Orpheus

SKU: BT.DHP-1053830-010

English-German-French-Dutch.

Jacques Offenbach was born in 1819 in Cologne, Germany, but as a child he moved to Paris where he received a thorough musical education. In his operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, Offenbach parodies the famous Greek legend of Orpheus and Euridice. Indirectly, however, he criticises the complacency of many of his contemporaries. The overture was not written entirely by Offenbach, Carl Binder added various pieces to it for a Viennese production of this operetta in 1860 and since then, these pieces have remained part of the composition. This appealing transcription includes the famous Can Can which is sure to get your audience high kicking in the aisles!

In de operette Orphée aux Enfers (Orpheus in de onderwereld) parodieert Offenbach het beroemde verhaal van Orpheus en Euridice uit de oude Griekse sagenwereld - indirect stelt hij echter de zelfgenoegzaamheid van veelvan zijn tijdgenoten aan de kaak. De ouverture is niet geheel van Offenbachs hand. Carl Binder heeft er diverse stukken aan toegevoegd voor een Weense productie in 1860, en die zijn er sindsdien in gebleven. Wil van der Beek maakteeen transcriptie voor harmonieorkest van de aanstekelijke ouverture - waarin natuurlijk de beroemde cancan is verwerkt.

In seiner Operette Orpheus in der Unterwelt (Orphée aux Enfers) parodiert Offenbach die berühmte Erzählung von Orpheus und Eurydike aus der klassischen griechischen Sagenwelt. Indirekt kritisiert er darin jedoch die Selbstgefälligkeit vieler seiner Zeitgenossen. Die Ouvertüre schrieb Offenbach nicht ganz alleine; Carl Binder fügte einige Stücke für eine Wiener Produktion dieser Operette im Jahr 1860 hinzu. Diese Stücke blieben seither Teil der Ouvertüre. Wil van der Beek schuf eine Transkription für Blasorchester dieser reizvollen Ouvertüre, die auch den berühmten Cancan enthält.

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) cultivait l’art d’ironiser sur la frivolité des moeurs parisiennes, sur l’amour, la vie politique et la vie militaire. Son opérette Orphée aux Enfers (1858) est une parodie du mythe grec d’Orphée et Eurydice, mais sous le masque de l’antiquité, il se livre une critique sévère de l’attitude suffisante de nombreux de ses contemporains. L’Ouverture telle que nous la connaissons aujourd’hui n’est pas la version originale d’Offenbach, mais une version complétée par Carl Binder pour une production Vienne en 1860. Wil van der Beek en a réalisé une transcription irrésistible qui contient le pétillant Cancan, l’une des pages les plus célèbres de lapartition.

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) coltivava l’arte di ironizzare sulla frivolezza delle abitudini parigine, sull’amore, sulla vita politica e la vita militare. La sua operetta Orfeo agli Inferni (1858) è una parodia del mito greco di Orfeo ed Euridice, ma dietro la facciata dell’antichit , si abbandona ad una critica severa del comportamento di sufficienza di numerosi suoi contemporanei. L’Ouverture come noi la conosciamo oggi, non è la versione originale di Offenbach, ma una versione completata da Carl Binder per una produzione a Vienna nel 1860. Wil van der Beek ne ha realizzato una trascrizione irresistibile che contiene il brillante Cancan, una delle pagine più celebri dellospartito.

SKU: PR.114414290

UPC: 680160594030.

Written for Concertante, a string sextet which has commissioned six different works, each highlighting one of its players. In Ran's new work, the second cellist, Zvi Plesser, was spotlighted with an outgoing, intensely lyrical opening theme, according to a New York Times review. Yet, Lyre of Orpheus never overlooks the collaborative, conversational essence of the ensemble. Read the full review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/music/18conc.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1286200920-wRrt7MJ416+FpOYAUe/IOQ For advanced performers.
Lyre of Orpheus was composed for Concertante, the New York-based string sextet, for its One Plus Five Project, a three-year, six-composer commissioning project designed to create six string sextets, each featuring one of Concertante’s core players.This particular commission was made with the goal of giving center-stage to the ensemble’s first cello, a choice I was especially grateful for, not only because it features Zvi Plesser, the outstanding Israeli cellist, but also because it gave ma an opportunity to highlight an instrument for which, from a very early stage in my life, I have felt a special affinity.  The cell’s “soul”, so naturally combining passion and lyricism, has always touched me in a special way.As sometimes happens, naming the piece was the final act in the process of creation.  Once titled, though, I found myself looking through the piece with a mixture of delight and astonishment – the narrative of the almost iconic mythological story of love and loss seems as one entirely plausible, and to my mind convincing, way to tract the unfolding of the musical events.  Of course, the music was written with no such tale (or any tale, for that matter) in mind.  But perhaps some stories are emblematic of so much that is part of our lives and psyches, of our desires, fears and wishes.  Orpheus, whose longing for Eurydice recognizes no boundaries of heaven and hell…  Love regained, then forever lost…  Orpheus’ lyre intoning his sorrowful yearning…Lyre of Orpheus, approximately fifteen minutes in length, composed in late 2008, is intermittently songful, caressing, passionate, pained, ferocious, longing.  The instrumentation consists of 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, the first of which is the soloist/protagonist, the second notable for having its lowest string tuned down a third to achieve extra lower notes.This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Commissioning Program, with funding generously provided by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

