Four Pillars

SKU: CA.1037813

ISBN 9790007190934. Language: German/English/French.

I wrote this Christmas cantata from Koroshegy at the request of the Council of the Komitat Somogy. When I visited the still unrenovated little church at Koroshegy about ten years ago I had no idea that this beautiful Gothic building would one day be the scene of the world premiere of one of my works. - The cantata is founded on four pillars: four organ soli which could be described as ritornelli, followed by four a cappella choruses with the same melody but different harmonizations. These are settings of the four verses of In Epiphaniam by Janus Pannonius, the most renowned Hungarian poet and humanist of the Renaissance. Between these pillars I have introduced movements for choir or for soloists based on Hungarian folk tunes and Christmas songs from Transylvania and the Komitat Somogy: songs of the shepherds, angels and wise men, and, after a pastorale for organ, a large scale mixed-voice chorus intoning Ez karacsony ejszakajan [Holy Night]. A narrator introduces the individual numbers with passages from the Christmas story. An organ postlude concludes the work. (Ferenc Farkas) This work may be performed in German, English, French or Hungarian language. Score and part available separately - see item CA.1037800.

SKU: CA.1037800

ISBN 9790007077624. Language: German/English/French.

I wrote this Christmas cantata from Koroshegy at the request of the Council of the Komitat Somogy. When I visited the still unrenovated little church at Koroshegy about ten years ago I had no idea that this beautiful Gothic building would one day be the scene of the world premiere of one of my works. - The cantata is founded on four pillars: four organ soli which could be described as ritornelli, followed by four a cappella choruses with the same melody but different harmonizations. These are settings of the four verses of In Epiphaniam by Janus Pannonius, the most renowned Hungarian poet and humanist of the Renaissance. Between these pillars I have introduced movements for choir or for soloists based on Hungarian folk tunes and Christmas songs from Transylvania and the Komitat Somogy: songs of the shepherds, angels and wise men, and, after a pastorale for organ, a large scale mixed-voice chorus intoning Ez karacsony ejszakajan [Holy Night]. A narrator introduces the individual numbers with passages from the Christmas story. An organ postlude concludes the work. (Ferenc Farkas) This work may be performed in German, English, French or Hungarian language.

SKU: CA.1037805

ISBN 9790007110819. Language: German/English/French.

I wrote this Christmas cantata from Koroshegy at the request of the Council of the Komitat Somogy. When I visited the still unrenovated little church at Koroshegy about ten years ago I had no idea that this beautiful Gothic building would one day be the scene of the world premiere of one of my works. - The cantata is founded on four pillars: four organ soli which could be described as ritornelli, followed by four a cappella choruses with the same melody but different harmonizations. These are settings of the four verses of In Epiphaniam by Janus Pannonius, the most renowned Hungarian poet and humanist of the Renaissance. Between these pillars I have introduced movements for choir or for soloists based on Hungarian folk tunes and Christmas songs from Transylvania and the Komitat Somogy: songs of the shepherds, angels and wise men, and, after a pastorale for organ, a large scale mixed-voice chorus intoning Ez karacsony ejszakajan [Holy Night]. A narrator introduces the individual numbers with passages from the Christmas story. An organ postlude concludes the work. (Ferenc Farkas) This work may be performed in German, English, French or Hungarian language. Score available separately - see item CA.1037800.

SKU: MH.1-59913-072-6

ISBN 9781599130729.

