Preludes and Exercises

SKU: HL.50605345

ISBN 9781705180235. UPC: 196288106135.

Similarly to Bach's cycle The Well-Tempered Clavier or to Chopin's 24 Preludes, and similarly to his own collection published in 2019, the Wolf-temperiertes Klavier, Péter Wolf penned 24 piano pieces again. His Jazz Preludes set examples for improvisation and make use of the entire stylistic spectrum of jazz, ranging from the gospel (“Anthem, No. 7”) to blues (“Windlass, No. 1”), bebop (“Crime, No. 11”), Latin jazz (“Tropical Night, No. 6”), and, of course, the world of ballads (“Nostalgia, No. 4” and “Question Without Answer, No. 16”). The individual movements are no mere style exercises or piano technique exercises but, like Debussy's preludes, they are expressive character pieces: musical images of a phenomenon, an emotion, a behavior pattern, a personal experience reflected by their titles.

SKU: FP.FHC15

ISBN 979-0-57050-130-4.

Himself the master of writing the progressive yet playable study, Cuthburt Harris was the ideal judge when compiling this masterful series of graded studies by the great masters including Czerny, Chopin, Bertini, Heller and Lemoine. Includes exercises targeting all areas of phrasing, style, touch, agility and independence of the fingers, as well as scales and chords.

SKU: M7.GHE-701

ISBN 9783890447018. English.

We proudly present this new modern critical edition of Antoine de Lhoyer's Six Exercices Op. 27, originally published in Paris around 1812. These exercises, originally written for 5-string guitar, are remarkably advanced for their time and well worth playing; the rapid arpeggio patterns and daring harmonic shifts in some of them may bring even Villa-Lobos to mind. The Six Exercices Op. 27 were arranged by Giuliani and published some 7 years later under his name as Six Preludes Op. 83. The exercises were originally written for 5-string guitar. We have added alternative readings for using the 6th string, an often employed publishing practice of the period. The music is edited and fingered by Erik Stenstadvold, an authority on the guitar repertoire of the early 19th century. There is also an informative preface, with full biographical details and critical notes.

SKU: PR.414412160

ISBN 9781491107935. UPC: 680160636082. 9x12 inches. Text: Patricia George; Phyllis Avidan Louke; Rob Patterson.

Advanced Clarinet Studies: The Art of Chunking presents the first and only method for clarinetists to master the process of chunking as a practice technique. Through exploration of technical studies, etudes, preludes, cadenzas, and orchestral excerpts, the clarinetist is introduced to basic and advanced chunking techniques to facilitate reading and tone development. Exercises for articulation, intonation, dynamics, and tone development are also integrated into the innovative curriculum.

SKU: CN.R10299

Holst's masterful military band orchestration of J.S. Bach's Organ Fugue in G Major BWV 577. Michael Brand's new edition expands/doubles some of Holst's original parts to make the piece playable by today's modern concert band.

When Holst was commissioned to write 'Hammersmith' for the BBC Wireless Military Band in 1928 he felt rather out of practice in orchestrating for the medium. For some years he had had the idea of arranging some Bach fugues for brass and military band so he set himself the task of scoring the Organ Fugue in G Major BWV 577 (from Preludes, Fugues and Fantasias). He, rather than Bach, called it 'Fugue a la Gigue.' The piece made an ideal exercise and Holst's brilliant dovetailing of the counterpoint between different instruments shows his mastery. The piece is technically demanding and the characteristic unison clarinet writing suggests the orchestral conception of a large wind ensemble rather than a band. It was this conception which the composer carried forward into 'Hammersmith.' 'Fugue a la Gigue' was published for military band in 1928 by Boosey & Hawkes and shortly afterwards for orchestra, but with only short scores, as was customary at the time. This edition has the full score of Holst's original orchestration with optional added parts for full concert band.

SKU: CF.H84

ISBN 9781491165539. UPC: 680160924530.

Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) was one of the most important harpist/composers in the history of the harp. Over his long career, he added a significant catalogue of very beautiful works to the harp repertoire. Many of his solo works, almost one hundred, have been consistently in print since they were first published. But in recent years harpist Carl Swanson has discovered a treasure trove of pieces by Tournier heretofore unknown and unpublished. These include the Déchiffrages in this edition, as well as songs set for voice, harp, and string quartet, and ensemble arrangements of some of his most beloved works.All of the works that Carl Swanson found were in manuscript only. With the help of the great harpist Catherine Michel, he has put these pieces into playable form, and they are being published for the very first time. He and Catherine often had to re-notate passages to show clearly how they could be played, adding fingerings and musical nuances, tempos, pedals, and pedal diagrams.Tournier wrote these pieces when he was in his 20s, and before he became the impressionistic composer those familiar with his work know so well. They are written in the late nineteenth-century romantic style that was being taught at that time at the Paris Conservatory. They are beautiful short, intermediate level pieces by a first rate composer, and add much needed repertoire to that level of playing.
Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) was one of the most important harpist/composers in the history of the harp. He graduated from the Paris Conservatory with a first prize in harp in 1899. He also studied composition there and won a second prize in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition, as well as a first prize in the Rossini competition, another major composition competition of the day. From 1912 to 1948 he taught the harp class at the Paris Conservatory. But composition, and almost entirely, composition for the harp, was the main focus of his life. His published works, including many works for solo harp, a few for harp and other instruments, and several songs, number around one hundred pieces.In 2019, while researching Tournier for my edition MARCEL TOURNIER: 10 Pieces for Solo Harp, I discovered that there was a significant list of pieces by this composer that had never been published and were not included on any inventory of his music. Principal on this list were his déchiffrages (pronounced day-she-frahge, like the second syllable in the word garage).The word déchiffrage means sight-reading exercise, and that was their original purpose. Tournier numbered and dated these pieces, with dates ranging from 1900 to 1910, indicating that they were in all likelihood written for Alphonse Hasselmans’ class at the Paris Conservatory. Tournier was probably told how long to make each one, and how difficult. They range in length from two to four pages, with only one in the whole series extending to five, and from thirty to fifty-five measures, with only one extending to eight-five. The level of difficulty for the whole series is intermediate, with some at the easier end, and others at the middle or upper end.We don’t know if they were intended to test students trying to enter the harp class, or if they were used to test students in the class as they played their exams. The fact that they were never published means that students had to not only sight read them, but sight read them in manuscript form!I worked from digital images of the original manuscripts, which are in the private music library of a harpist in France. She had twenty-seven of these pieces, and this edition is the second in a series of three that will publish, for the first time, all of the ones that I have found thus far. The manuscripts themselves consist of little more than notes on the page: no pedals written in, no fingerings, few if any musical nuances and tempo markings, and no clear indication as to which hand plays which notes. These would have been difficult to sight read indeed! My collaborator Catherine Michel and I added musical nuances, fingerings, pedals and pedal diagrams, and tempo indications to put them into their current condition.At the time these were written, Tournier would have been in his twenties, having just graduated from the harp class himself (1899), and might still have been in the composition class. These are the earliest known pieces that he wrote, and they were written at the very beginning of a cultural revolution and upheaval in Paris that was to completely and profoundly alter musical composition. Tournier himself would eventually be caught up in this new way of composing. But not yet.All of the déchiffrages are written in the late romantic style that was being taught at that time at the Paris Conservatory. Each one is built on a clear musical idea, and the variety over the whole series makes them wonderful to listen to as well as to learn. They are also great technical lessons for intermediate level players.The obvious question is: Why didn’t Tournier publish these pieces, and why didn’t he list them on his own inventory of his music? Actually, four of them were published, with small changes, as his collection Four Preludes, Op. 16. These came from the ones that will be in volume three of this series from Carl Fischer. His first large piece, Theme and Variations, was published in 1908, and his two best known and frequently played pieces, Féerie and Au Matin, followed in 1912 and 1913 respectively. We can only speculate because there is so much still unknown about Tournier and about these unpublished pieces. He may have looked at them, fresh out of school as he was, as simply a way to make some quick money. The first several pieces that he did publish are much longer than any of the déchiffrages. So it could be that, because of their shorter length, as well as the earlier musical style that he was moving away from, he chose not to publish any more of them. We may never know the full story. But all these years later, more than a century after they were composed, we can listen to them for their own merits, and not measured against whatever else was going on at the time. The numbers on these pieces are the ones that Tournier assigned to them, and the gaps between some of the numbers suggest that there are perhaps thirty or more of these pieces still to be found, if they still exist. They will, in all likelihood, be found, as these were, in private collections of harp music, not in institutional libraries. We can only hope that more of them will be located in years to come.—Carl SwansonGlossary of French Musical TermsTournier was very precise about how he wanted his pieces played, and carefully communicated this with many musical indications. He used standard Italian words, but also used French words and phrases, and occasionally mixed both together. It is extremely important to observe and understand everything that he put on the page.Here is a list of the French words and phrases found in the pieces in this edition, with their translation.bien chanté well sung, melodiousdécidé firm, resolutediminu peu à peu becoming softer little by littleen diminuant becoming softeren riten. slowing downen se perdant dying awayGaiement gayly, lightlygracieusement gracefully, elegantlyLéger light, quickLent slowmarquez le chant emphasize the melodyModéré at a moderate tempopeu à peu animé more lively, little by littleplus lent slowerRetenu held backsans lenteur without slownesssans retinir without slowing downsec drily, abruptlysoutenu sustained, heldtrès arpegé very arpeggiatedTrès Modéré Very moderate tempoTrès peu retenu slightly held backTrès soutenu very sustainedun peu retenu slightly held back.