A Centenary Celebration-Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations had it's first performance in 1899. This authoritative book was written to celebrate the centenary of this much-loved work and takes a refreshing look at the circumstances surrounding it's composition together with it's associated puzzles. Explanations are on offer here for how the enigma itself came into being together with a new and unique solution for the hidden theme behind the work. Patrick Turner is a long-time member of the Elgar Society and has been passionately involved with Elgar's music for over twenty-five years.

From Variations on an Original Theme Op. 40-Violin 1 Part for Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Full Score-Nico Muhly's Sentences for Countertenor and Chamber Orchestra. Composed: 2014 Duration: 30 minutes Composers Note: Sentences is a thirty-minute meditation in collaboration with Adam Gopnik on several episodes drawn from the life and work of Alan Turing. Turing lived in a sense many different lives but at the heart of his work was I think a very musical set of anxieties. Even the idea of code-breaking is inherently musical; the French for score-reading is déchiffrage: deciphering. His wartime work on the Enigma code translated later in life to a more nuanced relationship to code in the form ofa primitive but emotionally (and philosophically) complicated artificial intelligence. The piece uses a single voice not to speak necessarily as Turing but as a guide through these various episodes. I’ve always felt that the question of sentient computers is wildly emotional: we anthropomorphise the Mars Rover imagining its solitude on that dusty planet. Any act of communication in which the second person is unseen can be a one-way conversation. An email sent can never be returned — did it arrive or did it not? — or a text message can be delivered but never read. The thrill of a fast response is immediately tempered with the harsh but empty rudeness of an out-of-office reply. Anybody who has made a condolence phone call only to hear the voice of the deceased on the outgoing answering machine message knows the complexities of what could be a simple binary communication. 

From Variations on an Original Theme Op. 38-Flute Parts 1 and 2 for Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Shadings was commissioned for The American Composers Orchestra UnSafe series and premiered at Zankel-Carnegie Hall._x001A_In Laura Schwendinger's Shadings richly scored shimmering music ebbed and swirled in tandem with a series of enigmatic photographs projected above the orchestra. The photographs were taken in Japan by the composer's cousin Leni Schwendinger who also designed evocative lighting to complement the images._x001A_- Review by Vivian Schweitzer in The New York Times

Elgar published the Chanson de Matin and its partner Chanson de Nuit at the time of his life when he was also creating the Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius. This work was originally created as a Violin and Piano duet but Elgar then Orchestrated the work and it was presented at the Proms. Since then other arrangements have been created.Although published in 1897 scholars suggest that these two works may have been written in the 1880’s. The contrast of the two melodies which Elgar then intertwines yields a satisfying short work especially with the composer’s fine Orchestration.

