SKU: HL.48181006

UPC: 888680878726. 9.0x12.0x0.06 inches.

As a prestigious composer of the early 20th century, Maurice Ravel's Piece in the Habanera Style, transcribed for bassoon and piano by Fernand Oubradous contains many features which continue to make the composer's music popular and loved to this day. Known for his masterful melodies and rich harmonies, Piece in the Habanera Style clearly exemplifies these qualities through flourishing bassoon lines and evocative, chordal and rhythmic piano accompaniments. Moreover, habanera rhythms heard throughout the piece create further excitment. All of these musical elements combined create a highly enjoyable piece for the bassoon and piano repertoire. In addition, the clear print of separate solo and accompaniment parts in this edition of Piece in the Habanera Style add to an irresistible purchase for aspiring bassoon players.

SKU: CF.SPS80

ISBN 9781491152577. UPC: 680160910076. Key: Bb major.

With Wind and Water is a musical portrayal of an adventure on the high seas during the sailing age. It was during the 16th to the mid-19th century where large sailing vessels dominated global exploration, international trade, and naval warfare. The piece's compound meter provides the pulse of movement as it pitches and rolls with the rhythm of the waves. The driving main melodies convey the determination and courage of the explorers and their crew. Dissonant harmonies suggest rough seas, turbulent weather, and other constant dangers that sailors must endure. Finally, the ending sweeping melody and climax reflects the joy and triumph at arriving on a new land at the apex of a long and intense voyage.
With evidence of watercraft dating back to 8000 BC, travel by water has remained an important aspect of life to many civilizations. From paddling down a river or crossing a large lake, to steaming across an entire ocean, generations of humans have traveled on water to explore foreign lands, to seek food and precious materials, to move and trade cargo, and to attack and fend off enemies.With Wind and Water is a musical portrayal of an adventure on the high seas during the age of sail. It was during the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century when large sailing vessels dominated global exploration, international trade, and naval warfare.  Our ship sets sail!The compound meter provides the pulse of movement as it pitches and rolls with the rhythm of the waves. The driving main melodies convey the determination and courage of the explorers and their crew. Dissonant harmonies suggest rough seas, turbulent weather and other constant dangers that sailors must endure. The final sweeping melody and climax reflect the joy and triumph at arriving on a new land at the apex of a long and intense voyage. With Wind and Water was commissioned by the Florida Bandmasters Association for the 2016 Nine Star Honor Band.

SKU: PR.416411770

UPC: 680160091508.

I was tempted to call the piece Throw Back because it consciously employs rhythmic and harmonic approaches characteristic of the earlier part of the twentieth century, much of which plays a part in forging my musical personality. Going along with the impetus, I have paid homage by subtly interpolating stylistic or actual references to such unexpected bedfellows as Scriabin, Ravel, Debussy, Piston, Roussel, and Ysaye. I hope I will be musically forgiven. In one continuous movement, there are three definite internal sections: Presto-Largo-Allegro. The first section opens with a very soft percussion cadenza. If the acoustics allow it, the player will use sponge pottery mallets (sponge-headed mallets employed to smooth the interior of a pot as it is being spin-dried). No matter how hard the percussionist strikes the drums, the dynamic cannot go above pp (pianissimo). This cadenza serves as a basis for the first movement. The elements of the cadenza are taken by the orchestra to make the first major statement, similar to the classical concerto; but rather than making a restatement, the soloists, when they come in, begin with variational ideas. The second section is given over to the soloists, and is lyrical. The third section begins with an alternation between strict rhythmic pulsation and free-sounding timbres, as if reluctant to leave the second section behind. The rhythmic aspect takes over more and more as the piece progresses toward its conclusion. Double Play was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with financial assistance from the Northwest Area Foundation. It received its premiere on January 7, 1983, in St. Paul, with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Pinchas Zukerman, violinist; Marc Neikrug, piano; and the composer conducting.

SKU: PR.16500092L

UPC: 680160039531. 11 x 17 inches.

Zion is the third and final installment of a series of works for Wind Ensemble inspired by national parks in the western United States, collectively called Three Places in the West. As in the other two works (The Yellowstone Fires and Arches), it is my intention to convey more an impression of the feelings I've had in Zion National Park in Utah than an attempt at pictorial description. Zion is a place with unrivalled natural grandeur, being a sort of huge box canyon in which the traveler is constantly overwhelmed by towering rock walls on every side of him -- but it is also a place with a human history, having been inhabited by several tribes of native Americans before the arrival of the Mormon settlers in the mid-19th century. By the time the Mormons reached Utah, they had been driven all the way from New York State through Ohio and, with tragic losses, through Missouri. They saw Utah in general as a place nobody wanted, but they were nonetheless determined to keep it to themselves. Although Zion Canyon was never a Mormon Stronghold, the people who reached it and claimed it (and gave it its present name) had been through extreme trials. It is the religious fervor of these persecuted people that I was able to draw upon in creating Zion as a piece of music. There are two quoted hymns in the work: Zion's Walls (which Aaron Copland adapted to his own purposes in both is Old American Songs and the opera The Tender Land) and Zion's Security, which I found in the same volume in which Copland found Zion's Walls -- that inexhaustible storehouse of 19th-century hymnody called The Sacred Harp. My work opens with a three-verse setting of Zion's Security, a stern tune in F-sharp minor which is full of resolve. (The words of this hymn are resolute and strong, rallying the faithful to be firm, and describing the city of our God they hope to establish). This melody alternates with a fanfare tune, whose origins will be revealed in later music, until the second half of the piece begins: a driving rhythmic ostinato based on a 3/4-4/4 alternating meter scheme. This pauses at its height to restate Zion's Security one more time, in a rather obscure setting surrounded by freely shifting patterns in the flutes, clarinets, and percussion -- until the sun warms the ground sufficiently for the second hymn to appear. Zion's Walls is set in 7/8, unlike Copland's 9/8-6/8 meters (the original is quite strange, and doesn't really fit any constant meter), and is introduced by a warm horn solo. The two hymns vie for attention from here to the end of the piece, with the glowingly optimistic Zion's Walls finally achieving prominence. The work ends with a sense of triumph and unbreakable spirit. Zion was commissioned in 1994 by the wind ensembles of the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Oklahoma. It is dedicated to the memory of Aaron Copland.