Variations lointaines est un Concerto pour un mouvement (ou plus exactement, un concerto grosso) pour saxophone quartet et vent orchestre. Il a été commandé par le Royal Northern College of Music à Manchester pour Timothy Reynish et le RNCM Wind Orchestra. / Quatuor De Saxophones Et Ensemble A Vents
SKU: HL.49003302
ISBN 9790220119491. UPC: 073999740745. 8.25x11.5x0.324 inches.
Distant Variations is a one movement concerto (or more correctly, a concerto grosso) for saxophone quartet and wind orchestra. It was commissioned by the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester for Timothy Reynish and the RNCM Wind Orchestra for its first performance with the Apollo Saxophone Quartet at the Barbican in March 1997.
SKU: HL.49020655
SKU: PR.16400222S
UPC: 680160037841.
This work follows my Quartet No. 1 by five years. In terms of style and aesthetic aim, however, it seems light years away. Where the first work, a 28-minute, four-movement piece, took aim at cosmic conflicts and heroic resolutions, the present work is intended as a kind of divertissment. Harbor Music lasts a mere eleven minutes, is cast in a single movement with six sections, and should leave both performers and listeners with a feeling of good humor and affection. The title comes from my experience as a guest in the magnificent city of Sydney, Australia. One of its most attractive features is its unique system of ferry boats: the city is laid out around a large, multi-channeled harbor, with destinations more easily approached by water than by land. Consequently, inhabitants of Sydney get around on small, people-friendly boats that come and go from the central docks at Circular Quay. During a week's visit in 1991, I must have boarded these boats at least a dozen times, always bound for a new location - the resort town of Manley, or the Zoo at Taronga Park, or the shopping district at Darling Harbour. In casting about for a form for my second string quartet, a kind of loose rondo came to mind. Each new destination would be approached from the same starting-out point (although there are subtle variations in the repeating theme; it's always in a new key, and the texture is never the same). The result, I hope, is a sense of constant new information presented with introductory frames of a more familiar nature. The embarkation theme, which begins the piece, is a sort of bi-tonal fanfare in which the violins are in G major and the viola and cello are in B-flat major. It is bold, eager, and forward-looking. The first voyage maintains this bi-tonality, beginning as a 9/8 due for second violin and viola in a kind of rocking motion -much as a boat produces when reaching the deeper water in the harbor. A sweet, nostalgic theme emerges over this rocking accompaniment. This music is developed somewhat, then transforms quickly into a much faster and lighter episode, filled with rising and falling scales (again, in differing keys). A scherzando interlude in short notes and changing meters provides contrast, and the episode ends with a reprise of the scales. The second embarkation follows, this time in A major/C major. It leads quickly into a very warm and slow theme, in wide-leaping intervals for the viola. This section is interrupted twice by solo cadenzas for the cello, suggesting distant boat-horns in major thirds. The end of the episode becomes a transition, with boat-horns leading into the final appearance of the embarkation music, this time in trills and tremolos instead of sharply accented chords. The nostalgic theme of the first episode makes a final appearance, serving now as a coda. The rocking motion continues, in a lullaby fashion, leaving us drowsy and satisfied on our homeward journey. Harbor Music was written for the Cavani Quartet, and is dedicated to Richard J. Bogomolny. Commissioned by his employees at First National Supermarkets as a gift, it represents a thank you from many of the people (including this composer) who have benefitted from his vision and generosity. An ardent advocate of chamber music (and a cellist himself), Mr. Bogomolny has for many years been Chairman of the Board of Chamber Music America. -- Dan Welcher.
SKU: CA.739300
ISBN 9790007172268. Text language: Latin.
Veni was composed by Kay Johannsen in November 2015. Similar to his 2010 work Et vidimus gloriam eius for four choral groups (SSA, TTB, SATB, SATB) and organ based on the beginning of St John's Gospel, Veni requires a spatial separation of three four-part choirs. The starting point of the composition is the 12th century hymn Veni redemptor gentium by St Ambrose of Milan, which Martin Luther used as the basis of his 1524 hymn Nun komm, der Heiland. The four sections of the cantus firmus are sung in turn by all the basses, altos, sopranos, and tenors, each part at a louder dynamic than the other parts. For the accompanying voices Johannsen uses different principles of canonic technique and motivic variation, with most of the material derived from the cantus firmus. The organ part of this 12-part chorale arrangement provides a harmonic orientation, but is completely independent and introduces both moments of rhythmic accentuation and elements of veiling. The choral writing is also deepened and elevated by the organ sounds derived from the text. Despite all the motivic links between the parts, the music has a direct sensual effect as a sound collage. The work ends with three increasingly distant, homophonic invocations of Veni: the plea Komm occurs at the beginning as at the end.
