Mosaic (Score Only)

SKU: BT.PWM4901

Concerto for String Orchestra - the magnum opus of Grayna Bacewicz (1909-1969), the outstanding composer and violinist - was composed in 1948 and at once became one of the most frequently performed works of this Polish artist. This masterpieceof neoclassicism fascinates as much by its invention and virtuosic briliance as its harmonious combination of formal elements of a traditional nature with new tonal ideas. The form of the three-movement Concerto oscillates between that of the baroqueconcerto grosso and the early classical sonata cycle. The neoclassical tendency is evident, above all, in the articulation of the musical structure in keeping with the rigours of periodicity and the manner of developing thematic threads derived fromthem, while the concertato character of particular movements and the generally linear texture indicate baroque connections. The first movement (Allegro) - in the form of an early classical sonata allegro - begins with a subject with energeticfigurations, emblematic for the whole piece and based on a constant, pendulum-like semiquaver movement anchored securely on D. It is precisely because of the nature of this subject that Bacewiczs work has been compared to the Brandenburg Concertosby Jan Sebastian Bach The second movement (Andante), while retaining its concertato charakter, is, at the same time, an example of the composers ability to create emotionally serene lyrical moods, and her sense of cantilena derived from the spiritof romantic song (a motto-subject presented at the beginning by cello solo). In this movement it is both the process of evolution and the instrumental colouring which constitute the constructional agents forming here a self-containedvalue. In thethird movement (Vivo) the composer returns to her favourite type of music, understood as an expression of pure motion in the form of figural motives with infinite transformational possibilities. The spontaneity of the music, the constant mutabilityof the tonal situations, and the sophisticated, acerbic harmonies - as Witold Lutosawski described them - form a colourful mosaic built in the structural skeleton of a sonata rondo. Concerto for String Orchestra is not only proof of thestylizing tendency of the composer but also of an unerring intuition concerning the technical and expressive possibilities inherent in a string instruments ensemble. [Magorzata Gsiorowska, translated by Ewa Cholewka].

SKU: PE.EP73479

ISBN 9790577019888. 297 x 210mm inches. English.

At First Light was commissioned by Eric Bruskin, a resident of Philadelphia, USA, in memory of his mother. Eric had a longstanding enthusiasm for my work, and I was touched to be the person he approached for a task which is both a privilege and a daunting responsibility. In a sense, no music can ever measure up to the weight of love or the hope of consolation vested in it under such circumstances - but in memory I carry the deaths of both my own parents, and I was able to draw upon that. Eric's fondness for my Cello Sonata (itself written in memoriam) led him to ask that I include a solo 'cello part in the new work - but his attachment also to my polyphonic sacred choral writing meant that he wanted a centrepiece which would be both a showcase of that approach and the celebration of a life well lived. Therefore, the seven movements of At First Light arrange themselves as a series of slow meditations surrounding an exuberant 9-minute motet in which the lamenting cello falls temporarily silent.

Eric's Jewish faith meant that approaching an agnostic humanist brought up within the Anglican tradition was hardly free of problems! Gradually, though, I was able to win his approval for a collated mosaic of texts. This embraces some liturgical Latin (necessary for the motet) as the shared preserve of broad western culture in general, but balances it with a secular approach to loss, celebration, remembrance and the many shades of our mourning those whom we see no longer. Eric was adamant that he did not want the title Requiem; but what has emerged is still a form of semi-secular Requiem in all but name, taking its title instead from a phrase in the poem by Thomas Blackburn set as the third movement. This seemed to suggest succinctly how the loss of one very close to us is an awakening into an unfamiliar world where everything is changed. Following the exuberant central movement, the texts by the Lebanese-born Kahlil Gibran and the US, Kentuckian poet Wendell Berry first address the departed loved one directly, then place us within an imaginary funeral cortege, where the perennial and universal in human experience become personal without subscribing explicitly to any particular faith (or lack of it). The final text of all is a translation of a Hebraic prayer, requested and provided by Eric Bruskin, which serves to mirror its Latin counterpart heard at the outset.

Throughout, the lamenting cello represents a commentary on the experience articulated in the text. It evokes and, in a sense, tries to embrace and sanctify the individual existential journeys of the bereft, as they in turn seek to make their own sense of what the short-lived Second World War poet Alun Lewis called 'the unbearable beauty of the dead' (movement 5).

In a modern world hostage to ever greater menace, displacement, bloodshed and anguish, I hope fervently that this music not only brings a measure of solace to the person who commissioned it, but also makes its own small contribution to bailing out the sinking ship of humanity.

SKU: BT.BB3474

ISBN 9783793141716.

For Isang Yun, String Quartet No. 3 from 1959 marked the beginning of his European creative phase and of his official canon of works. Now it is possible to encounter Yun's early works from his Korean period inthe form of his String Quartet No. 1 (1955). Three important 10-minute movements containing references not only to Asia but also to Ravel, Bartók and Eastern European folk music and having an idiosyncraticstructure: Yun lines up forms and figures, makes them emerge from each other in a contrasting manner and assembles them into a mosaic-like whole, seeking for integration, laying down his material in layer upon layer and endingthemovements with a rhythmic unison. […] Even then, he probably regarded a work of art as an energetic stream of sounds and as a reflection of a world whose diverging parts weave into a harmonic whole. (Walter-WolfgangSparrer)

SKU: SU.27060280

Six Bagatelles is a set of whimsical character pieces which, in my own composer’s perception, provided balance to some of the heavier works I had written over the previous several years. The first movement, Humming, not only hums along like a well-tuned engine, but it also evokes a melody that someone might actually hum. Let Evening Come is an arrangement of a song, for baritone or mezzo-soprano, flute, and piano, on Jane Kenyon’s poem of the same name—part of a cycle from 1994 called Night Will Blossom. The title Melancholy speaks for itself, as does that of the fifth movement, Solace. Skirmish started out as a march, but when changes of meter emerged in the composing of the piece, I realized it was no longer marchable, though still martial in character. The final movement is a Mosaic in two senses: the accompaniment in the strings in the outer sections of the piece is made up of small bits of material, combining to create an overall texture; and its middle section is made up of fragments of material heard in earlier movements. —Mark Carlson Flute & String Quartet Composed: 1995 Published by: Pacific Serenades.