SKU: CF.CM9594
ISBN 9781491154168. UPC: 680160912667. 6.875 x 10.5 inches. Key: Bb major. English. Alfred Tennyson. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892).
The text of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's There is Sweet Music Here is a wonderful example of word painting. Keep this in mind while learning to sing the music and try to capture the different scenes created through these famous words. The first two measures of accompaniment outline the opening chord in the voices. Crescendo to the word music every time it occurs. In mm. 710, the vocals cascade gently into a dissonance that develops into a full, rich sound. Allow the piano to support the unison lines in mm. 1417 as well as those that contain three-part singing. The piano establishes a consistent undulating tempo in mm. 2225, as if lulling someone to sleep. Be intentional with word/syllabic stress when singing through the quarter notes. Maintain a consistent tempo when singing the eighth notes in mm. 3336. The chord progression helps establish the coolness of the mosses and ivies. Notice the melodic movement in mm. 3738 reflecting the craggy ledge and hanging poppy followed by the unison sleep which ushers in the return of the original melody within the accompaniment. Linger with quiet, full and supported singing during the last three measures.The text of Alfred, Lord Tennyson'sA There is Sweet Music HereA is a wonderful example of word painting. Keep this in mind while learning to sing the music and try to capture the different scenes created through these famous words. The first two measures of accompaniment outline the opening chord in the voices. Crescendo to the word music every time it occurs. In mm. 7a10, the vocals cascade gently into a dissonance that develops into a full, rich sound. Allow the piano to support the unison lines in mm. 14a17 as well as those that contain three-part singing. The piano establishes a consistent undulating tempo in mm. 22a25, as if lulling someone to sleep. Be intentional with word/syllabic stress when singing through the quarter notes. Maintain a consistent tempo when singing the eighth notes in mm. 33a36. The chord progression helps establish the coolness of the mosses and ivies. Notice the melodic movement in mm. 37a38 reflecting the craggy ledge and hanging poppy followed by the unison sleep which ushers in the return of the original melody within the accompaniment. Linger with quiet, full and supported singing during the last three measures.The text of Alfred, Lord Tennyson'sA There is Sweet Music HereA is a wonderful example of word painting. Keep this in mind while learning to sing the music and try to capture the different scenes created through these famous words. The first two measures of accompaniment outline the opening chord in the voices. Crescendo to the word music every time it occurs. In mm. 7a10, the vocals cascade gently into a dissonance that develops into a full, rich sound. Allow the piano to support the unison lines in mm. 14a17 as well as those that contain three-part singing. The piano establishes a consistent undulating tempo in mm. 22a25, as if lulling someone to sleep. Be intentional with word/syllabic stress when singing through the quarter notes. Maintain a consistent tempo when singing the eighth notes in mm. 33a36. The chord progression helps establish the coolness of the mosses and ivies. Notice the melodic movement in mm. 37a38 reflecting the craggy ledge and hanging poppy followed by the unison sleep which ushers in the return of the original melody within the accompaniment. Linger with quiet, full and supported singing during the last three measures.The text of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's There is Sweet Music Here is a wonderful example of word painting. Keep this in mind while learning to sing the music and try to capture the different scenes created through these famous words. The first two measures of accompaniment outline the opening chord in the voices. Crescendo to the word music every time it occurs. In mm. 7-10, the vocals cascade gently into a dissonance that develops into a full, rich sound. Allow the piano to support the unison lines in mm. 14-17 as well as those that contain three-part singing. The piano establishes a consistent undulating tempo in mm. 22-25, as if lulling someone to sleep. Be intentional with word/syllabic stress when singing through the quarter notes. Maintain a consistent tempo when singing the eighth notes in mm. 33-36. The chord progression helps establish the coolness of the mosses