SKU: BT.EMBZ6748
Hungarian-English-German-French.
The volumes of the series cover the entire music literature from the earliest centurties to our days. The material of the individual volumes containing short, easy pieces to be played in the first three-four years of studying the instrument has been compiled by accomplished music teachers. The majority of the contemporary works included in the volumes have been published in this series for the first time. An ABRSM syllabus title, 2010-16, Grade 2-3.
SKU: CF.YAS171
ISBN 9781491146514. UPC: 680160904013. 9 x 12 inches. Key: G major.
Dream Engine has all of the compositional thumb prints that have made the music of Larry Clark so popular for string orchestras. It is a concert overture in classic ABA form. The opening section has a tuneful melody over spiccato accompaniments that weaves throughout the ensemble. The middle B section is slow, lyrical, lush, and beautiful as a contrast to the lighter A section. Another piece from Larry Clark to showcase your ensemble at contest/festival.One of the types of pieces I like to write for orchestra are pieces that use a contrast between staccato playing and more marcato melodic material. Dream Engine is the result. The piece is set in a concert overture form with two fast sections based on the same theme and a slow lyrical second section in the middle.The piece begins right off with a short introduction of the spiccato accompaniment figures before it leads to the first statement of the main theme. Quarter notes in the main theme should be played full bow in contrast to the lilting staccato eighth notes. The bass line should be long as well. After a full ensemble statement of the theme, the piece moves to a bridge theme that is sort of an inversion of the main theme and is taken up by the cello; then the viola is added on a harmony part to the melody. Transition material is presented next that is used throughout the piece to connect all of the sections of the piece together. The main theme returns once more before the piece transitions into the slow and lyrical B-section. The B-section should be lush and as legato as possible to be in complete contrast to the A-section. This will be an excellent chance to work on the players’ expressive playing. Make sure to have a lot of rubato and generous rises and falls to the lines to make it as musical aspossible.At the completion of the B-section, the A-material returns with different orchestration for variety. This is followed by the transition material that leads to an aggressive coda that includes a brief quote from the B-section material. If you so chose, a slight increase in the tempo at the coda is acceptable to add to excitement of the ending.It has been my pleasure to have the opportunity to write this piece. I hope you and your students enjoy it and find it useful for your program.—Larry ClarkLakeland, FL 2017.
About Carl Fischer Young String Orchestra Series
This series of Grade 2/Grade 2.5 pieces is designed for second and third year ensembles. The pieces in this series are characterized by:--Occasionally extending to third position--Keys carefully considered for appropriate difficulty--Addition of separate 2nd violin and viola parts--Viola T.C. part included--Increase in independence of parts over beginning levels
SKU: HL.50605317
ISBN 9781705177570. UPC: 196288102694. 9.0x12.0 inches.
Pieces of Light was commissioned by the Flautadors for their 20th Anniversary. When the group approached me about writing a piece, I had just finished reading Pieces of Light; The New Science of Memory by Charles Fernyhough, and it struck me that a work inspired by memories and how they are created in our brains would be very appropriate for a group of musicians celebrating such a wonderful milestone. A quote by Nabokov in particular provided ideas for both the rapid, rhythmic music that starts and ends the piece and the slow, 'light-filled' chords of the middle section: [In Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory, he sees] 'the awakening of consciousness as a series of spaced flashes, with the intervals between them gradually diminishing until bright blocks of perception are formed, affording memory a slippery hold.' In addition, this work has really been shaped by the recorders themselves: before writing, I spent several hours with Ian Wilson (a member of the group) learning about the myriad different types of instrument I could write for. The renaissance instruments particularly appealed due to their fabulous timbre, despite the fact that, due to their open hole design, diatonic music works much better than anything chromatic. I became rather obsessed with the idea of writing chromatic music for diatonic instruments, and so in this piece I use recorders at both modern (A440) and baroque (A415, a semi-tone lower) pitch. This allowed me to write a piece that uses all twelve semitones of the scale throughout, whilst never writing a note for any individual recorder that falls outside its particular diatonic major scale: a compositional device that pleased me greatly!-Cheryl Frances-Hoad, 2019.
SKU: IS.PN7295EM
ISBN 9790365072958.
