SKU: BT.PB1271
French.
All Blues - Black Magic Woman - Blouse du dentiste - Chienne d'Idée - Cross Road Blues - Faut que j'me tire ailleurs - Hoochie Coochie Man - Lili voulait aller danser - Mirza - Mustang Sally - Now's the Time - Saint Louis Blues - Sweet Home Chicago - The Thrill is gone - What'd I Say (Est-ce que tu le sais).
SKU: PR.164002720
UPC: 680160573042. 8.5 x 11 inches.
My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change. I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla. Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional. II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts] This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture. This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream. III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts] The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this. Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1. String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.
SKU: KJ.WB139
The Puckish Poltergeist, a programmatic work based on the pranks of a devious poltergeist, contrasts the terrifying and the comical. Through the use of rapid meter changes, simultaneous duple and triple rhythmic patterns, and contrasting textural scoring, the composer vividly conjures to mind frightened castle dwellers as they run from varied assortments of flying furniture and kitchen utensils, and the slightly bent puck, as he plays his little 'pranks.' Composed in the spring of 1991, The Pucking Poltergeist was premiered in Chicago at the 45th Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic by the VanderCook College of Music Symphonic Band under the direction of Roger Rocco. It subsequently received a performance by the United States Military Band at West Point Acadamy. In February of 1993, it was featured as one of five works selected for the Symposium XVII for New Band Music at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
SKU: CL.CTS-7956-00
This unique, delightful arrangement of the Haydn Concerto for Trumpet accompanied by bassoon ensemble was first performed by trumpeter, John Hagstrom, of the Chicago Symphony with the Sooner Bassooners, Rod Ackmann, director.
SKU: GI.G-9538G
UPC: 785147953876.
 Revival is a long overdue resource that provides fresh accessible arrangements of classic hymns for contemporary ensembles. Each arrangement is scored for SAB choir, piano, guitar, and optional instrumental parts. For added texture, the final stanza of each hymn includes an alternate harmonization of the accompaniment with a soprano descant. These fourteen arrangements will open a whole new set of treasured hymns to piano and guitar based ensembles. Compatible with the versions founds in GIA’s most recent hymnals, each of these arrangements is intended to support and inspire the sung prayer of the assembly. Every one will find a comfortable home in your repertoire throughout the liturgical year! A special spiral bound edition of Revival is also available. This edition is perfect for accompanists who would also like to use these hymn arrangements as preludes, interludes, or postludes. Collections like Revival are not simply a way for contemporary ensembles to plant deeper roots and tap into more traditional repertoires. It is a way for all of us to hear old hymns with new ears, in a new way. --Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, Associate Professor of Theology at St. John's Abbey Quote from Pray Tell Blog. Click here to read full article Tony Alonso’s Revival offers us fourteen wonderfully arranged familiar hymns—musically accessible and a delight to sing. Flexibly crafted for voices, piano and guitar with lovely optional descants, this is an ecumenical gift and bridge-builder between classical and contemporary approaches to hymns in the liturgy. It should be in every parish’s working library. --Don Saliers, Professor of Theology and Worship at the Candler School of Theology In his new collection, Revival, Tony Alonso marks the 500th anniversary of a great divide in the church by bridging the chasm between Catholic and Protestant, contemporary and traditional, Appalachian and European. His arrangements for voices, piano, and guitar—with options for using other instruments as well—allow for improvisation and adaptation while remaining accessible for a wide range of musicians. Although these hymns are designed to be used by contemporary ensembles, they lend themselves to use in a variety of worshiping contexts. Alonso's arrangements will entice you to sing along--Revival is a great gift to the whole church! --Kimberly Bracken Long, Editor of Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, & the Arts Tony Alonso’s, Revival, is an invaluable resource to help find common ground among “contemporary†and “traditional†choirs and ensembles by making hymnody approachable to those who may have shied away from it for stylistic reasons. It is also a great educational tool for organists and pianists who are seeking ways to improve their improvisatory keyboard skills by modeling accompaniment styles and improvisatory patterns that support and enhance the singing of traditional hymns. ​--​Dominic Trumfio, Associate Director of Worship Music at Old St. Patrick's Church, Chicago.