and ivies. Notice the melodic movement in mm. 37-38 reflecting the craggy ledge and hanging poppy followed by the unison sleep which ushers in the return of the original melody within the accompaniment. Linger with quiet, full and supported singing during the last three measures.The text of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's There is Sweet Music Here is a wonderful example of word painting. Keep this in mind while learning to sing the music and try to capture the different scenes created through these famous words. The first two measures of accompaniment outline the opening chord in the voices. Crescendo to the word music every time it occurs. In mm. 7-10, the vocals cascade gently into a dissonance that develops into a full, rich sound. Allow the piano to support the unison lines in mm. 14-17 as well as those that contain three-part singing. The piano establishes a consistent undulating tempo in mm. 22-25, as if lulling someone to sleep. Be intentional with word/syllabic stress when singing through the quarter notes. Maintain a consistent tempo when singing the eighth notes in mm. 33-36. The chord progression helps establish the coolness of the mosses and ivies. Notice the melodic movement in mm. 37-38 reflecting the craggy ledge and hanging poppy followed by the unison sleep which ushers in the return of the original melody within the accompaniment. Linger with quiet, full and supported singing during the last three measures.The text of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's There is Sweet Music Here is a wonderful example of word painting. Keep this in mind while learning to sing the music and try to capture the different scenes created through these famous words.The first two measures of accompaniment outline the opening chord in the voices. Crescendo to the word music every time it occurs. In mm. 7–10, the vocals cascade gently into a dissonance that develops into a full, rich sound. Allow the piano to support the unison lines in mm. 14–17 as well as those that contain three-part singing.The piano establishes a consistent undulating tempo in mm. 22–25, as if lulling someone to sleep. Be intentional with word/syllabic stress when singing through the quarter notes.Maintain a consistent tempo when singing the eighth notes in mm. 33–36. The chord progression helps establish the coolness of the mosses and ivies. Notice the melodic movement in mm. 37–38 reflecting the craggy ledge and hanging poppy followed by the unison sleep which ushers in the return of the original melody within the accompaniment.Linger with quiet, full and supported singing during the last three measures.
SKU: AP.81-CB224480
ISBN 9781778930478. UPC: 685462030484. English.
Fortune Favors the Bold by David Marlatt is a dynamic and exciting piece that captures the trials, tribulations, and victories in the life of an ancient gladiator. Triumphant fanfares herald him into the great Colosseum as he clashes with many foes. Bravery and skill are what keep him alive. Between battles he is reflective and contemplative. Could this be his final fight? With conviction and courage he rises to meet his next opponent, fighting with all his strength and daring. More fanfares announce his victory, but will this success be the one to grant him his freedom? There are solo opportunities for flute, alto sax, baritone, and bass clarinet. (4:50).
SKU: SU.27110040
PLEASE NOTE: Single copy performance score. 5 copies required for performance.With text fragments from Walt Whitman’s As I Ebb’d with the Ocean of Life, the lines below conjures mysterious ocean depths, where everything is in an extremely slow state of motion and evolution, very little can be perceived, and everything is trying to hide itself within its surroundings. There is a very high degree of freedom in how it is performed, to convey this sense of there being no one controlling element. Everything is drifting, slowly, imprecisely, unpredictably. Nothing is wrong unless it makes itself obvious, opening itself up to danger. Everyone wishes to be heard but not noticed; everyone is seeking to make as much of their sound as possible, but without drawing attention. So, as the accumulation of sustained overall sound builds, instruments may play correspondingly louder and still remain hidden within it. The composite texture, color, harmony, and dynamic will thus evolve continuously. solo voice (tenor or soprano), Clarinet, Violin, Contrabass & Piano Duration: 7-9’ Composed: 2018 Published by: Raymond J. Lustig Music.
SKU: BR.PB-5714
ISBN 9790004216514. 10.5 x 14 inches.