Light the fire, James. We’ll take our digestive by the crackling of the hearth. Such were the thoughts that came to mind as I started listening to Guy Van Nueten’s new record. Because, yes, there is a certain aristocracy to this music. There’s the feeling of autumn and you immediately long to warm yourself on the sounds that issue from Van Nueten's bony fingers. But it could just as well be a car ride through soft rain at nightfall, where trees become freakish phantoms, and here and there a villa looms like a light beacon. Pacman is a record that makes you hunt for images, films you have seen before, feelings you have known and wish to relive, like a somewhat forbidden fruit, a secret pleasure. Melancholy? Absolutely. A vague sadness to make a person purr like a contented cat? Certainly. Yet at the same time, Van Nueten is cunning. While ensuring that his music pleases you, at the end of some compositions he’ll suddenly come up with a theme that he’ll stop abruptly, so that the notes remain hanging like snapshots of aerial acrobats in action. It is also investigative music as if Guy himself does not wish to know just where he will finish up. There is a stubbornness to it, an elegant fight perhaps between composer and pianist. It pursues you – exactly like a Pacman, in fact, chomping away at digital pieces of your heart. Yet it never seems to dissolve into thin air: time and again, right from the first listen, he makes you long to hear more. It is music that should protect a person like a secret, like an illegal fire in a forest that warms your hands and fills your head with dreams. It smells like cedar, this piano music. Or like a nice cigar offered to you by the imaginary James, who whispers: The fire is crackling, sir. Just as you like it. At which point the enchantment begins all over again.
SKU: PR.114422710
ISBN 9781491136072. UPC: 680160688227.
DUO’s succinct movement titles (I. Here, II. Open, III. Stark, IV. Ardent) tease at revealing the grand and heartfelt inspiration for exuberant romanticism in this sonata-like work of symphonic proportions and depth. Charles Gibb is both an accomplished pianist and an award-winning flutist, who has written of this compelling major addition to the literature: “This work is a journey. What journey and whose journey does not matter. It is my journey, it is your journey. It is the journey of those who came before us, and of those who will come after us. I wrote this hoping that we can find each other along the road, so we can realize that we don’t need to go on the journey alone.†Gibb’s DUO is sure to become a favorite major work for flute recitalists.This work is a journey. What journey and whose journey does not matter. It is my journey, it is your journey. It is the journey of those who came before us, and of those who will come after us. I wrote this hoping that we can find each other along the road, so we can realize that we don’t need to go on the journey alone.“Here†begins with three notes that shape the rhythmic and harmonic content of the entire work. Melodies and harmonies including the tonic, dominant, and leading tone can be found in each of the four movements. The first moments of this movement introduce the melody, offering itself unencumbered and uninhibited. It shows itself as it is. The melodies soar, the harmonies become voiced more intricately, and the opening theme repeats in full grandeur. The momentum slows down, and the movement ends with a sense of completion, yet remains unbalanced.A striking piano gesture launches “Open,†the idea of instability reflected with the flowing flute trills and unclear meter patterns in the piano. The sensation of an unsteady grace in 5/8 time arrives with a piano ostinato. The melody is expressive, yet insecure and unbalanced due to changing meters. After a grand pause, the movement transitions to 4/4 time with the flute switching between duplet and triplet flourishes. After a rapid descent in the flute, the opening gesture returns, changed and abruptly interrupted.The third movement, “Stark,†is very static, beginning plainly but markedly. The falling fifth calls out continually throughout the movement, searching, lost. Melodies appear in pieces, some smooth and flowing, others rather disjunct. The piece climaxes with a line of mournfulness, yet revealing a deeper strength through intense projection of tone in the high register. However, the static harmonies return, this time unsteady all the way to its foundation. This destabilization repeats, and then quietly recedes.“Ardent†is the longest of the movements and spans a wide range of musical emotion. Part of the movement is fast paced, energetic, and balances order and disarray. However, once the chaos dies down, a gentle, expressive theme comes in. The theme itself is very resolute; it is order appearing from the pandemonium. Conflict returns, and order and chaos become less distinguishable from one another, and soon fuse together. However, order returns with new meaning, synthesized with previous musical content, creating a truer, deeper sense of awareness or understanding. A moment of ambiguity arises, but the flute persists, supported by the sensitive but firm figuration in the piano, and resoundingly comes to a close, unburdened and at ease.
