Free to Solo Flute or Violin

SKU: PR.416411770

UPC: 680160091508.

I was tempted to call the piece Throw Back because it consciously employs rhythmic and harmonic approaches characteristic of the earlier part of the twentieth century, much of which plays a part in forging my musical personality. Going along with the impetus, I have paid homage by subtly interpolating stylistic or actual references to such unexpected bedfellows as Scriabin, Ravel, Debussy, Piston, Roussel, and Ysaye. I hope I will be musically forgiven. In one continuous movement, there are three definite internal sections: Presto-Largo-Allegro. The first section opens with a very soft percussion cadenza. If the acoustics allow it, the player will use sponge pottery mallets (sponge-headed mallets employed to smooth the interior of a pot as it is being spin-dried). No matter how hard the percussionist strikes the drums, the dynamic cannot go above pp (pianissimo). This cadenza serves as a basis for the first movement. The elements of the cadenza are taken by the orchestra to make the first major statement, similar to the classical concerto; but rather than making a restatement, the soloists, when they come in, begin with variational ideas. The second section is given over to the soloists, and is lyrical. The third section begins with an alternation between strict rhythmic pulsation and free-sounding timbres, as if reluctant to leave the second section behind. The rhythmic aspect takes over more and more as the piece progresses toward its conclusion. Double Play was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with financial assistance from the Northwest Area Foundation. It received its premiere on January 7, 1983, in St. Paul, with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Pinchas Zukerman, violinist; Marc Neikrug, piano; and the composer conducting.

SKU: CA.1880111

ISBN 9790007192532. Language: all languages.

Score available separately - see item CA.1880100.

SKU: CA.1880114

ISBN 9790007192563. Language: all languages.

Score available separately - see item CA.1880100.

SKU: CA.1880115

ISBN 9790007192570. Language: all languages.

Score available separately - see item CA.1880100.

SKU: PR.44641192L

UPC: 680160610860. 11 x 14 inches.

One of my greatest pleasures in writing a concerto is exploring the new world that opens for me each time I enter the sometimes alien, but always fascinating, world of a solo instrument or instruments. For me, the challenge is to discover the deepest nature of the solo instrument (its karma, if you will) and to allow that essential character to guide the shape and form of the work and the nature of the interaction between soloists and orchestra. In recent years, many of us have become more aware of the musical world outside the Western tradition of musics that follow different procedures and spring from other aesthetics. And contemporary percussionists have opened many of these worlds to us, as they have ventured around the globe, participating in Brazilian Samba schools, studying Gamelan and African drumming with local experts, collecting instruments from Asia and Africa and South America and the South Pacific, widening our horizons in the process. I will never forget our first meeting in Toronto when Nexus invited me into their world of hundreds of exciting percussion instruments. The vast array of instruments in the collection of the Nexus ensemble is truly global in scope as well as offering a thrilling sound-universe. I was inspired by the incredible range of sound and moved by the fact that so many of these instruments were musical reflections of a spiritual dimension. After long consideration, I decided that it would not only be impossible, but even undesirable for this Western-tradition-steeped composer to attempt to use these instruments in a culturally authentic way. My goal was an existential kind of authenticity: searching instead for universal ideas that would be true to both myself and the performers while acknowledging the traditional uses of the instruments. Since many percussion instruments are associated with various kinds of ritual, I decided that I would allow that concept to shape my piece. Rituals is in four movements, each issuing from a ritual associated with percussion, but with the orchestral interaction providing an essential element in the musical form. I. Invocation alludes to the traditions of invoking the spirit of the instruments, or the gods, or the ancestors before performing. II. Ambulation moves from a processional, through march and dance to fantasy based on all three. III. Remembrances alludes to traditions of memorializing. IV. Contests progresses from friendly competition games, contests to a suggestion of a battle of big band drummers, to warlike exchanges. In the 2nd and 4th movements, another percussion tradition, improvisation, is employed. Written into these movements are a number of seeds for improvisation. Indications in the score call for the soloists to improvise in three different ways, marked A for percussion alone; marked B for percussion with and in response to the orchestra; and C where the percussionists are free to add and embellish the written parts. These improvisations should grow out of and embellish previous motives and gestures in the movement.