More than my earlier works, this one is interspersed with metrically bound rhythms and musicianly characters that constantly recrystallize and drift towards or away from familiar situations.The familiar: These are dance-like figures and music-making formulas, but also songs and, in two cases fragments of Bach's music - playfully collected memories of impressions in which - consciously and unconsciously - I am embodied with that collective comfort in whose protection bourgeois thinking and feeling, magically protected, grow up and emerge apart.(It is well known that such security has its fetishes from the childlike to the adult stage: Home, religious bond, holidays, tradition, longing for childhood - the superficiality may have little idea of the depth that opens up underneath. There is also no question that we are still marked by such security even when the contradictions and alienation of existence force us to step out of their protection, to recognize and act upon reality, and to oppose the domination of such inner bonds where their original truth has become the fatal untruth of comfortable illusion, stubbornly and fearfully conjured idyll and reactionary narrow-mindedness.My music feeds on figures in which such memories are encapsulated. It deals with them not much differently than in other pieces with the elements of the traditional musical concept of material, having already always reflected compositionally as a product of sociality and anticipation of musical expression, i.e. it moved into a structurally expanded context and expressively redefined from there.Such an approach aims at overcoming lack of freedom: grasping as part of conceiving, i.e. not philosophical reflection, but rather an artistically gripping reflex by intervening in the physical immediacy of such predetermined elements. These penetrate and infect the structural events, inducing a musicianship that cannot be relied upon; the music jumps onto rhythms like onto moving vehicles, allows for being carried by them until they deform or disintegrate. This creates an incline of rhythmically shaped situations: sequence and interweaving of dances and structures.The role of the solo string quartet is versatile, obbligato and concertante, leading and accompanying in a changing sense. Set as a chamber music apparatus in an orchestral landscape, it repeatedly forces its own sound dimensions onto the orchestra, it must accept being drowned out at times, it nests in the holes of tutti fields, it acts as a louse in the fur, forcing one to listen in and out.The Tanzsuite with Deutschlandlied is structured as follows:I. Section. 1. Introduction - 2. Waltz - 3. March - 4. Bridge -II. Section. 5. Siciliano - 6. Capriccio - 7. Valse lente -III. Section. 8. Bridge - 9. Gigue - 10. Tarantelle - 11. Bridge -IV. Section. 12 Aria I - 13 Polka - 14 Aria IIV. Section. 15. Introduction - 16 Gallop - 17 Coda (Aria III)All 17 parts merge into one another.(Helmut Lachenmann, 1980)CDs/LP/DVD:Arditti-Quartett, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, cond. Olaf HenzoldCD Montaigne Auvidis MO 782019Berner Streichquartett, Sinfonieorchester des SWF, cond. Sylvain Cambreling (Excerpt)CD BMG/RCA 74321 73510 2 (Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000)Berner Streichquartett, Sinfonieorchester des SWF, cond. Sylvain CambrelingLP DMR 1028-30Arditti Quartet, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, cond. Hans Zender Excerpt on CD ,,Auswahl von zehn Urauffuhrungen aus 70 Jahren, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg Arditti Quartet, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, cond. Sylvain Cambreling DVD ,,Lachenmann-Perspektiven 6 (Breitkopf & Hartel, BHM 7816) Bibliography:Cavalotti, Pietro: Differenzen. Poststrukturalistische Aspekte in der Musik der 1980er Jahre am Beispiel von Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough und Gerard Grisey (= Sonus. Schriften zur Musik, hrsg. von Andreas Ballsteadt, Band 8), Schliengen: Argus 2006, pp. 79-128.Das sind doch alles Deutschlandlieder! Helmut Lachenmann im Gesprach mit Michael Rebhahn, in: Der Taktgeber. Das Magazin der Jungen Deutschen Philharmonie, Heft 40 (Sommer 2019), S. 6f.Stawowy, Milena: Fluchtversuche in die Hohle des Lowen. Helmut Lachenmanns Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied, in: MusikTexte 67/68 (1997), pp. 77-90.Toop, Richard: Concept and Context: A Historiographic Consideration of Lachenmanns Orchestral Works, in: Helmut Lachenmann Inward Beauty, hrsg. von Dan Albertson, Contemporary Music Review 23 (2004), Heft 3/4, pp. 125-144.World premiere: Donaueschingen (Donaueschinger Musiktage), October 18, 1980.
SKU: BR.PB-5384
ISBN 9790004210031. 9 x 12 inches.
Ton Koopman's new edition of all 16 organ concertos by Handel has drawn to a close. The quality of this edition has been highly praised from all quarters. Source-critical responsibility goes hand in hand with a high level of performance practice when Koopman provides interpretative tips for the ad libitum passages in the organ part without restricting the creativity of the interpreter who is interested in stylistic matters and prefers to work out his own solutions. I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote. Nevertheless, there are occasional performance suggestions in small print which are elucidated in the Critical Commentary. (Ton Koopman in Concerto) Koopman offers a basically unmarked text, thus leaving the performance details up to the performer. Especially note-worthy is the clear printing, extensive preface and detailed Critical Notes. (Katholische Kirchenmusik) Whoever wishes to hear the entire Koopman edition on CD can look forward to the new recording by Christian Schmitt and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Brilliant Classics). This is the first recording for which all 16 new Koopman editions were used as the basis for the performance.,I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote.' (Ton Koopman).
