SKU: HL.49046246
ISBN 9781540058447. UPC: 842819106340. 9.0x12.0x0.086 inches. Artificial language.
'Talking whilst playing the drum is not something unique. We can find it in traditional Indian percussion, and in jazz when musicians accompany their play with 'Sprechgesang'. This piece goes the opposite way: It begins with the percussionist speaking nonsensically, the emphasis on the rhythm, which he then passes on to his instrument. Like the pure, childish joy of repeating the same word in a different tune, the soloist teaches his instrument to speak until the drums start to talk themselves. Several poems form the basis; in the first two movements it are three poems by Sandor Weores, and in the third movement it is a poemby Jayadeva. Each sentence has a more complex form than the one before. Rhythms form words, words form sentences, and sentences create a narrative.' (Ann-yi Bingol).
SKU: CA.1202105
ISBN 9790007191832. Language: German.
Score available separately - see item CA.1202100.
SKU: CA.1202108
ISBN 9790007191849. Language: German.
SKU: CF.DRM137F
ISBN 9780825885570. UPC: 798408085575. 9 x 12 inches.
Using text from Franz Kafka's short parable A Message from the Emperor, this work describes, in the composer's words, a glorious being, never seen by his countless lowly subjects, who, from his death bed, dispatches an indefatigable messenger (a prophet perhaps) with a most important message - just for you. For various practical reasons however the message cannot possibly be delivered. And even if it finally arrived the one who sent it will have died long ago. A Message from the Emperor is played and recited by two percussionists facing each other at a slight diagonal angle, with the marimba placed audience left and the vibraphone at audience right. For advanced players.
SKU: CA.1202103
ISBN 9790007191825. Language: German.
SKU: AP.48459
UPC: 038081552828. English.
I'm not givin' up . . . no, not yet. This lead single from Andy Grammer's album Naive is featured in the movie Five Feet Apart and gained YouTube fame among choir directors after Grammer's personal visit to PS22 in New York City. The lyrics speak of the power of friendship, the strength to fight, and the importance of support during difficult times. The catchy, syncopated chorus (with optional handclaps) makes great use of stacked harmony. Use the SoundTrax CD, or add guitar, bass, and drums to build your own band!
About Alfred Pop Choral Series
The Alfred Pop Series features outstanding arrangements of songs from the popular music genre. These publications provide exciting, contemporary, and educationally-sound arrangements for singers of all ages, from elementary through high school, to college and adult choirs.
SKU: AP.48458
UPC: 038081552811. English.
SKU: AP.48461
UPC: 038081552842. English.
SKU: KN.19747
UPC: 822795197471.
This grade 5+ piece is like a conversation between two people. The question is played by player 1 and answered by player 2. Since each player has different drums, like humans, their voices are different - thus a conversation is heard. Sometimes they even speak in unison. Player 1: 4 tom-toms and snare drum; Player 2: bongos, timbales and snare drum. Duration ca. 8:00.
SKU: FG.55011-372-5
ISBN 9790550113725.
Imag es of the sea figure prominently throughout my life and memories: from holidays on the Atlantic coast during my Canadian childhood to my current Baltic home, and the imagined, only later experienced Mediterranean of my ancestral heritage. As an immigrant (son of an immigrant) bound to two northern countries, the sea is emblematic of my twin homelands, from the expanses of water surrounding them to those separating them. A Mari usque ad Mare. The sea is also an enduring image of the unknown, of expanses unexplored, of the raw power of nature and, for too many currently, of terror holding a hope of refuge - or the pain of loss. Such disparate ideas were captured for me in the seascapes of the New York painter MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom I met in 2008 during a residency on the Gulf of Mexico. Her vast, abstract, nearly monochromatic depictions of imaginary seas in wildly varying moods were the catalyst for a concerto where the piano is frequently far from a hero battling a collective, but rather acts as a channel for elemental forces surging up from the orchestra, floating - sometimes barely so - on its constantly shifting surface. There are few themes to speak of, beyond a handful of iconic ideas that periodically cycle upward. Rather, the piano's material is largely an ornamentation of the more primal rhythmic and harmonic impulses from the orchestra below - a poetic interpretation, if you will, of the more immediate experience of facing the vastness of some unknown body of water. The title Nameless Seas is borrowed from one of Thielhelm's exhibitions, as are those of the four movements, which are bridged together into two halves of roughly equal weight - one rhapsodic and free, the other more single-minded and direct, separated only by a short breath. The opening movement, Nocturne, is predominantly calm, if brooding, darkness and light alternating throughout. Lyrical arabesques sparkle over gently lapping cross-currents in the strings and mirrored timpani, the piano's full power only rarely deployed. The waves gradually build, drawing in the full orchestra for a meeting of forces in Land and Sea, a brighter, more warmly lyrical scene that unfolds in series of dreamlike, sometimes even nostalgic visions, which for me carry strong memories of sitting on rocks above surging Atlantic waves. The third movement, Wake, is a fast, perpetual-motion texture of glinting, darting rhythms and sudden shafts of light, with a prominent part for the steel drums, limning the piano's quicksilver figurations. An ecstatic climax crashes into a solo cadenza that grows progressively calmer and more introspective rather than virtuosic. Much of the tension finally releases into Unclaimed Waters, a drifting, meditative seascape in which the piano is progressively engulfed by a series of ever-taller waves, ultimately dissolving into a tolling, rippling continuum of sound. It has been a great privilege to realize such a long-held dream as this piece, and to write it for not one, but two great pianists. Risto-Matti Marin and Angela Hewitt, both of whose friendship and support have been unfailing and humbling, share the dedication. Nameless Seas was commissioned by the PianoEspoo festival and Canada's National Arts Centre, with the premieres in Ottawa and Helsinki led by Hannu Lintu and Olari Elts. Thanks are due also to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, whose generous grant provided me with much-needed time, and Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida, the source to which I returned to do a large part of the work.
