Suite de Pièces op. 3
SKU: HL.49046626
UPC: 842819114628. 9.0x12.0x0.07 inches.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was paid three guineas for the publishing rights to his Suite de Pièces by Schott & Co. London on 24 December 1892 when the composer was just 17 years old. In the following year the work was published by Schott Music's German office in versions for both violin with piano and violin with organ. Coleridge-Taylor was born in London and brought up in Croydon. He learnt to play the violin, was recognized as a child prodigy and at 15 was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music with Charles Villiers Stanford, where he was a contemporary of Holst and Vaughan Williams. Coleridge-Taylor described himself Anglo-African and, despite support from his colleagues, faced racism throughout his whole career. In spite of this prejudice and his tragically early death in 1912 aged just 37, he enjoyed great success during his lifetime and his music was performed at the Proms no less than 116 times between 1898 and 1939. In contrast, since 1940 his music has only been heard there on eleven occasions. Like many works, at some point in the past Suite de Pièces became out of print. Schott Music is very proud to present this new modern performing edition of the version for violin and piano. Errors and inconsistencies from the first edition have now been corrected.
SKU: PR.140401330
ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.
Natha niel Dett was among America’s leading composers in the early 20th century, and MAGNOLIA SUITE is a beautiful example of his rich, hybrid style. Deeply inspired by the music and mission of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dett’s piano music springs from the late Romantic traditions of florid texture and embellishment, along with programmatic titles and raw emotion. It is notable for melody writing inspired by and paraphrasing African-American song. The 18-minute MAGNOLIA SUITE contains five movements, any of which may also be performed separately. This edition by Lara Downes provides a clean, new engraving that corrects the many errors and unclear indications appearing in the historical printing.Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in a place that was built on freedom. The little village of Drummondville, Ontario was founded by enslaved Africans – Dett’s ancestors among them – who traveled the Underground Railroad out of the American South into Canada. Their journey brought them to a safe haven, a place where fortunes and futures could be transformed in the span of one generation, to lives full of new possibilities. You could call it “the place where the rainbow ends,†which is the title of the last movement of Dett’s Magnolia Suite.When Dett wrote these pieces, he was a young teacher at Lane College in Tennessee, a historically Black college that had been founded in 1882, the year of his birth. A place built on freedom, with the purpose of educating newly-emancipated slaves – a place designed to nurture the blossoming of ideas, the vibrant flowering of minds set free. This music is inspired by the gorgeous splendor of the magnolia blooms on that college campus, and also by the shared histories, experiences, and aspirations of the community that Dett found there.These five pieces pay affectionate tribute to lineage and legacy. They express gratitude for the bittersweet beauties of the present; nostalgia for the past (a bit romanticized, as the past always is); and an effervescent optimism for the future that awaits us in the place where the rainbow ends.