SKU: PR.11441429S

UPC: 680160594054. 9.5 x 13 inches.

Written for Concertante, a string sextet which has commissioned six different works, each highlighting one of its players. In Ran's new work, the second cellist, Zvi Plesser, was spotlighted with an outgoing, intensely lyrical opening theme, according to a New York Times review. Yet, Lyre of Orpheus never overlooks the collaborative, conversational essence of the ensemble. Read the full review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/music/18conc.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1286200920-wRrt7MJ416+FpOYAUe/IOQ For advanced performers.
Lyre of Orpheus was composed for Concertante, the New York-based string sextet, for its One Plus Five Project, a three-year, six-composer commissioning project designed to create six string sextets, each featuring one of Concertante’s core players. This particular commission was made with the goal of giving center-stage to the ensemble’s first cello, a choice I was especially grateful for, not only because it features Zvi Plesser, the outstanding Israeli cellist, but also because it gave ma an opportunity to highlight an instrument for which, from a very early stage in my life, I have felt a special affinity.  The cell’s “soul”, so naturally combining passion and lyricism, has always touched me in a special way. As sometimes happens, naming the piece was the final act in the process of creation.  Once titled, though, I found myself looking through the piece with a mixture of delight and astonishment – the narrative of the almost iconic mythological story of love and loss seems as one entirely plausible, and to my mind convincing, way to tract the unfolding of the musical events.  Of course, the music was written with no such tale (or any tale, for that matter) in mind.  But perhaps some stories are emblematic of so much that is part of our lives and psyches, of our desires, fears and wishes.  Orpheus, whose longing for Eurydice recognizes no boundaries of heaven and hell…  Love regained, then forever lost…  Orpheus’ lyre intoning his sorrowful yearning… Lyre of Orpheus, approximately fifteen minutes in length, composed in late 2008, is intermittently songful, caressing, passionate, pained, ferocious, longing.  The instrumentation consists of 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, the first of which is the soloist/protagonist, the second notable for having its lowest string tuned down a third to achieve extra lower notes. This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Commissioning Program, with funding generously provided by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.—Shulamit Ran.

SKU: BR.KM-2491

World premiere: Stuttgart (Festival eclat), February 3, 2002

ISBN 9790004502945. 11.5 x 16.5 inches.

For many years, I have been repeatedly asked by solo guitarists and guitar duos to write pieces for them. The Aleph Guitar Quartet and I have finally brought it off! The piece is called Der entkommene Orpheus (The Escaped Orpheus).In the old equal rights movement everything was treated as equally as possible, right from the beginning. The tones felt democratically happy. Only discontent found cause to complain. It ultimately hated this complex explicitness. The meaning, also in cases of definite tendencies in the piece, should never be able to lead a definite life. This piece, naturally, is just a tiny contribution!In the myth, Orpheus even enchanted stones and trees, turned around too soon to look at his beloved Eurydice (just think of the punctuality fanatic Schonberg - at least according to Richard Buhlig), refused the service of Dionysus - and he, who had plucked the strings of the lyre his whole life long, was now himself torn up by the Thracian Maenads as a punishment. But his head and his lyre floated over the sea and landed on Lesbos. A string is a string is a side!!!Like a coded word, this text is placed at the service of the varied role of the organiser of New Music. Like an equation. Shouldn't an organiser ever actually turn around towards a lover, so that the Furies of present-day responsibility do not drive him into a state of inner conflict?Nicolaus A. HuberTranslation: David Babcock (CD NEOS, 2017)

World premiere: Stuttgart (Festival eclat), February 3, 2002.

SKU: HL.14042350

ISBN 9788759826164.

