Three Duets: "Air on the G String", from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, S. 1068, No. 2; Adagio from Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, S. 564; Arioso from Cantata S. 156

SKU: P2.PZA90187

Concert Duets is a collection of 14 arrangements of works by prominent 18th-century composers, mostly taken from Trio Sonatas. Duet 11 is a Jim Self original work in the Rococo style; and Duets 12, 13 and 14 are arrangements of the three-movements of the Bach Concerto for Two Violins. Included with this edition are play-along recorded tracks by tubist Zach Collins, who also served as editor of the current edition.

I created these duets as Christmas gifts for my tuba playing friends, with the first duet being arranged in 1976. All 14 of the duets are challenging and fun to play and are especially effective as concert pieces.

As a young musician I had the privilege of playing duets with many of the world’s finest tubists including Harvey Phillips, John Fletcher, Bob Pallansch, Chester, Schmitz, Dan Perantoni, Toby Hanks, Ron Bishop, Winston Morris and Tommy Johnson. I learned more about playing music in these duo sessions than from any other musical activity I have ever experienced. Duets are powerful teaching tools for learning and mastering rhythm, phrasing and intonation and for developing overall musicianship.

Jim Self:

Self (b. 1943) is a Los Angeles free-lance musician, a veteran of thousands of Hollywood motion pictures, television shows and records, and tuba soloist on many prominent movies. His tuba was the “Voice of the Mothership” in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He is Principal Tuba/Cimbasso with the Pacific and Pasadena Symphonies and the Los Angeles Opera and Hollywood Bowl Orchestras. Formerly he was in The U.S. Army Band and tuba / euphonium professor at the University of Tennessee. He holds a DMA from the USC Thornton School of Music where he is Adjunct Professor of Tuba and Chamber Music. His compositions and arrangements include works for solo tuba, brass quintet, other brass, string and woodwind chamber music, wind band and orchestra. Jim has produced many solo jazz and classical recordings. His music and recordings are available from Potenza Music and www.jimself.com. Jim Self is a Yamaha Performing Artist.

Zach Collins, editor:

Zach Collins is professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2019, he released his first solo album, Chronicle. It was recognized with the 2021 ITEA Roger Bobo Award for Excellence in Recording for the best Solo Tuba Album.

His interpretation of William Kraft’s Encounters II for Solo Tuba was released on Cambria Master Recordings. Zach performs with Eastern Standard, a horn, tuba, piano trio he formed with Heidi Lucas and Jacob Ertl. The ensemble has released two commercial albums, Eastern Standard and Wanderlust.

Zach regularly performs with the Keystone Chamber Winds, Altoona Symphony Orchestra, and West Virginia Symphony Orchestras. His compositions and arrangements for brass and for tuba and euphonium can be purchased from Cimarron Music and Eighth Note Publications. Zach earned degrees from Texas Christian University and the University of Southern California. His primary teachers have been Richard Murrow, Jim Self, Tommy Johnson, and Norm Pearson. Zach Collins is a Miraphone artist.

SKU: BA.BA10688

ISBN 9790006566051. 30 x 23 cm inches. Preface: Sassmannshaus, Egon / Sassmannshaus, Kurt.

The Sassmannshaus “Early Start” string methods cultivate playing together as early as possible, initially in duets. However playing in larger mixed ensembles is also encouraged and this tried-and-trusted edition for strings provides the perfect start for this. The first songs can all be performed in canon; each piece is notated in violin, viola and bass clef so that all three string instruments can play together in any number and combination. The collection then continues with through-composed pieces by such composers as Johann Valentin Rathgeber and Johann Joseph Fux. Here the middle part may optionally be performed by a viola or second violin.

About Baerenreiter's Sassmannshaus

Children playfully learn reliable technique at the earliest age. For more than three decades the Sassmannshaus Tradition has been the household name for excellence in beginner methods in German-speaking countries. More than half a million students have successfully learned to play using this publication.

Thi s tried and tested German method is now available in English! The best-selling method that gave generations of European musicians their foundation is now available in English, with content and songs newly adapted for today's English speaking children.

What makes this method so special?

