Opera in Seven Scenes. Par BENJAMIN GEORGE. Picture a day like this is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence, and Into the Little Hill. Playwright Martin Crimp’s text for the opera is a bittersweet fable on grief and renewal. It tells the story of a Woman (mezzosoprano) who has lost her child; if she can meet one truly happy person before nightfall, they will return to life. In her search, across seven scenes, she meets a pair of lovers, a Composer and their assistant, an Artisan, Collector, and the mysterious Zabelle. Crimp’s text is both lyrical and immediate, matching the precision and intensity of Benjamin’s music. Picture a day like this premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023; the 60-minute work is scored for five voices (S-S-MS-Ct-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. / Date parution : 2023-07-31/ Livre / Choeur Mixte et Ensemble
SKU: CF.CM9768
ISBN 9781491160343. UPC: 680160923298. Key: G major. English.
About the WorkThe text of this work is most often attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, although it doesn't mirror his style, and no research credits an essay, book or letter with its source. Other individuals are occasionally suggested as possible authors, but equally unsubstantiated. Even whether the textis a poem or a quote seems unclear. But there is one thing that is without question: that this beloved text has inspired countless people and contributed toward a view of the world through eyes of hope, resilience, courage, beauty, and joy. Music for this text flowed more easily than about any text I have ever set. It has an emotional connection that is mystical, and after I read it for the first time, I immediately sat down and wrote this work without stop.Rehearsal NotesIn many cases, art is more expressive and reaches a wider range of human emotions when multiple artistic fields are fused together. Such is the case with choral music: the intertwining of literature, music, and very often dance, visual arts, and more. The story in choral music is often quite specific, much like film scoring. At times, the music is the picture frame (score) around the picture (text), while at others the music is the leading dramatic/emotional impetus.In the present case (My Farewell Wish), the text is sincere, innocent, heartfelt, and earnest. By all accounts, the message is altruistic, expressing selfless desire for another's present/future happiness. Capturing this message has a strong reliance on the performers to not only carry the emotional intent of the moment (a phrase of text or a measure), but the the energy and continuance of the message throughout.The use of the [o] vowel functions almost as instrumental interludes or underpinning of strings. The conductor may use the [o] as indicated in the score, or a [u] vowel, a hum (with [o] as the vowel inside the mouth), or all three at different times for different reasons. In an acoustical performance (no mic), the soloist and the ensemble are a reflection of each other's natural sound. And, even gentle, warm solo voices should have no trouble projecting.Two final thoughts: 1) the obbligato or added voice or two on high passages (m. 66) or a single note (final chord) will be best delivered by lyrical, pure voices with demonstrated control; and 2) the metronome marking of 80 bpm (mm. 1–81) was strongly considered and should be followed.About the ComposerZ. Randall Stroope is an American composer and conductor. His composition teachers were Normand Lockwood and Cecil Effinger, both students of the Nadia Boulanger, the famous French teacher (and student of Gabriel FaureÌ). Randall is the artistic director of two international summer music festivals, is an Honorary Board Member of the NationalAssociation of Italian Choral Directors, and has conducted in 25 countries. He has directed over 40 times at Carnegie Hall, and is a frequent conductor at other prestigious concert venues. Randall has 190 published works, and his music can be heard on Spotify, YouTube and other platforms, including his website (www.zrstroope.com).
SKU: BR.EB-9399
ISBN 9790004188736. 9 x 12 inches.
One of my favourite pieces of music as a child - and I still love it - was Schubert's Trout Quintet. It was partly the wonderful music, of course, so light-hearted and joyful on the surface, yet with twists and turns and murky depths of feeling too. But I also liked the picture of a trout on the album sleeve - such beautiful creatures! Last year, while resident at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg, as I took daily walks along the Regnitz river, I observed the trout as they calmly hovered and swayed in the shallows... But if they felt my shadow they were gone in a split second! If you ever get a chance to look closely at brown trout you see that they are covered in myriad brown/red spots of varied sizes; camouflage I suppose. Now those patterns seem to be mixing in my mind with the shifting colours of the spectral arpeggios that flow through this little piece. It's a watery piece, with rippling waves, shimmering surfaces and textural veils around the melodies which flow through it. But it also takes inspiration (and it's title) from a Pablo Neruda poem: the third stanza of Every Day You Play includes the line The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish. There's no singer, but I imagine an invisible or imaginary voice somewhere behind (or beyond) the music, and so the score includes a melodic setting of the text. Even though this is not performed by a voice, the melody is always played by the ensemble - especially high register cello - making the piece something like the inverse of a song without words. (Christian Mason)World premiere: Aix-en-Provence, October 16, 2020 Commissioned by the Grand Theatre de Provence - Aix-en-Provence.
