Spartacus – Suite No. 4

SKU: HL.48024143

ISBN 9781784540852. UPC: 888680712143. 5.25x7.5x0.27 inches.

30-minute orchestral suite from Khachaturian's celebrated ballet, Spartacus (1955). Scenes 4 and 5 present the dramatic turning point where Spartacus is galvanised into leading the slave rebellion, opening with a mournful elegy for the death of a gladiatorial friend. It also includes a lively and charming central interlude, the Dance of the Shepherd and Shepherdess. Performance materials available on hire. Suitable for advanced standard performers.

SKU: CA.2770219

ISBN 9790007133917. Key: C major. Language: Latin. Text: Langton, Stephen. Text: Stephan Langton.

Antonio Caldara, with about 3,400 works to his credit, ranks among the most prolific composers of the Baroque era and of music history in general. From 1716 Caldara was employed as the Vice-Music Director at the Court of Vienna, where he quickly developed into the primary and favorite composer of the musically knowledgeable Emperor Karl VI. Caldara's festive setting of the sequence for Whitsun, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which may have been composed around 1725, is now made available for the first time in print. The catchy and compact piece is suited for concert performance and is also excellently suited for the liturgical context of Whitsun: during the Mass, for example, as entrance or exit music or as music for the offertory. Through similar scoring requirements Caldara's setting of the sequence can also be used with many compositions of the Ordinary without any additional effort. For most church choirs the tutti sections with Caldara's favored homophonic, yet effective vocal writing represent a grateful task. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.2770200.

SKU: CA.2770211

ISBN 9790007202637. Key: C major. Language: Latin. Text: Langton, Stephen.

Antonio Caldara, with about 3,400 works to his credit, ranks among the most prolific composers of the Baroque era and of music history in general. From 1716 Caldara was employed as the Vice-Music Director at the Court of Vienna, where he quickly developed into the primary and favorite composer of the musically knowledgeable Emperor Karl VI. Caldara's festive setting of the sequence for Whitsun, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which may have been composed around 1725, is now made available for the first time in print. The catchy and compact piece is suited for concert performance and is also excellently suited for the liturgical context of Whitsun: during the Mass, for example, as entrance or exit music or as music for the offertory. Through similar scoring requirements Caldara's setting of the sequence can also be used with many compositions of the Ordinary without any additional effort. For most church choirs the tutti sections with Caldara's favored homophonic, yet effective vocal writing represent a grateful task. Score and part available separately - see item CA.2770200.

SKU: CA.2770205

ISBN 9790007161668. Key: C major. Language: Latin. Text: Langton, Stephen. Text: Stephan Langton.

Antonio Caldara, with about 3,400 works to his credit, ranks among the most prolific composers of the Baroque era and of music history in general. From 1716 Caldara was employed as the Vice-Music Director at the Court of Vienna, where he quickly developed into the primary and favorite composer of the musically knowledgeable Emperor Karl VI. Caldara's festive setting of the sequence for Whitsun, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which may have been composed around 1725, is now made available for the first time in print. The catchy and compact piece is suited for concert performance and is also excellently suited for the liturgical context of Whitsun: during the Mass, for example, as entrance or exit music or as music for the offertory. Through similar scoring requirements Caldara's setting of the sequence can also be used with many compositions of the Ordinary without any additional effort. For most church choirs the tutti sections with Caldara's favored homophonic, yet effective vocal writing represent a grateful task. Score available separately - see item CA.2770200.

SKU: GI.G-003045

These three-movement suites are great for both worship and concerts. Flexibly arranged, movements can be performed individually or together. Jubilant Easter favorites are included, along with some newer melodies for the season.

SKU: FG.55011-717-4

ISBN 9790550117174.

It was through Einar Englund (1916-1999) that the Neoclassicism already familiar elsewhere in the world landed on Finnish shores in the late 1940s. A composer especially of large-scale orchestral and chamber works, Englund is one of the greatest Finnish symphonists.

Sinuhe is an example of a Finnish composition founded on a non-Finnish subject handled in a non-National-Romantic way. This probably partly explains why the score has fallen into oblivion in Finland: the Oriental moods and the Nile do not correspond to the view of a Finnish composition as one favouring topics from the national epic, the Kalevala, and lakeland scenery. The music also incorporates motifs derived from Lapp yoiks used by Englund in his score for the film The White Deer (1952). When it was written, the ballet's combination of a historical subject with an exotic, stylised idiom showed that Englund had his finger on the international pulse, unlike, say, Samuel Barber's ballet Medea (1946) and Aram Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus (1956).

The suite from Sinuhe is in five scenes. It omits the original overture and almost all the music for the second half of the ballet. Sinuhe's hapless love for the courtesan Nefernefer is described with languorous sensuality. His servant Kaptah throws himself into a frenzied dance with the Cretan maidens. The suite ends with the rhythmic war dance of his friend Horemheb.

SKU: CA.966300

ISBN 9790007167684. Language: Latin.

Matsushita has conceived his setting of the Pentecost sequence entirely in the Renaissance polychoral tradition. He employs the full choir (within individual choirs divisi passages also occasionally occur) solely for magnificent sounding climaxes at conclusions, prior to these occurrences he repeatedly combines groups of voices or he allows individual choirs to sing, effectively, in alternation. This type of reduction is even carried over to quasi Gregorian passages sung by one voice in unison. The piece is tonal throughout, with occasional diatonic seasoning. The consistently homophonic setting is oriented towards the declamation of the Latin text. Melodically it is in the style of modal, Gregorian structures, without quoting the well-known sequence. A fast, rhythmically syncopated declamatory section introduces, the dramaturgically appropriate climax to the solemn conclusion, which, molto legato, returns once again with large upward swings to the text of the first strophe. Matsushita writes in a comfortable vocal range so that the work can be sung, at the same time, in both a relaxed and grandiose manner. For large choirs, even for oratorio choirs with only limited experience in a cappella singing, this piece is aptly suited for performance and the music is both grateful and brings much joy for singers.

SKU: HL.14079211