Chamber Music for 6 Players

'My music is influenced by all kinds of polyphonic writing - meaning both vocal and instrumental varieties. Recently I have become interested in the ways in which musical forms based on rhythmic processes can enablelayering to emerge so that harmonies and textures coexist rather than resolve. Chamber Concerto scored for seven players (Flute Clarinet Bass Clarinet Horn Piano Violin Cello) works with this idea in apiece conceived for the virtuoso musicians of The New Music Players. The work is in four movements.' - Ed Hughes Chamber Concerto was first performed by The New MusicPlayers conducted by Patrick Bailey Kings Place London Out Hear Series 27 September 2010.

Par BERGER MELVIN. Third, Corrected Edition. This guide presents 231 of the best-known, most frequently performed pieces of chamber music by 55 outstanding composers including Bartok string quartets, Beethoven piano trios and string quartets, Haydn string quartets and works by Barber, Mozart, Debussy, Borodin, Aretsky and Mendelssohn. For each composer a brief biography is followed by discussions of the individual compositions in chronological order. A practical sourcebook for chamber music players, performers and teachers./ Livre / Livre Musical

With a title that refers to the energetic and rumbling Bass beneath the music Weir's work for Chamber Ensemble boasts an intriguing structure. Trios and Quartets appear for fleeting moments as the musicians jostle into groupsthat are soon abandoned...as the piece progresses so unison is gradually although tentatively achieved. Written for a large chamber ensemble of fourteen players the piece was completed in 2002.

Par ADES THOMAS. Thomas Ades' Chamber Symphony Op.2 was first performed on the 24th February 1991 in Cambridge, at the West Road Concert Hall. It was performed by the Contemporary Music Festival Ensemble, for the Cambridge Festival of Contemporary Music, conducted by the composer himself. Chamber Symphony Op.2 is a written for a chamber orchestra consisting of fifteen players. / Niveau : Assez Facile / Répertoire / Conducteur

Commissioned by New Music Players London.First performance: London (BBC) 1998 Paul Hoskins (cond) New Music Players.

For Flute Clarinet Violin Cello and Piano.Published 2001.Commissioned by Bath International Music Festival and South West Arts with funds from Foundation for Sport and the Arts.First performance: 1st June 2001 BathFestival New Music Players.

This String Quintet is arranged for either two Cellos and one Viola or two Violas and one Cello (all parts are provided). It is tuneful and straightforward and suitable for players who are not yet at the standard required to play the Schubert Dvorak or Brahms quintets.Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was born in Italy in 1743 and died there in 1805.

This piece lasts about 12 minutes and it plays continuously although it is made up of 16 small movements. Throughout the four string players form a group: sometimes the clarinet is caught up with them but more often it is like a person pursuing an independent train of thought: sometimes talking to itself sometimes conversational sometimes singingThe starting point for my Quintet was Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities: like the book my piece is composed from many small contrasting ideas that are constantly transforming some coming to the fore as others recede. This quintet is dedicated to Hugh Sargent who commissioned it.

Par ARNOLD MALCOLM. Edward Greenfield writes '. . .chamber music writ large, often abrasive in an almost Stravinskian way. . .the emotional weight is borne by the central slow movement. . . The finale is a brisk march, interrupted at one point by horn fanfares, in which the second of the two trios hauntingly brings scrunching cluster-chords pianissimo. Gramophone, December 1992/ Répertoire / Conducteur

For Viola and Cello.Published 2008.Dedicated to Garth Knox and Rohan de SaramFirst performance: Intrasonus Festival Venice 3 May 2008'This music was composed during my DAAD residency in Berlinin October ? November 2007. If I were to describe it in one sentence I would say that it is based on the idea of 'two things seen/heard as one'.'a2 (a due) is a well-known term to musicians; it is often found in orchestralscores indicating a given passage that is to be played by two instruments of the same family. Although violin and cello could well be regarded as 'first cousins' of the string family the literal implementation of the term a2 as a'compositional strategy' would have been too much (!) for a piece of chamber music consisting of no more than two players. Not surprisingly this never happens in this work; in fact the opposite is true: regardless of how itappears on paper (i.e. on one or two staves) the music for each instrument is constantly based on two layers.'This musical 'interpretation' of the title gives an indication as to how the textural format of the piece operates.However this was by no means the only thought that 'preoccupied' my mind whilst composing this music. Berlin made a profound impression on me. The remnants of the wall in Bernauer StraÃ?e and the cobbled two-stone line tracingthe wall across where it once stood ? a clear reminder of what not so long ago there were two different worlds in one city ? provoked a strikingly dramatic effect. Border death-strip killing and escape to freedom had aparticularly evocative resonance especially of the time when I lived for three years in a remote town in Southern Albania right at the border with Greece. There there was a nameless road whose destination the authorities did notwant you to know but the locals called it the 'death-road'.'In no way programmatic in this context the extra-musical dimension of the principal idea is very much part of the piece. Here the musical and extra-musical