SKU: BA.BA06861
ISBN 9790260104211. 34.3 x 27 cm inches.
LeoÅ¡ Janácek’s symphonic fragment Dunaj (The Danube) dates from the period of the composition of “Katya Kabanovaâ€. The composer was not concerned with a musical-picturesque description of a river landscape, but with the mythical link between women’s destinies and water.“Pale green waves of the Danube! There are so many of you, and one followed by another. You remain interlocked in a continuous flow. You surprise yourselves where you ended up – on the Czech shores! Look back downstream and you will have an impression of what you have left behind in your haste. It pleases you here. Here I will rest with my symphony.†Thus LeoÅ¡ Janácek described the idea behind the composition project which occupied him in 1923/24. However, after further work, it remained incomplete in 1926. His “symphony†entitled Dunaj has survived as a continuously-notated, four-movement bundle of sketches in score form. It is one of the works which occupied him until his death. The scholarly reconstruction by the two Brno composers MiloÅ¡ Å tedron and LeoÅ¡ Faltus closely follows the original manuscript.A whole conglomeration of motifs stands behind the incomplete work. What at first seems like a counterpart to Smetana’s Vltava, in fact doesn’t turn out to be a musical depiction of the Danube. On the contrary, the fateful link between the destiny of women, water and death permeates the range of motifs found in the work. It seems to be no coincidence that Janácek, whilst working on the opera Katya Kabanova, in which the Volga, as the river bringing death plays an almost mythical role, planned a Danube symphony, and that its content was linked with the destiny of women: in the sketches, two poems were found which may have provided the stimulus for several movements of the symphony. He copied a poem by Pavla Kriciková into the second movement, in which a girl remarks that whilst bathing in a pond, she was observed by a man. Filled with shame, the young naked woman jumps into the water and drowns. The outer movements likewise draw on the poem “Lola†by the Czech writer Sonja Å pálová, published under the pseudonym Alexander Insarov. This is about a prostitute who asks for her heart’s desire: she is given a palace, but then goes on a long search for it and is finally no longer wanted by anyone. She suffers, feels cold and just wants a warm fire. Janácek adds his remark “she jumps into the Danube†to the inconclusive ending.To these tangible literary models is added Adolf Veselý’s verbal account which reports that the composer wanted to portray “in the Danube, the female sex with all its passions and driving forcesâ€. The third movement is said to characterise the city of Vienna in the form of a woman.It is evident that in his composition, Janácek was not striving for a simple, natural lyricism. The River Danube is masculine in the Slavic language – “ten Dunaj†– and assumes an almost mythical significance in the national character, indeed often also a role bringing death. The four movements are motivically conceived. Elements of sound painting, small wave-like figures in the first movement, motoric, driving movements in the third are obvious evocations of water. And the content and the literary level are easy to discover. The “tremolo of the four timpaniâ€, which was amongst Janácek’s first inspirations, appears in the second movement. It is not difficult to retrace in it the fate of the drowning bather. The oboe enters lamentoso towards the end of the movement over timpani playing tremolo, its descending figure is taken over by the flute, then upper strings and intensified considerably. The motif of drowning – Lola’s despair – returns again in the fourth movement in the clarinet, before the work ends abruptly and dramatically.One special effect is the use of a soprano voice in the motor-driven third movement. The singer vocalises mainly in parallel with the solo oboe, but also in dialogue with other parts such as the viola d’amore, which Janácek used in several late works as a sort of “voice of loveâ€.
About Barenreiter Urtext
What can I expect from a Barenreiter Urtext edition?
