A String of Thoughts

Stringpack-FANFARE PRELUDE: O GOD OUR HELP IN AGES PAST is based on the hymn-tune ?St. Anne ? which was used by G.F.Handel in the Chandos anthem ?O Praise the Lord ? and by J.S.Bach in his triple fugue in E-flat ?The St. Anne Fugue.? James Curnow?s FANFARE PRELUDE: O GOD OUR HELP IN AGES PAST captures the thoughts of this magnificent hymn which speaks of our country?s reliance upon God. The unusual 4/4 meter setting with artfully crafted re-harmonizations and lush counterpoint gives each listener cause to reflect on the importance and meaning of this melody to patriotic Americans everywhere.Inspired!

Three arrangements including Ave Verum Corpus and the Lacrimosa from the Requiem.During the year 1771 when Mozart was 15 years old he and his father Leopold were touring Italy which was at that time the most formidable citadel of the music world. In the following four years the young Mozart was received at the homes and villas of Italy's aristocracy. He met the most famous musicians of the time including Niccolo Piccinni operatic rival to Gluck and Padre Martini from whom he was to benefit from studies in counterpoint. He also met many noted male soprano singers and for one the celebrated Venanzio Rauzzini he wrote in 1773 the motet Exsultate Jubilate from whichcomes the well known Alleluia.At the end of his life only 19 years later in Vienna 1791 Mozart was very ill and working on a number of massive works such as the operas The Magic Flute and Titus also the Requiem. Titus was completed in 18 nerve-shattering days as it had to be performed in Prague in September 1791. At its premiere it was a complete flop. This affected the now overworked almost penniless composer's spirit and he returned to Vienna suffering from mental and physical exhaustion. Rest was denied him. The Magic Flute had to be finished for its premier on September 30th 1791. The task of the Requiem still faced him. In this weakened state Mozart thought that he was in fact writing his own requiem reading evil omens into the commissioning of the work. He thought someone had calculated the precise time of his death and was thus troubled with sombre thoughts. He completed the first two of the twelve parts. The next six parts were in an unfinished state and his manuscript ceased at the Lacrimosa. Süssmayer who was working closely with Mozart at the time was given the task of finishing the Requiem.Ave Verum Corpus is also one of his final works. It is a setting of an anonymous hymn written as a motet for Anton Stoll the choirmaster at Baden in June 1791.Mozart was a composer of great genius who

for String Orchestra-A thoughtful lyric movement for strings Reverie for String Orchestra continues to be a favorite of orchestra directors particularly as an expressive program piece for festival and contest. This work offers plenty ofopportunities to present dramatic and sensitive musical expression from the entire ensemble.

A pop classic Bill Withers' thoughtful message song has lasted decades and is instantly recognizable. Larry's new version for strings is solid writing for young players with easy syncopation that captures the hook and groove of this memorable tune.

Chaconne. Par LERDAHL FRED. Chaconne (2016), for string quartet, was commissioned by the Daedalus Quartet to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The commission was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and Aaron Copland Fund for Music. My music has a substantial history with Daedalus. I composed the Third String Quartet (2008) for them, and subsequently they performed my three string quartets on several occasions and recorded them brilliantly on Bridge Records (Bridge 9352: Music of Fred Lerdahl, vol. 3). Chaconne is in one movement lasting 19 minutes. It is effectively my fourth string quartet. Quartets 1-3 form a unified cycle lasting 70 minutes. When I finished the cycle, I thought I would never write again for the medium; yet I could not resist the opportunity of working again with Daedalus. The issue was how to compose another string quartet unrelated to the earlier cycle. The solution came from my solo cello piece There and Back Again (2010), which was based on a four-bar variation pattern from a 17th-century chaconne. Unlike the asymmetrical phrases and expanding variations of much of my music, the chaconne form requires symmetrical phrases and strictly periodic variations. I wished to work again with these symmetries but on a larger scale. Chaconne also differs in character and expression from the three-quartet cycle. The cycle is inward and intense, a kind of psychological excavation. Chaconne is, for the most part, transparent and playful. Many of its textures emerge from little canons, not completely unlike the rounds that children sing. Any composer who writes in chaconne form (one thinks above all of the last movement of Bach’s D minor violin partita and the finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony) is confronted with the challenge of how to create a larger form out of a constantly repeating pattern. My Chaconne grows from paired antecedent-consequent phrases, each variation lasting eight bars. The 50 variations group into three large rotations, forming three arcs of tension and relaxation, with subtle parallel connections across the rotations. Notwithstanding my attraction to chaconne form, I purposefully disguised its symmetries and periodicities in order to build an overall dramatic shape. Fred Lerdahl/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

String Quartet Score and Parts-Ola Gjeilo's three-work set of Ubi Caritas settings is now complete with “Sacred Heart.” Musically independent from his other two Ubi Caritas settings “Sacred Heart” can stand alone or be performed with the two previous works. A lovely string quartet accompaniment balances with the choir making this a stunning and peaceful adaptation of such a thoughtful text. Duration: ca. 4:45

Präludium / Scherzo-Shostakovich's Prelude And Scherzo from Opus 11 for String Quartet is thought to have been composed whilst he was studying at the Leningrad Conservatory from which he graduated in 1925.