SKU: BR.PB-5211
,I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote.' (Ton Koopman)
ISBN 9790004209424. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: BR.PB-5215
ISBN 9790004209462. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: BR.PB-5383
ISBN 9790004209998. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: BR.PB-5216
ISBN 9790004209929. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: BR.PB-5252
ISBN 9790004210659. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: BR.PB-5213
ISBN 9790004209448. 9 x 12 inches.
Ton Koopman's new edition of all 16 organ concertos by Handel has drawn to a close. The quality of this edition has been highly praised from all quarters. Source-critical responsibility goes hand in hand with a high level of performance practice when Koopman provides interpretative tips for the ad libitum passages in the organ part without restricting the creativity of the interpreter who is interested in stylistic matters and prefers to work out his own solutions. Whoever wishes to hear the entire Koopman edition on CD can look forward to the new recording by Christian Schmitt and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Brilliant Classics). This is the first recording for which all 16 new Koopman editions were used as the basis for the performance.I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote. Nevertheless, there are occasional performance suggestions in small print which are elucidated in the Critical Commentary. (Ton Koopman in Concerto) Koopman offers a basically unmarked text, thus leaving the performance details up to the performer. Especially note-worthy is the clear printing, extensive preface and detailed Critical Notes. (Katholische Kirchenmusik),I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote.' (Ton Koopman).
SKU: BR.PB-5251
ISBN 9790004210239. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: PR.114422520
ISBN 9781491134788. UPC: 680160683833.
After decades as a renowned oboe virtuoso, Katherine Needleman was improvising at the piano during the quarantine summer of 2020 when her ideas congealed in a powerful way. Within a week she completed a 16-minute oboe sonata inspired by the world’s overlapping crises. This riveting three-movement sonata bears the title qua resurget ex favilla, drawn from the Dies Irae text referring to rising back from ashes. Needleman won the International Double Reed Society’s Inaugural Commissioning Competition by entering her own recording of this work, performing as both oboist and pianist from her living room. As a result, IDRS commissioned her to compose a new work for English horn and piano which was premiered at their 2021 Virtual Symposium and programmed for the live 2022 convention.I’m not exactly sure how, in a life consumed by music, I never put anything on paper between the time I stopped at age 10 and the age of 42. I mean, I have some ideas why, but that could easily dissolve into a feminist manifesto or a condemnation of my musical education and the overwhelming culture of American oboe playing, the vehicle through which I’ve made a living my entire adult life. Rather than go there, I will just say this is the first piece I put on paper in my adult life.Six months into COVID-19 lockdown in the US, the world was feeling pretty weird. I had familiarized myself with the music notation program, Sibelius, for recent arranging projects. I had written some mockeries of A.M.R. Barret oboe etudes in response to an assignment I was given (and did appropriately first). When I descended into a dark chorale in the middle of the fourth mockery, I realized I needed a new vehicle. I wrote a short, ridiculous piece for my husband’s birthday, and then, the next night, when improvising at the piano, like I’ve done since I was seven years old, this piece came to me. However, this time, I sketched it out into Sibelius. Over the course of the next week, I found notating and picking permanent, official notes to enter into the computer challenging. But it was all done on paper in seven days, and I took another few for dynamics and articulations thinking they might be useful for someone else, if I would ever be lucky enough for someone else to play it.I don’t have much to say about the music of qua resurget ex favilla itself. It’s a personal statement couched in the feelings of that time. The US presidential election was looming large and ugly in my mind, well, that and the end of life as we knew it, but I also had some bizarre feeling that everything would be okay.
SKU: BR.PB-5212
ISBN 9790004209431. 9 x 12 inches.
Ton Koopman's new edition of all 16 organ concertos by Handel has drawn to a close. The quality of this edition has been highly praised from all quarters. Source-critical responsibility goes hand in hand with a high level of performance practice when Koopman provides interpretative tips for the ad libitum passages in the organ part without restricting the creativity of the interpreter who is interested in stylistic matters and prefers to work out his own solutions. I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote. Nevertheless, there are occasional performance suggestions in small print which are elucidated in the Critical Commentary. (Ton Koopman in Concerto) Koopman offers a basically unmarked text, thus leaving the performance details up to the performer. Especially note-worthy is the clear printing, extensive preface and detailed Critical Notes. (Katholische Kirchenmusik) Whoever wishes to hear the entire Koopman edition on CD can look forward to the new recording by Christian Schmitt and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Brilliant Classics). This is the first recording for which all 16 new Koopman editions were used as the basis for the performance.