Søren Nils Eichberg's Morpheus - Concerto for Orchestra (2013). Commissioned by The Danish National Symphony Orchestra / DR.

Parts are available on hire: hire@ewh.dk

Programme note

Morpheus in the Greek mythology is the most powerful of the Oneroi, the gods of dreams. He is the one who sends us our dreams and he may appear to us within the dreams in disguise.

Analogous to the logic of dreams, in Morpheus everything is interwoven, as chains of associations appear to logically lead us from one line of thought to another. Everything seems strangelyfamiliar. But the logic is treacherous and we already feel, it may only be valid within the dream. Nothing that appears similar is actually ever really the same.

Half awakening, we struggle to hold on to a vanishing world we felt we were on the verge of understanding, but which we already know will eventually escape us when we fully awake.

Everything remains a mystery until the end.

The seven movements/dreamscapes are:

1. Vortex
2. Trees and Walls
3. Escher (Toccata)
4. Crystal
5. Into the Cloud
6. Non-Euclid
7. Arctica

SKU: UT.LOC-4

ISBN 9790215327924. 9 x 12 inches.

Performance Material on Hire

The Concerto in E major by Pietro Antonio Locatelli is a work that is not among the authenticated compositions of the Bergamasque violinist and composer. It is not therefore included among the eight opus numbers known to date that were printed in Amsterdam under the author’s supervision; nor is it mentioned in any of the catalogues compiled by Locatelli himself. It is therefore a work attributed on the basis of documentary and stylistic considerations.
The musical text is derived from a single manuscript source preserved in Dresden, at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek; Locatellian authorship is attested by an annotation inscribed on the title page.

SKU: UT.LB-4

ISBN 9788881094479. 6.5 x 9.5 inches.

â??During my career spanning half a century, like all my fellow harpists I constantly had to grapple with the commonly held view that the harp has neither music nor history of its own.
Fortunately, over the years I have been able to give the lie to this myth and have tried to bring to light some of the vast repertoire, both early and modern, expressly composed for this instrument which has been treated somewhat as an outsider in the musical world.
The research work for my books on Italian and Swiss harp music was plain sailing because source materials were specific titles and title pages. Were I to write books on French, German, Austrian, British, Bohemian, Spanish, Portuguese or Scandinavian harp music, the work involved would be equally smooth and straightforward.
However, where Dutch music is concerned, the approach is rather different, because here it is the painters, treatise-writers and historians who provide the evidence and guidance necessary to discover the musical customs and traditions where the harp played a significant part.
Performers looking for pieces of music may use this book as follows: chapter II deals with treatises, chapter III with paintings, chapter IV with history and research accounts. Chapters V and VI are concerned with confusions in terminology. Chapter VII describes recent developments and chapters VIII and IX cover composers and pieces of music. Libraries and publishers are listed with their addresses in chapters X and XI, and finally chapter XII consists of the index based on the various groups of performers.
In this last chapter harpists will find the composers most suited to their programme, and can then turn to chapters VIII and IX for details. The actual pieces can be obtained by consulting chapters X and XI. I wish you every success in your search, in your rehearsals and in your concerts !
In order to define what is Dutch or non-Dutch in early music, I have followed the current approach, i.e. all art and history prior to the separation of the â??Seven Provin­ces in the 16th century is the common heritage of the Low Countries, whereas everything pertaining to those courageous lands from then onwards is specifically Dutch..

SKU: UT.MS-40B

ISBN 9790215314924. 9 x 12 inches.

Alessandro Scarlatti ventured four times with the Salve Regina text, of which he draws compositions for various ensembles. The treatment of the text in this version obeys to the usual practice for the motets of a certain length: the antiphon is divided into ‘numbers’ of contrasting character alternatively entrusted to the duet and to the solos. In line with the modern style, Scarlatti choose to not emphasize the most remarkable moments of the text, but instead to provide an internal coherence to each section, keeping the expressive expedients to enhance a few elements and relying instead upon an harmony and melody rich writing and upon the virtuosity of the vocal parts.
The present edition is based on the manuscript kept at the Biblioteca del Conservatorio S. Pietro a Majella of Naples, compared to the 19th Century copy, less precise, that is part of the Noseda Fund of the Biblioteca del Conservatorio in Milan. The Napolitan drafting appears very meticulous, particularly in respect to the dynamic marks and expression marks (such as staccatos, slurs etc.) that lay out an execution full of contrasts and unexpected dynamic changes.

SKU: UT.CH-199

ISBN 9790215322714. 9 x 12 inches.