SKU: HL.1723345
UPC: 196288277842. 11.0x14.0x0.488 inches.
Composed during the summer and fall of 1974, Barnes' First Symphony, Op. 35 was his master's thesis at The University of Kansas. It was premiered in the spring semester of 1976 by their Symphonic Band, Robert E. Foster conducting. The following year, the symphony was awarded the American Bandmasters Ostwald Composition prize, which led to a second performance (of only the first two movements) by the Northwestern Wind Ensemble at the American Bandmasters convention with Col. Jack Cline (U.S Marine Band) conducting. Following this performance, Barnes submitted the work to several publishers, all of which declined on the basis it was too long and difficult to be “marketable.” For this reason, Barnes set the work aside and there it remained until 2022, when an offer came from the Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra to record all nine of Barnes' symphonies to help celebrate their 100th anniversary. Barnes seized the opportunity, engraving all four movements, with revisions and corrections, an effort that took seven days a week for two months to complete. As a result, after almost fifty years, all nine of the Barnes symphonies are finally available for performance. 11x14 oversized score.
SKU: HL.1455262
UPC: 196288209386. 9.0x12.0x2.5 inches.
Composed during the summer and fall of 1974, Barnes' FIRST SYMPHONY, Op. 35 was his master's thesis at The University of Kansas. It was premiered in the spring semester of 1976 by their Symphonic Band, Robert E. Foster conducting. The following year, the symphony was awarded the American Bandmasters Ostwald Composition prize, which led to a second performance (of only the first two movements) by the Northwestern Wind Ensemble at the American Bandmasters convention with Col. Jack Cline (U.S Marine Band) conducting. Following this performance, Barnes submitted the work to several publishers, all of which declined on the basis it was too long and difficult to be marketable. For this reason, Barnes set the work aside and there it remained until 2022, when an offer came from the Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra to record all nine of Barnes'symphonies to help celebrate their 100th anniversary. Barnes seized the opportunity, engraving all four movements, with revisions and corrections, an effort that took seven days a week for two months to complete. As a result, after almost fifty years, all nine of the Barnes symphonies are finally available for performance.
SKU: HL.1455263
ISBN 9781638879329. UPC: 196288209393. 9.0x12.0x0.545 inches.
SKU: FG.55011-510-1
ISBN 9790550115101.
Matt hew Whittall's preface to Bright Ferment (2019): I have a complicated history with the string quartet. Actually, it's not that complicated. I spent months writing a huge one in my early twenties and hastily withdrew it after a long delayed premiere, vowing never to write another. In a typical case of karmic retribution, my fear of the form would eventually be overcome by the unrefusable offer to write the compulsory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in my native Canada. The short duration requested, about nine minutes, also felt like a good way to wade gingerly back into the medium. The title was originally just a nice-sounding pair of words that surfaced in a brainstorming session with fellow composer Alex Freeman over an injudicious amount of fermented barley. When I looked it up later, I found that it was a phrase of older coinage, seemingly used more for poetic resonance than any fixed meaning. Ferment by itself denotes a state of confusion, change or lack of order. With bright, it takes on a more positive connotation with regard to society and creativity: a wild profusion of ideas barely checked by reason. (It may not actually mean that, but it describes this piece nicely, so let's go with it.) Fermentation in its trendy culinary usage is also hinted at via a recurrent percolating device of scattered pizzicati. As one may guess from the tone of this introduction, there is little attempt at gravity in Bright Ferment, the only means by which I felt I could sidestep the historical and expressive weight of the string quartet genre. Styles, gestures and moods are tossed around, cross-cut and abandoned in stream-of-consciousness fashion, connected by little except an intuitive sense of rightness in their juxtaposition. If the piece acquires depth in spite of me, it will only be because its disparate parts amplify and strengthen each other simply by being together - much like the ensemble itself. Bright Ferment was commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with additional funding from the Americas Society (New York), for the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Duration: ca. 9 minutes.
SKU: HL.402077
ISBN 9781705160084. UPC: 196288056829. 9.0x12.0x0.276 inches.
The Right of Your Senses is a set of nine songs for children's voices, solo soprano, and orchestra written for the National Children's Chorus, American Youth Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. The texts are primarily 17th-century, by Thomas Traherne and George Herbert, but two of them come from the 11th-century Enchiridion by Byrhtferth. The overarching theme is the story of creation, but not just the list of objects created: the texts deal with the emotional resonances of the sun, the sea, the air, and the moon with all their mysterious, bright, and dark potential. There is a recurring gesture in the strings, introduced at the very top: a simple descending pattern which binds many of the movements together, even when hidden in the more tumultuous sections. The first two movements are bright, whereas the middle three movements are violent and deal with the angrier natural elements. The seventh movement is the most abstract and playful, and here a direct nod to Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, with a fast three-part canon depicting the behavior of the atom. The eighth movement, Night, is the slowest, and depicts the night sky. The final movement is calm, and encourages us: Be faithful in a little, and you shall be master over much. The piece ends with five strokes of high bells. x Nico Muhly.
SKU: HL.402076
ISBN 9781705160077. UPC: 196288056812. 9.0x12.0x0.167 inches.