SKU: BR.PB-5386
ISBN 9790004210772. 9 x 12 inches.
Ton Koopman's new edition of all 16 organ concertos by Handel has drawn to a close. The quality of this edition has been highly praised from all quarters. Source-critical responsibility goes hand in hand with a high level of performance practice when Koopman provides interpretative tips for the ad libitum passages in the organ part without restricting the creativity of the interpreter who is interested in stylistic matters and prefers to work out his own solutions.The popular Concerto Op. 4 No. 6 in B flat major was originally a harp concerto (and is thus called Concerto per la Harpa in the autograph) and was performed in this version at its premiere in 1736, when it was inserted into Handel's oratorio Alexander's Feast in order to illustrate the harp playing of the Greek singer Timotheus. A harp edition is also in preparation.I want to make an edition that is not a Koopman interpretation, but contains only that which Handel really wrote. Nevertheless, there are occasional performance suggestions in small print which are elucidated in the Critical Commentary. (Ton Koopman in Concerto) Koopman offers a basically unmarked text, thus leaving the performance details up to the performer. Especially note-worthy is the clear printing, extensive preface and detailed Critical Notes. (Katholische Kirchenmusik)Whoever wishes to hear the entire Koopman edition on CD can look forward to the new recording by Christian Schmitt and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (Brilliant Classics). This is the first recording for which all 16 new Koopman editions were used as the basis for the performance.
SKU: BR.PB-5214
ISBN 9790004209455. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: HL.49045561
ISBN 9783901974045.
Strauss's first tone poem distinguishes itself from all other subsequent orchestral compositions in its existence in three different versions. Even among the operas and other compositions in his hand there is no other work with a comparable history of origin and publication. What is more, the final version of Macbeth is the only valid form of the work and the only variant with further sources (cf. Critical Report) in addition to the autograph score. In contrast, the second version has only been preserved in an autograph score and autograph piano reduction (the orchestral parts which must have existed have obviously not survived). This was never printed and was replaced by the published third version. The two surviving versions should therefore not be considered to be of equal status. Unlike the case of Ariadne auf Naxos in which the earlier version was for a time the sole valid alternative and was yet never completely displaced by the soon dominating later version of the opera, only the final third version of Macbeth is considered as valid. Right from the outset, it was a matter of course for the editors of the present volume to include the second version as a first publication (in addition to the above-mentioned surviving pages of the first version), albeit in different forms. The surviving pages of the first version are reproduced in facsimile and the second version, as a subordinate form of the work, appears alongside Strauss's piano reduction in a modified source edition, i.e. without intervention on the part of the editors. The ultimate third version is published as a full edition (please refer to the Critical Report for further details). In order to facilitate a comparative study of the second and third versions, the relevant page numbers of the score are placed opposite one another (the autograph piano reduction of the second version is included at the end of the music section of the volume). The editors hope that this synoptic representation will prompt interest in further studies on Strauss's art of orchestration: a field of research which has still remained insufficiently examined. A study of Macbeth namely illuminates as clearly as could be wished how much significance Strauss allotted to sound alongside form. The subjects were not merely intended to generate an individual figure, but also specific tonal colours, and the instrumentation was simultaneously designed to provide an optimal communication of thematic-motivic texture to the audience. The 'new path' threw up consequences which caused Strauss a considerable amount of difficulty. He was however a fast learner and had already swum free with Don Juan and all the more with Tod und Verklarung.
SKU: HL.14030980
ISBN 9788759871973. 12.0x16.0x0.285 inches.