• The child-friendly and age-appropriate text underlying the music enables children to perceive melodies as a whole and to understand their singable qualities.
• Songs and scales in different positions are easily explained and mastered within the first year. This is an important advantage over methods that confine children to the first position for many years.
• Note reading is emphasized from the first lesson - children are brought up to become proficient sight-readers and play in chamber music ensembles as early as possible.
• In contrast to other beginner methods, The Sassmannshaus Tradition progresses swiftly by introducing advanced techniques in rudimentary form, such as shifting and varied bow strokes.
• Ensemble playing is encouraged from the very beginning.
• The method is suitable for single instruction as well as for group and class lessons.
• The large print notes and text as well as many colorful illustrations are particularly child-friendly and very attractive to pre-school children and school children alike.
• The substantial volumes contain comprehensive material and carefully calibrated learning curves. They keep children curious and interested for many months and years.

SKU: SP.TS171

ISBN 9781585604531. UPC: 649571101718.

Music has always been an integral part of the holiday season. As everyone knows, there is no better way to celebrate than with a song. Re-live your childhood memories and share your love of music this holiday season with Santa's Little Helper published by Santorella Publications. Santa's Little Helper for Trumpet is written as solos or duets in accommodating keys for Flute, Clarinet, Alto Sax or Trombone. This complete collection of Christmas songs from Santorella Publications includes an accompaniment CD and lyrics for the whole family to enjoy. The Piano Accompaniment book for Brass and Reed instruments is sold separately. Santorella's String Edition is also available for violin, viola, cello and bass. Angels We Have Heard on High - Away in a Manger - Birthday of a King - Deck the Halls - God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen - Good King Wenceslas - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - I Saw Three Ships - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Jingle Bells - Jolly Old Saint Nicholas - Joy to the World - O Christmas Tree - O Come All Ye Faithful - O, Holy Night - O Little Town of Bethlehem - Silent Night - We Wish You A Merry Christmas - Good Christian Men Rejoice - I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day - We Three Kings Of Orient Are - Star Of The East - The First Noel - Here We Come Awassailing.

SKU: IM.3928

SKU: PR.11641861SP

UPC: 680160685202.

What? ! - my composer colleagues said - A concerto for the piano? It's a 19th century instrument! Admittedly we are in an age when originally created timbres and/or musico-technological formulations are often the modus operandi of a piece. Actually, this Concerto began about two years ago when, during one of my creative jogs, the sound of the uppermost register of the piano mingled with wind chimes penetrated my inner ear. The challenge and fascination of exploring and developing this idea into an orchestral situation determined that some day soon I would be writing a work for piano and orchestra. So it was a very happy coincidence when Mona Golabek phoned to tell me she would like discuss the Ford Foundation commission. After covering areas of aesthetics and compositional styles, we found that we had a good working rapport, and she asked if I would accept the commission. The answer was obvious. Then began the intensive thought process on the stylistic essence and organization of the work. Along with this went a renewed study of idiomatic writing for the piano, of the kind Stravinsky undertook with the violin when he began his Violin Concerto. By a stroke of great fortune, the day in February 1972 that I received official notice from the Ford Foundation of the commission, I also received a letter from the Guggenheim Foundation informing me I had been awarded my second fellowship. With the good graces of Zubin Mehta and Ernest Fleischmann, masters of my destiny as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I was relieved of my orchestral duties during the Hollywood Bowl season. Thus I was able to go to Europe to work and to view the latest trends in music concentrating in London (the current musical melting pot and showcase par excellence), Oslo, Norway, for the Festival of Scandinavian Music called Nordic Days, and Warsaw, Poland, for its prestigious Autumn Festival. Over half the Concerto was completed in that summer and most of the rest during the 72-73 season with the final touches put on during a month as Resident Scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy. So much for the external and environmental influences, except perhaps to mention the birds of Sussex in the first movement, the bells of Arhus (Denmark) in the second movement and the bells of Bellagio at the end of the Concerto. Primary in the conception was the personality of Miss Golabek: she is a wonderfully vital and dynamic person and a real virtuoso. Therefore, the soloist in the Concerto is truly the protagonist; it is she (for once we can do away with the generic he) who unfolds the character and intent of the piece. The first section is constructed in the manner of a recitative - completely unmeasured - with letters and numbers by which the conductor signals the orchestra for its participation. This allows the soloist the freedom to interpret the patterns and control the flow and development of the music. The Concerto is actually in one continuous movement but with three large divisions of sufficiently contrasting character to be called movements in themselves. The first 'movement' is based on a few timbral elements: 1) a cluster of very low pitches which at the beginning are practically inaudibly depressed, and sustained silently by the sostenuto pedal, which causes sympathetic vibrating pitches to ring when strong notes are struck; 2) a single powerful note indicated by a black note-head with a line through it indicating the strongest possible sforzando; 3) short figures of various colors sometimes ominous, sometimes as splashes of light or as elements of transition; 4) trills and tremolos which are the actual controlling organic thread starting as single axial tremolos and gradually expanding to trills of increasingly larger and more powerful scope. The 'movement' begins in quiescent repose but unceasingly grows in energy and tension as the stretching of a string or rubber band. When it can no longer be restrained, it bursts into the next section. The second 'movement,' propelled by the released tension, is a brilliant virtuosic display, which begins with a long solo of wispy percussion, later joined in duet with the piano. Not to be ignored, the orchestra takes over shooting the material throughout all its sections like a small agile bird deftly maneuvering through nothing but air, while the piano counterposes moments of lyricism. The orchestra reaches a climax, thrusting us into the third 'movement' which begins with a cadenza-like section for the piano. This moves gently into an expressive section (expressive is not a negative term to me) in which duets are formed with various instruments. There are fleeting glimpses of remembrances past, as a fragmented recapitulation. One glimpse is hazily expressed by strings and percussion in a moment of simultaneous contrasting levels of activity, a technique of which I have been fond and have utilized in various fixed-free relationships, particularly in my Percussion Concerto, Contextures and Games: Collage No. 1. The second half of the third 'movement; is a large coda - akin to those in Beethoven - which brings about another display of virtuosity, this time gutsy and driving, raising the Concerto to a final climax, the soloist completing the fragmented recapitulation concept as well as the work with the single-note sforzando and low cluster from the very opening of the first movement.