Piers Hellawell's A White Room for Piano Quartet.a white room was the second short piece to be commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble for Chamber Music 2000. It was written in spring of 1999 during the composition of Inside Story a double concerto for the 1999 BBC Proms. a white room complements its predecessor in that it is a hushed scherzo rather than a slow aria; the latter type was by 1999 becoming rather prevalent among Chamber Music 2000 commissions and the Schubert Ensemble suggested that I tackle the challenge of writing 'easy' fast music. It turned out to be a challenge indeed; my solution to creating rapid movement using players of unknown technique wasto employ ostinato repetition of simple fragments largely using open strings - materials of a sort that in any case feature in my wider musical language. In addition I supplemented the rhythmic drive by percussive drumming on piano and cello (also aspects typical of me).These features add up to a sound picture in which rhythmic momentum predominates over line - though a chorale fragment persistently tries to establish itself. The title a white room indicates that this piece is an uncluttered space a location in sound perhaps free of the more exotic images in Hall Of Mirrors. - Piers HellawellCommission made possible by Keith Nimmo.

Sextet: 'In Divers Knottes...' for Clarinet Piano Percussion Violin Viola and Cello. Composed 1998 published 2000. Duration: 16 minutes. This piece has had several working titles thelongest being Asteroceras obtusum (after a coiled fossil found during a summer visit to Lyme Regis) the most cynical RAE III and Flying Starts suggested by a colleague during a conversation about the importance of writing musicthat ?takes off?! I decided on a title that conveyed something o the tangled contrapuntal nature of the piece taken from an extended text by Stephen Hawes (The Historic of Graunde Amoure and la Bell Pucel 1554): With Flora paynted and wrought curiously in divers knottes. With many dragons of marveylos likenes Of divers floures made full craftely By Flora couloured with colours sundrye. The piece isepisodic and is constructed from three principal textures the opening music which introduces the only theme of the piece and which is never heard again in this form the fast and increasingly hectic music which grows as the theeproliferates into several knotted variations of itself and the very slow music which occurs twice as stark contrast to the surrounding material. Written last and within sight of the deadline this music leaves some of thedecisions to the players the last gasps of the composer and the gathering energy within the piece! - Sadie Harrison