Score available: KP00250 The composer writes: 'Even when I was writing Adieu, I knew that I wished to write Angel's Music. The title existed in an incomplete form in my mind and gradually more and more ideas and a few outlines became clear. The actual work on Angel's Music was started in Rome, where I spent the autumn of 1987 staying at The Danish Academy. Whether this stay has influenced the quartet or not is impossible to say. however, it is true to say that, in the Roman churches I visited, I saw countless angels playing in the top of frescoes and altars. Without these angels, together with the many crackled-gold paintings in this city and my general fascination with the Italian renaissance painter Fra Angelico, (in fact there are only a few paintings by him in Rome, but even his name..!) I am not sure my quartet would have been what it is. Anyway I do feel that there is a bit of Italy in the piece. The angels apart there are, in the short rhythmic agitating part of the quartet, reminiscences of the Italian medieval Trotto dance, and in the most expressive part of the piece there are flashes of Puccini-like music. From the very beginning of my work on the quartet, the distant, extremely muted sound in the high register which opens the piece, was on my mind. A sound satiated with a dense heterophonic and polyphonic texture of elegiac melody and vibrating trills. I imagined that little songs (maybe angel songs) could be created in this density, these songs constantly echoing themselves. Gradually as this sound got a more and more concrete musical and instrumental form, I felt, that not only should the little songs be created, played and die out in an echo, but also that the general pattern of the quartet should give the feeling of music which, from the distance, is getting closer and closer, culminates and at last disappears like an echo. Related to this, the general pattern of Angel's Music is divided into three: a pre-echo, culmination and echo.. The relationship between the three part is 5: 6: 4. The reason why I can say this precisely and prosaically is that it was necessary to me to mark the overall guidelines before I started to compose. I had to do this in order to enable the relationships to crawl from the general pattern almost fractionally into the smallest cells of the music, or more correctly; crawl from the small cells into the general pattern.'.
SKU: PR.114419980
UPC: 680160681723. 9 x 12 inches.
The ancient Egyptian empire began around 3100 B.C. and continued for over 3000 years until Alexander the Great conquered the country in 332 B.C. Over the centuries, the Egyptian empire grew and flourished into a highly developed society. They invented hieroglyphics, built towering pyramids (including the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the World), and the created many household items we still use today, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, eyeliner, black ink, and the forerunner of modern-day paper. Included among their achievements were a series of highly developed funerary practices and beliefs in the Afterlife. As the average lifespan of an Egyptian hovered around 30 years, living past the death of oneAs physical body was a legitimate concern. Egyptians believed that upon death, their souls would undertake a harrowing journey through the Netherworld. If they survived the horrific creatures and arduous trials that awaited them, then their souls would be reunified with their bodies (hence the need to preserve the body through mummification) and live forever in a perfect version of the life they had lived in Egypt. To achieve this, Egyptians devised around 200 magical spells and incantations to aid souls on the path to the Afterlife. These spells are collectively called The Book of the Dead. Particular spells would be chosen by the family of the deceased and inscribed on the tombAs walls and scrolls of papyrus, as well as on a stone scarab placed over the deceasedAs heart. Subsequent collections of spells and mortuary texts, such as The Book of Gates, assisted a soul in navigating the twelve stages of the Netherworld. Not only did these spells protect and guide the soul on this dangerous path, but they also served as a safeguard against any unbecoming behavior an Egyptian did while alive. For instance, if a person had robbed another while alive, there was a spell that would prevent the soulAs heart from revealing the truth when in the Hall of Judgment. Rites for the Afterlife follows the path of a soul to the Afterlife. In Inscriptions from the Book of the Dead (movement 1), the soul leaves the body and begins the journey, protected by spells and incantations written on the tombAs walls. In Passage though the Netherworld (movement 2), the soul is now on a funerary barque, being towed through the Netherworld by four of the regionAs inhabitants. We hear the soul slowly chanting incantations as the barque encounters demons, serpents, crocodiles, lakes of fire, and other terrors. The soul arrives at The Hall of Judgment in movement 3. Standing before forty-two divine judges, the soul addresses each by name and gives a A!negative confessionA(r) connected to each judge (i.e. A!I did not rob,A(r) A!I did not do violence,A(r) and so on). Afterwards, the soulAs heart is put on a scale to be weighed against a feather of MaAat, the goddess of truth. If the heart weighs more than the feather, it will be eaten by Ammut, a hideous creature that lies in wait below the scale, and the soul will die a second and permanent death (this was the worst fear of the Egyptians). But if the heart is in balance with the feather, the soul proceeds onward. The final stage of the journey is the arrival at The Field of Reeds (movement 4), which is a perfect mirror image of the soulAs life in ancient Egypt. The soul reunites with deceased family members, makes sacrifices to the Egyptian gods and goddess, harvests crops from plentiful fields of wheat under a brilliant blue sky, and lives forever next to the abundant and nourishing waters of the Nile. Rites for the Afterlife was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment on behalf of the Akropolis Reed Quintet, Calefax Reed Quintet, and the Brigham Young University Reed Quintet. -S.G.