SKU: PR.416414210

UPC: 680160602049. 8.5 x 11 inches.

Composed for violinist Baird Dodge in 1995-97, SLEEP is a 25-minute concerto in three movements. Thefirst movement (Twitching) is dramatic in character, full of contrasts, pitting the violin against the orchestra in more or less romantic fashion. The second (Breathing) is comprised of overlapping layers of simple harmonies accompanying a freely evolving, lyrical melody in the violin. In the third movement (Sweating), the soloist and ensemble initially work together to create a rising line. They soon diverge, and an increasing layering of multiple lines throughout the ensemble leads to a very high point of density which is then abruptly cut off by the virtuosic frenzy in the violin which ends the work.

SKU: BR.OB-32117-15

ISBN 9790004350836. 10 x 12.5 inches.

The cantata Schmucket das Fest mit Maien has survived without any information about the time of its composition, its purpose, or its scoring. The librettist is also unknown, although there is a comparatively similar text in the work of the Silesian poet Hans Assmann Freiherr von Abschatz (1646-1699), printed in Leipzig in 1704. Since the copy of the score that serves as the source for this edition was probably written after 1708, and the work is closely related to the cantata Daran erkennen wir (PB 32090), it could have been written during Kuhnau's first years as Thomaskantor from 1701 on.The text set to music provides information about the purpose of the cantata. In the course of the work, the image of the bridegroom and his bride from the Song of Songs is reinterpreted as the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation of Christians. In the first part, passages from the Song of Songs predominate while the second part quotes their symbolic interpretations or treats them in free poetry. In the concluding chorale, a stanza from Philipp Nicolai's Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautifully the morning star shines), the outpouring and the flames are also mentioned, so the purpose to the feast of Pentecost is clear.Another special feature of the cantata is the varied and colorful instrumentation with the scoring of two flutes, two oboes and bassoon in individual movements, in addition to the usual, sometimes divided strings.

SKU: CA.1037219

ISBN 9790007133795. Language: English. Text: Dryden, John. Text: John Dryden.

During the late 17th century English musicians celebrated each year on 22 November the feast of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, with special concerts and church services. With his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day Handel rejuvenated the tradition of this festival on St. Cecilia's Day in 1732. This so-called little St. Cecilia Ode is a musically joyful glorification of the power of music: two festive choruses frame five charming arias in each of which a solo instrument is used for contrasting effect in the baroque manner. Handel allows the soloists a wealth of freedom to improvise and to display their skills. This is especially the case for the organ, which was his favorite instrument. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.1037200.

SKU: HL.14021749

ISBN 9788759889817. Danish.

Poul Ruders' MONODRAMA, dedicated to percussion virtuoso Gert Sorensen and commissioned by The Danish Radio, was written in New York in the early winter 1988 and makes the centre as well as the middle of the tri-part opus called The Drama Trilogy. All three works employ the word Drama in their title, Drama in the original meaning of the word: event. No specified event, but a premonition or omen rather, that something is afoot, a free Drama-offer from which anyone may populate the stage of his private, inner theatre.The first piece of the series DRAMAPHONIA for piano and chamber ensemble was premiered in London in the spring of 1988 by Lontano and Poul Rosenbaum. This piece is emotionally and rhythmically unstable as opposed to MONODRAMA (single-event) which is modelled from the archetypal idea of obtaining accomplishment from nothingness. The 31 instruments of the orchestra (no flutes and no violins or violas) are more or less wrapped around the solo-part to become one with that and thus emerge as one, gigantic percussion instrument. The rhythmical patterns of the orchestral part more or less follow those of the percussionpart, a single-event also on the rhythmical level.After 20 minutes climbing toward the peak of rage, the composition casts its slough and is reborn into a chorale-like march and the struggle between totally depopulated sound-scapes and ferociously roaring sub-oceanic storms begin and the piece paces toward the abyss; rage becomes despondency, New Rage as opposed to New Age, the spineless worshipper of beauty without pain.The third instalment of the DRAMA TRILOGY, the cello concerto POLYDRAMA will be premiered in Stockholm May 1990.MONODRAMA lasts aprox. 32 minutes.Poul Ruders.