MUSICOLOGICALLY SOUND - A reliable musical text based on all available sources - A description of the sources - Information on the genesis and history of the work - Valuable notes on performance practice - Includes an introduction with critical commentary explaining source discrepancies and editorial decisions ... AND PRACTICAL - Page-turns, fold-out pages, and cues where you need them - A well-presented layout and a user-friendly format - Excellent print quality - Superior paper and binding
SKU: HL.49018711
ISBN 9790001145190. UPC: 884088794019. 9.25x12.0x0.244 inches. English.
In a magazine with reports on mental institutions, Thomas Larcher came across interviews with patients: 'These sentences are of a strong inner power, yet do not claim to convey an overall picture of these people. There rather appear snatches from their world like a stroboscope.' The soprano part in Larcher's composition attends to these texts in a very restraint, often introverted manner, but they continue to have an effect in the instrumental parts, like catalysts of seemingly disturbing processes. The world premiere with Juliane Banse, Christian Tetzlaff, Nikolaj Schneider and the composer on the piano took place at the renowned festival 'Spannungen' in the power station of Heimbach in 2002. Recently, a recording has been released by ECM New Series.
SKU: CA.760300
ISBN 9790007074166.
This collection of seven pieces for male-voice choirs and ensembles originated as a composition commissioned for the concluding service of the German Katholikentag 2004. This combination of voices is most familiar to us through the Comedian Harmonists; it has never before been used prominently in a liturgical context. These bold arrangements of new compositions can give rise to a novel sound picture, which is both startingly new and at the same time sounds familiar.
SKU: CA.240000
ISBN 9790007129736. Illustrator: Frank Walka.
This unique collection with 42 of the most beautiful German lullabies and cradle songs reflects the richness of our musical culture: from folk songs to simple art songs, with music, texts and guitar chords, set in vocal ranges suitable for children. The singalong CD includes recordings of the songs with piano and violin, ideal for anyone who wants to sing the songs with their children. Frank Walka has illustrated the book with imagination and creativity, perfectly matching the content of the songs. His large-format illustrations are like the songs themselves - sometimes dreamy, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes realistic. And so the book is a stunning picture book at the same time.
SKU: CA.5165203
ISBN 9790007294243. Key: D minor. Latin.
The English conductor and composer Howard Arman has presented us with a completed version of Mozartâ??s Requiem. â??Another one?â? you might ask, since this publication is only the latest in a long line reaching back to the traditional SüÃ?mayr version. Yet such is the enormous power of Mozartâ??s score that the challenge and appeal of completing it remain undiminished. After two decades of intensive study, Howard Armanâ??s additions to Mozartâ??s great original show the requisite care and respect while incorporating many new insights.Armanâ??s approach is particularly fruitful. Always aware of the appropriate limits to such re-creative work, he orients himself towards the typical characteristics of Mozartâ??s brilliant composing style: The masterly compositional technique, the search for innovative solutions to every problem, and even the terse treatment of the text with extremely suggestive harmonies. All of this leads to a number of new listening experiences. In the Tuba mirum, for example, we enjoy a warm, cohesive ensemble sound, supported by the bassoons, which depart from the bass line. The Confutatis presents a quite different picture: Even the basset horns are drawn down into the infernal depths. This effect is reinforced by the independence of the trombones; rather than simply following the choral parts, the instrumentâ??s unique sound is given an opportunity to shine. Armanâ??s Lacrimosa achieves a lively Mozartian feel by granting the voices considerable freedom rather than following a rigid pattern. And he concludes the movement with a fugal Amen, whereby the focus is not so much on the counterpoint itself, but rather â?? in the spirit of Mozart â?? on creating a sense of drama and illuminating the theme in all its possible facets. Mozartâ??s fragment ends with the Hostias, and so does Armanâ??s completion. For the four following movements (Sanctus to Communio) we have nothing from Mozart, and so here, where the master is silent, Arman finally returns to SüÃ?mayr, the man who was closest to Mozart at the time of his death and whose efforts to fill the blank manuscripts still garner our respect today.Armanâ??s version has already proven its practical value. The premiere with the Bavarian Radio Choir was enthusiastically received by audiences and press alike â?? and celebrated as offering a scholarly, entirely fresh perspective on Mozartâ??s masterpiece.- World premiere by the Bavarian Radio Choir- Enthusiastically received by audience and press.