SKU: MB.21025M

ISBN 9780786691968. 8.75 x 11.75 inches.

Easy to play five-string banjo arrangements of twenty-four childrens favorites by banjo master Ross Nickerson. Not only are these songs fun to play but from an instructional standpoint they are perfect for helping you develop the ability to bring out the melody in the bluegrass banjo style. Accenting the melody within the steady rhythmic roll of banjo playing is one of the biggest challenges facing banjo students and these familiar melodies are ideal for your development of that skill. Each song is arranged and performed using proper three-finger bluegrass technique. The arrangements are carefully designed to bring out the melody, but easy enough for a beginner or intermediate player to learn quickly. The tablature in the book is large and easy to read with accent marks for melody notes, as well as right and left-hand fingering indications. This book is not simply a tablature book. Childrens Songs for Banjo Made Easy also features instruction on learning the chords to each song, chord progression charts for each song, special learning tips for each arrangement, a full page of advice on memorizing the songs and more. Also, in the instructional section of the book Ross includes a page of suggestions on the best use of practice time and how to develop the skills needed to succeed with each piece. Includes online access to a high quality studio recorded audio of all the songs played at three speeds and a bonus track of Ross performing.

SKU: MB.21028M

ISBN 9780786689224. UPC: 786689226. 8.75 x 11.75 inches.

Fiddle Tunes for Banjo Made Easy is a collection of must-know, easy-to-learn bluegrass instrumental standards. Ross records each song at three speeds and also includes a rhythm backup track. The slow speed is ideal for hearing the notes clearly and being able to play along in rhythm; the medium speed is a perfect goal for the beginning and intermediate student while the faster speed demonstrates what the song can sound like with a hard, driving push. The tablature is large for ease of reading and includes accent marks for melody notes where needed. Ross also provides tips and suggestions for each song to save you valuable practice time. These are tips on the more challenging spots that Ross has learned firsthand from teaching these privately for many years. In addition, there is a whole page of instruction on learning the chords to the song, how to play the song using only the chords, chord charts written out for each song and tips for memorizing and playing without tab. Fiddle Tunes for Banjo Made Easy is not just another tab book; it covers all the bases and gives you a realistic balanced approach for learning the songs the EASY way. Includes access to online audio.