ordering is given in a table at the end of this edition in order to address this matter. Tomkins’ relatively late death places him well into the seventeenth century, at a time when musical fashions were changing and the Civil War was altering the course of British History. However, it is correct to describe him as ‘the last Elizabethan’, as his style remained conservative, as did the genres with which he worked and cultivated. ‘Musica Deo Sacra’ is supposed to have been supervised by his son Nathaniel, and collates much of Tomkins’ music not found in other sources. As such, it is a valuable resource for the material it contains, and is also a landmark in music publishing, in that it presents the first known printed organ book set in moveable type on two staves, an unrewarding process which seems to have caused considerable trouble for its printer, William Godbid. Even John Barnard in preparing his ‘First of Selected Church Musick’ (1641) did not go to the trouble of printing an organ part to supplement his vocal partbooks, instead providing his customers with a blank manuscript book into which the already ubiquitous organ parts could be copied by hand. As a result, Tomkins’ source as a whole contains a number of errors, but all of which can be corrected without distortion to the musical text, and the composer’s intention can be realised without too much difficulty.  In addition to the note on the ordering of the various services by Tomkins, I have endeavoured to give some brief information concerning the pitch of church music of this period with regards to the organ part, a subject much misunderstood and obfuscated by variously contradictory information.  It is hoped that this new edition of Tomkins’ First Evening Service will fill a need for short, attractive settings of the canticles for Evensong, furthering an appreciation of the music of the last great composer of the Renaissance era in Britain.