Instrumentation: piano Edition: score Publisher: Eberhard Mayer OEuvres pour piano/Klaviermusik/Piano Music Edition en 10 recueils/Edition in 10 Bänden/Edition in 10 volumes Volume 1: Femmes de Légende Editor: Eberhard Mayer Item no.: fue 4180 Difficulty: medium ISMN: 979-0-50012-918-9 Contents: Mélisande, Desdémona, Ophelie, Viviane, Ph?bé, Omphale und Salomé The pieces for piano represent a great stylistic variety. One gets the impression that Mel Bonis may have intended to give a summary of musical development, not quoting historic styles but adapting the past through her personal tone and to translate it into contemporary musical language. The first volume includes an original series of musical portraits dedicated to legendary women, where Mel Bonis explores the enigmatic feminine universe. ?Femmes de légende? A collection we have called ?Femmes de légende? contains seven piano pieces by Mel Bonis named after women whose fates have become legendary. They have not always been arranged in this way. The first piece, ?Mélisande?, was published separately by Alphonse Leduc in 1898. In 1909, a collection called ?Trois pièces pour piano? (Three pieces for the piano), dedicated to the composer Paul Locard and which included ?Ph?bé?, ?Viviane? and ?Salomé?, was published by Leduc. In 1913, ?Mélisande? was added to the four last pieces for a final collection called ?Cinq pièces?. ?Omphale? appeared in a Berlin edition ?Signale für die musikalische Welt? in 1910. As to ?Ophélie?, it was never published in Mel Bonis? lifetime and we discovered a manu-script in 1997 without any indication at all of when it was writ-ten. ?Ophélie? was first published by the publishing house Ar-miane in Versailles in 1998. Mélisande (1898) Written before Debussy?s famous opera, Mel Bonis? piano piece ?Mélisande? was also inspired by the poet Maeterlinck (Mélisande, 1893). These short pages of magical harmonies, of radi-ant impressionist colours use music to describe Mélisande?s hair as described by Pelleas: ?your hair and its beautiful light... It escapes everywhere, it shivers, it shakes, it trembles in my hand like a golden bird.? This piece enjoyed quite a success in Mel Bonis? lifetime. She noted of it ?my favourite? in the margin of her hand-written catalogue. Desdémona (1913) The female heroine in Shakespeare?s ?Othello? inspired Mel Bonis to write a nostalgic piece with a fairly easy, rather classical beginning, a kind of romance without words, of great elegance and of a deep and melancholic beauty. Ophélie Ophelia, the lover of Shakespeare?s Hamlet, is a deeply melan-cholic character who goes mad and drowns in mysterious cir-cumstances. Ophelia inspired the poet Rimbaud and the painter Millais ? each of them created a masterpiece. Mel Bonis too evokes images of water, sadness and death in music for a third work of art. With its delicate and chilling beauty and also with its moments of passion, this impressionist piece - the work which owes most to Debussy - calls for great intelligence when performed. Viviane (1909) The figure of the fairy of the lake is musically described here in a well-structured, many-facetted piece; first of all, the initial dancing theme has an air of the ?salon? about it, typical of its time, evoking the fairy?s charm, her smile. Then follow succes-sions of majestic chords and fluent harmonies which represent the underwater castle and the fairy?s power. This piece is easily approachable. Ph?bé (1909) The sister of Phoebus, the sun, symbolises the moon, the night, chastity. The piece creates an impression of night. Steeped in twilight, languor and a sense of immense space, the atmosphere is one of unreality. This feeling of alienation is reinforced by the incoherence of rhythm between the two hands. Salomé (1909) Inspired by the Orient, Mel Bonis creates a very original musical illustration of the biblical character of Salome. She is characterised by shifting moods in which slow syncopes follow light glissandos, and urgent, mysterious psalmodies accompany sensual melopeias, where surprising tempo varia-tions lead to outbreaks of violence. With its relatively difficult beginning, this piece is especially interesting from the viewpoint of research into interpretation. Omphale (1910) The queen of Lydia is a female character from the violent depths of Greek mythology. This powerful female is described here with glittering sensuality and Oriental subtlety. The impressive work shows a complex structure both in harmony and rhythm, it is a lively and rich work which calls for much thought and great virtuosity on the performer?s part. ?Omphale? was awarded a prize for composition by the Berlin magazine ?Signale für die musikalische Welt? in 1910.

for Flugelhorn and Chamber Orchestra-Arrangement of Movement 2 from The Avatar for flugelhorn and chamber orchestra.

Sadie Harrison's Ha llristningsomra det for solo Double Bass.Composed and published 2016.Duration c. 10 minutesThe area of Tanumshede is situated on the south western coast of Sweden. Archaeologically it is renowned for its unique series of Bronze Age rock carvings dating from between c. 1800 to 500 BCE. Incised into over 600 panels the petroglyphs were originally situated along a 25 mile stretch of fjord coastline and as such there are many depictions of Hjortspring boats and seafaring activities. There are also scenes of hunting agricultural and livestock farming and warring with many armoured figurescarrying swords axes and shields. Whilst it is possible to interpret most carvings as images of quotidian life the meaning of some panels is less clear. It is likely that several scenes depict ritual acts overseen by gods often surrounded by abstract symbols - crosses dots and ‘cups’ the significance of which is now unknown. As well as being a source of information about Scandinavian Bronze Age weapons vehicles tools ships even hairstyles the carvings have also been the subject of debates about gender. The society depicted on the rocks seems overwhelmingly patriarchal making the rare carvings of probable female figures particularly important. The most famous of these is known as The Grieving Woman apparently weeping over a dead warrior from a ship. Her grief ‘heavy as rocks’ is heard in the opening movement of the piece echoing through the remaining movements and giving the work its dark melancholy character. The Woman returns in the final movement as a ghost her footsteps coming closer and closer as her ‘lover’s’ ship is rebuilt over and over again. Movement III is gentler in tone a song for the Woman and her lover - depicted as a couple rolling a giant sun surrounded by farm animals. Movement II represents the enigmatic Juggler or Calendar Man who holds 29 spheres in his hand - perhaps

Nach Texten Von Franz Schubert. Par HOLLIGER HEINZ. I was in the middle of a recording project featuring Franz Schubert’s complete symphonies and other orchestral works, when I received a request from Anna Lucia Richter asking if I could compose a companion piece for Schubert’s The Shepherd on the Rock. I was inspired by the movingly simple yet profoundly mysterious musical text Schubert had published by Robert Schumann under the title Reliquien [Relics], and a composition in three sections was born which oscillates between recitative-like sections and expansive ariosos. The beginning of Schubert’s enigmatic funeral march Franz Schuberts Begräbnis- Feyer [Franz Schubert’s funeral ceremony] for nine winds, written when Schubert was only 16, wanders like a phantom as a tonal shadow through the score. Heinz Holliger / Niveau : Avancé / Répertoire / Soprano, Clarinette et Piano