Format : Sheet music
SKU: PR.466411770
UPC: 680160640850. 9 x 12 inches.
Mississippi I. Father of Waters: born of the Highlands and the Lakes; the Glaciers, the Mountains, and the Prairies. The picture of your birth is clounded in the ice and mists of ancient ages but your spirit remains our life stream. II. The Red Man knew your bountiful gifts and gave thanks to the Great Spirit on your banks. -- The Spanish and French Fathers brought the glory of Christianity to America on Mississippi. But all men, white and dark; -- Indian, Spaniard, and Negro; Bourbon and Yankee, combined to make Mississippi the heart of America. Saga of the Mississippi Harl McDonald Born near Boulder, Colorado, July 27, 1899 Now living in Philadelphia The original suggestion for a symphonic work on the subject of the Mississippi came indirectly from the late Booth Tarkington who saw in it color and movement and atmosphere translatable into the terms of music. In the course of time, by the mysterious processes of composers' chemistry, it took shape as a tone-poem of two sections, one representing the rise of the great stream from its primeval geologic sources, the other the human history of the river. Mr. McDonald devised the following verbal outline of the general scheme of his diptych: I. Father of Waters: born of the Highlands and the Lakes; the Glaciers, the Mountains, and the Prairies. The picture of your birth is clounded in the ice and mists of ancient ages but your spirit remains our life stream. II. The Red Man knew your bountiful gifts and gave thanks to the Great Spirit on your banks. -- The Spanish and French Fathers brought the glory of Christianity to America on Mississippi. But all men, white and dark; -- Indian, Spaniard, and Negro; Bourbon and Yankee, combined to make Mississippi the heart of America. The first of the two movements, beginning molto andante, is vaguel modal to hint at antiquity. It is built upon the conventional two themes, with an episode, poco piu mosso, misterioso, for prehistoric murk and muck. There are various changes of pace and mood. The second, Allegro ma vigorosamente, prefigures an Indian ceremony. A theme presented by flute, clarinet and bassoon is a Canadian Indian fishing call collected by the late J.B. Beck. A later passage of quasi-Gregorian chant identifies the French and Spanish priests who made the great river their highway. The fishing-call is altered in rhythm and harmony to represent Negro field hands and roustabous. A turbulent close brings all these elemts together in the muddy swirling currents of the Mississippi. The work was begun in the summer of 1945, and was revised and completed in the summer of 1947. Harl McDonald, who is the manager of The Philadelphia Orchestra, has concerned himself with music as an art, as a science and as a business in course of his career. He was born on a cattle ranch in the Rockies, but since his was a musical family, his up-bringing combined piano lessons with ranch life. Years of study and professional experience followed in Los Angeles and in Germany. In 1927 he was appointed lecuter in composition at the University of Pennsylvania and he has since then made is home in Philadelphia. In 1933 under a grant of the Rockefeller FOundation he collaborated with physicists in research dealing with the measurement of instrumental and vocal tone, new scale divisions and the resultant harmonies. In that same year he was named head of the University's music faculty and conductor of its choral organizations. In 1939, having been a member of the Board of Directors for five years, he was appointed manager of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He continus to write, but otherwise his entire attention is now devoted to managerial duties. Chief items in the catalogue of his compositions are four symphonies, three orchestra suites, a half-dozen tone-poems, three concertos and considerable quantity of choral music.
SKU: BR.CHB-5234-02
ISBN 9790004411537. 7.5 x 10.5 inches. German.
Madame Hensel, Mendelssohn's sister, whose eyes speak intelligence and profundity''. This diary entry made by Robert Schumann in June 1843 succinctly but fittingly characterizes Fanny Hensel, without a doubt the most significant woman composer of the 19th century. Born in Hamburg on 14 November 1805, she was the eldest sister of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and the granddaughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. In 1829 she married the Prussian court painter and occasional poet Wilhelm Hensel (1794-1861). After her sudden death in Berlin on 14 May 1847 as a result of a stroke, the music journalist Ludwig Rellstab poignantly wrote that she shared the brotherhood ef talent with her famous sibling.Fanny Hensel was given the same excellent and comprehensive musical training as her precocious brother, including composition lessons with Goethe's friend Carl Friedrich Zelter. Felix and Fanny not only loved each other tenderly, but they also maintained an intensive, life-long exchange of ideas which proved musically profitable to both of them. However, it was only in 1846 that Mendelssohn gave up his resistance to Fanny's publication plans. And so, just shortly before her death, she was able to publish a carefully selected sample of her songs and piano pieces.Not only these pieces, but also a few orchestral and chamber-music works (e.g. the String Quartet in E flat major, KM 2255) and, in particular, choral music occupy an important position in her oeuvre. Most of her choral works were written in 1846, and she was able to rehearse them with the chorus she conducted at the famous Sunday Concerts in the Mendelssohn home. She had six of these choral songs published in a revised version under the title Gartenlieder Op. 3 by the Berlin music publisher Bote & Bock. The title of the Gartenlieder brings to mind Mendelssohn's well-known Lieder im Freien zu singen (Opera 41, 48, 59; ChB 4763-4780), published before 1846. But, as far as the quality of their melodic writing, the compositional technique, and the choice of texts are concerned, as well as the perfect balance between folk-like simplicity and polished design, they are as outstanding as the works of her brother.Fanny Hensel's choral works not only stand up to comparison with any of the rich and varied choral works of the Romantic era - they also rank among the best. Very likely to become hits! (Musica).