Johannes Brahms:The Works for one Instrument and PianoJohannes Brahms' compositions for one instrument and piano have been standards in chamber music literature ever since their inception. These works were written with specific performers in mind and Brahms worked closely with them when refining the final texts. Nevertheless, we rarely approach the music taking into consideration the possibilities of the instruments for which Brahms wrote or the performing practices of the individual players who first performed these compositions, including Brahms himself.The New Urtext EditionsBärenreiter's pioneering new scholarly-critical editions of Brahms' works for one instrument and piano are edited by a team of musicologists who are also performers. They offer today's musicians not just a reliable musical text based on all known sources, but also a comprehensive approach to the works, which aims to place them in their historical context and to elucidate the complex of meanings that the composer wished his notation to convey to performers.In addition to the musical text these editions offer an informative Introduction laying out the genesis, publication history and reception of the works. At the same time there is a complete list of the sources, an explanation of the editorial procedures and a Critical Commentary. Also, each volume contains a detailed discussion of specific performing practice issues raised by individual works.An integral part of Bärenreiter's Brahms publication complex is a text booklet which approaches general performance practice issues of the 19th century with regard to e.g. tempo, rubato, rhythmic flexibility and articulation. Furthermore musicians will find valuable information concerning vibrato, portamento and bowing. Last but not least characteristics of Brahms' own piano playing as well as that of his circle and contemporaries are discussed.The violin and viola sonata editions come not only with an Urtext part freed from all editorial emendations, but also with an additional part including fingering and bowing based on the practices of Joseph Joachim and his colleagues. These markings especially draw on publications of the sonatas edited by Joachim's pupils Leopold Auer and Ossip Schnirlin as well as those by Brahms' associate Franz Kneisel. A similar approach has been used for the violoncello sonatas, drawing on performance markings by Robert Hausmann (for whom Brahms wrote the Sonata in F major), Hugo Becker, with whom Brahms performed it, and Julius Klengel who was also close to his circle.Bärenreiter's new Brahms complex also importantly brings two neglected works back into the player's hands, namely the splendid versions of the op. 120 sonatas, originally written for viola or clarinet and piano. Brahms' arrangements for violin and piano unaccountably disappeared from the standard repertoire early in the 20th century. In these versions Brahms did not simply adjust the solo part for the violin, he made many alterations to the piano part, casting thought-provoking light on the clarinet and viola versions.- A pioneering set of Urtext editions- String editions include an Urtext solo part and a second part with fingering as well as performance markings- Each edition offers a preface on performance practice aspects pertaining to the respective works- A separate text booklet includes pioneering texts on general issues of performance practice in the 19th century as well as on specific issues with regard to Johannes Brahms' chamber music / Violon Et Piano

The Works for one Instrument and PianoJohannes Brahms' compositions for one instrument and piano have been standards in chamber music literature ever since their inception. These works were written with specific performers in mind and Brahms worked closely with them when refining the final texts. Nevertheless, we rarely approach the music taking into consideration the possibilities of the instruments for which Brahms wrote or the performing practices of the individual players who first performed these compositions, including Brahms himself.The New Urtext EditionsBärenreiter's pioneering new scholarly-critical editions of Brahms' works for one instrument and piano are edited by a team of musicologists who are also performers. They offer today's musicians not just a reliable musical text based on all known sources, but also a comprehensive approach to the works, which aims to place them in their historical context and to elucidate the complex of meanings that the composer wished his notation to convey to performers.In addition to the musical text these editions offer an informative Introduction laying out the genesis, publication history and reception of the works. At the same time there is a complete list of the sources, an explanation of the editorial procedures and a Critical Commentary. Also, each volume contains a detailed discussion of specific performing practice issues raised by individual works.An integral part of Bärenreiter's Brahms publication complex is a text booklet which approaches general performance practice issues of the 19th century with regard to e.g. tempo, rubato, rhythmic flexibility and articulation. Furthermore musicians will find valuable information concerning vibrato, portamento and bowing. Last but not least characteristics of Brahms' own piano playing as well as that of his circle and contemporaries are discussed.The violin and viola sonata editions come not only with an Urtext part freed from all editorial emendations, but also with an additional part including fingering and bowing based on the practices of Joseph Joachim and his colleagues. These markings especially draw on publications of the sonatas edited by Joachim's pupils Leopold Auer and Ossip Schnirlin as well as those by Brahms' associate Franz Kneisel. A similar approach has been used for the violoncello sonatas, drawing on performance markings by Robert Hausmann (for whom Brahms wrote the Sonata in F major), Hugo Becker, with whom Brahms performed it, and Julius Klengel who was also close to his circle.Bärenreiter's new Brahms complex also importantly brings two neglected works back into the player's hands, namely the splendid versions of the op. 120 sonatas, originally written for viola or clarinet and piano. Brahms' arrangements for violin and piano unaccountably disappeared from the standard repertoire early in the 20th century. In these versions Brahms did not simply adjust the solo part for the violin, he made many alterations to the piano part, casting thought-provoking light on the clarinet and viola versions.- A pioneering set of Urtext editions- String editions include an Urtext solo part and a second part with fingering as well as performance markings- Each edition offers a preface on performance practice aspects pertaining to the respective works- A separate text booklet includes pioneering texts on general issues of performance practice in the 19th century as well as on specific issues with regard to Johannes Brahms' chamber music / Violon Et Piano