Program Notes: It was a happy coincidence that the commission for SINFONIA XVI: TRANSCENDENTAL VIENNA came from the Henry David Thoreau School located in Vienna, Virginia. Thoreau is one of the magic names in American culture: Henry David Thoreau, one of the leading figures of the Transcendentalist movement, centered in 19th-century New England, left us a body of unique philosophical and poetical writings. To utter the words, Walden Pond, is to invoke an America long past in physical actuality, but still present in the minds and hearts of many American citizens. The name, Vienna, of course, summons thoughts of the Old World: culture, fine food, wine, civilized cities. While contemplating the form that SINFONIA XVI should take, I found myself thinking of two pillars of Viennese culture: expressionism and the waltz. Musically speaking, expressionism reached a zenith in the works of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. It was Berg, in particular, that I wanted to invoke in the outer movements of my composition. I knew I would also have to include a waltz, and an invocation of the mysterious forces that are contained in both expressionism and transcendentalism. Thus was the structure of the work generated. The outer movements with their vision of the night sky and the stars, Aldebaran and Sirius, frame the central movements, which are essentially two versions of the same material, and are quieter and less dramatic. The outer movements are symmetrical, and share both pitch and rhythmic materials. Accordingly, I see the work as a ternary form, with the central movements forming a unit within the outer frame: A (Movement 1) B (Movements 2 & 3) A' (Movement 4). Harmonically, the work can be summarized by the two pitch-series which occur in the opening bars of Movement 1: the initial 12-note row, with a tonal center on F-sharp (measures 1-6), and the subsequent D-minor Dorian 7-note row (beginning in measure 14). Aspects of these materials occur in all four movements, but they are most strongly present in Movements 1 and 4. Note that the 12-note row is not subjected to the usual serial procedures, but instead is treated as a signifier and is left unchanged. Since the fourth movement takes up where the first movement leaves off, I can conceive of one interpretation of SINFONIA XVI as an evocation of Thoreau himself contemplating two of the brightest stars on a clear, cold night. Aldebaran is an orange, first-magnitude star, located in the constellation Taurus; Sirius, the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the sky, and is located in the constellation Canis Major. Thoreau interrupts his star-gazing to entertain some inward thoughts, waking dreams, as it were, then returns his gaze to the splendid night sky and all its treasures. Although many other interpretations of the material are possible, it is important to remember that the abstract materials of the piece -- pitch, rhythm, structure -- are what count the most. Ensemble instrumentation: 1 Piccolo, 4 Flute 1, 4 Flute 2, 3 Oboe, 1 Eb Clarinet (opt.), 4 Bb Clarinet 1, 4 Bb Clarinet 2, 4 Bb Clarinet 3, 3 Bass Clarinet, 3 Bassoon, 3 Eb Alto Saxophone 1, 3 Eb Alto Saxophone 2, 2 Bb Tenor Saxophone, 2 Eb Baritone Saxophone, 3 Bb Trumpet 1, 3 Bb Trumpet 2, 3 Bb Trumpet 3, 2 Horn 1, 2 Horn 2, 3 Trombone 1, 3 Trombone 2, 3 Euphonium B.C., 2 Euphonium T.C., 5 Tuba, 2 Timpani, 3 Percussion 1, 3 Percussion 2, 3 Percussion 3, 3 Percussion 4.

SKU: BT.PWM8821

Work on this piece began in the spring of 1899 durng Kar owiczs studies in Berlin and he finished it after graduating and returning home in June 1902. Its premiere took place on March 21, 1903 in Berlin, and the Polish premiere on April 7, 1903 in Lviv. The symphony has a classic, four-movement structure, but in terms of architecture it is much closer to symphonic poems. It consists of the movements: 1. Andante. Allegro 2. Andante non troppo 3. Vivace 4. Allegro maestoso. ''In terms of orchestration and instrumentation technique it represents Kar owiczs early, academic period. The composer still used double wind enriched with piccolo flute, unlike in his later orchestral works the symphonic poems. The orchestration of the work indicates that the composer was guided by Tchaikovskys symphonic model. Kar owicz here still willingly operates with various sound blocks of entire instrumental groups, treating them in a choral manner, with tight chordal pillars'' (Leszek Polony). Before the Polish premiere the composer gave a comprehensive literary programme of the work in the Lviv newspaper S owo Polskie, in which he referred to each consecutive movement of the Symphony. In his last words he wrote, ''We hear a hymn of revival, at first quiet and sweet, then wider and wider, and fuller. Already the time has come; to hear the fanfare. Only one more step! And although the spirits fall again in doubt, we hear a powerful and solemn hymn of rebirth.''.