Spit-Fire

SKU: FJ.B1570S

English.

The exploits of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen come alive in this musical tour-de-force! The opening militaristic theme pays homage to these heroes as they approach their aircraft and prepare to take flight. The music suddenly spikes in tempo and leads into an intense aerial battle, with brass and percussion replicating the sounds of fighter jets and artillary. Ultimately, the music careens to an explosive conclusion. Sensational!

SKU: CF.FAS134F

ISBN 9781491165171. UPC: 680160924080. Key: D major.

George Frederic Handel (1685-1759) is a German composer whose musical legacy has lasted over three hundred years. While most people know his Hallelujah Chorus from the oratorio The Messiah, many of his other compositions are still performed around the world, including La Rejouissance from the Royal Fireworks Suite. The suite was commissioned by King George of England to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapel. King George said he wanted only wind and percussion instruments, specifically requesting “no fiddles.” 12,000 people attended the dress rehearsal of the concert. In contrast, the actual performance happened in the rain, which meant many of the fireworks did light, but managed to set the immense pavilion on fire. Handel later added strings to the Royal Fireworks Suite for a charity performance for The Foundling Hospital of London.For young students, the character of Handel’s music is defined by the types of bow strokes. Quarter notes should be played with a detached bow stroke with a hint of an accent. Eighth notes may be played more connected but will sound best with a slight detachè stroke. If more advanced students join the performance, a minimized vibrato is typical of music from the Baroque era. Terraced dynamics may be practiced by stopping just before the dynamic change and adjusting the weight of the bow arm, then proceeding in the new dynamic such as in measures 37-39.

SKU: HL.299371

ISBN 9781540060259. UPC: 888680956189. 6.0x9.0x0.332 inches.

Metallica's success can be directly attributed to their passionate, no-compromise attitude, which comes through loud and clear in the words they sing. Now fans can have the complete lyrics to all of their favorite songs with this updated 3rd edition featuring 106 songs.

SKU: CF.CM9707

ISBN 9781491160121. UPC: 680160918720. Key: Db major. John Gillespie Magee. Poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Just weeks after his nineteenth birthday, John Gillespie Magee, Jr. wrote the poem High Flight while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The year was 1941, and World War II was culminating toward its darkest chapters. Magee had just completed his seventh flight in the iconic Spitfire Mk I fighter plane, soaring to heights well above 30,000 feet. These high altitude exercises supplied his inspiration for the poem, which describes the long, delirious, burning blue and having touched the face of God. Tragically, Magee died in a training exercise just months after writing High Flight. His words, however, live on to lift our hearts and stir the imagination. After you have learned High Flight, ask yourself the following questions: Are you singing the text clearly and articulately? Are you properly stressing the important syllables and backing off of non-stressed syllables? Is there a sense of energy throughout the piece, in both the lyrical, flowing sections and the up-tempo, faster sections? Are you also singing with a sense of energy no matter what the dynamic marking? Are you singing phrases with proper breath support and a sense of rise and fall to the phrase?.
Just weeks after his nineteenth birthday, John Gillespie Magee, Jr. wrote the poem High Flight while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The year was 1941, and World War II was culminating toward its darkest chapters. Magee had just completed his seventh flight in the iconic Spitfire Mk I fighter plane, soaring to heights well above 30,000 feet. These high altitude exercises supplied his inspiration for the poem, which describes “the long, delirious, burning blue” and having “touched the face of God.”Tragically, Magee died in a training exercise just months after writing High Flight. His words, however, live on to lift our hearts and stir the imagination. After you have learned High Flight, ask yourself the following questions: Are you singing the text clearly and articulately? Are you properly stressing the important syllables and backing off of non-stressed syllables? Is there a sense of energy throughout the piece, in both the lyrical, flowing sections and the up-tempo, faster sections? Are you also singing with a sense of energy no matter what the dynamic marking? Are you singing phrases with proper breath support and a sense of rise and fall to the phrase?

SKU: HL.49046387

ISBN 9781540086501. UPC: 840126910117.

In 2010 I lived in Rome as a Villa Massimo scholarship holder. During my time there I came across a few poems by Michelangelo that touched me a lot and soon had the plan to set some of them to music. But I wanted to combine it with something contemporary - just like in Rome the old and the new always meet. The poet Marcel Beyer, whom I met in Rome, then wrote the cycle of poems Die Grillmeisterin for me, which takes up many motifs from the Michelangelo texts (fire, tears, getting burned, loneliness, etc.). I then alternately combined this cycle of poems with the Michelangelo poems. The Italian songs have a sometimes melancholy, sometimes dramatic character, while the German songs are rather bizarre, sometimes even humorous. Despite these contrasts in character, there are also many musical connections between the German and Italian songs. Individual motifs and chord sequences sometimes return in completely different contexts, and there is even a direct connection between the first and last song, in that the same vocal line is underlaid with a completely different text. This creates a musical framework that holds the very heterogeneous selection of texts together. Anno Schreier.

SKU: BR.OB-5328-19

ISBN 9790004333846. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Cesar Franck wrote his Symphony in D minor in 1887/88; in spite of the work's lukewarm reception at its world premiere on 17 February 1889, the work was published during his lifetime. It was not until a few years later that the established conductors dared perform this work more frequently . It marked the inevitable triumph of a work which had once caused such a furor and whose individuality of conception burst the framework of the genre (double tonality of D and F minor in the opening movement; the combination of Andante and Scherzo in the central one; the recapitulation of the main themes and motifs of the previous movements in the finale). The work was finally accepted into the concert repertoire for good around the turn of the century, not least through the good offices of influential critics and composers.Just as with the previously published Carnival of the Animals (PB/OB 5321) by Saint-Saens, Franck's work also raises many questions concerning its origin and history. Peter Jost based his work on the first edition (the autograph was destroyed in a fire in 1935) as well as on the piano reduction (four-handed) by the composer.

A major work of the late-romantic repertoire, Cesar Franck's only symphony joins the ranks of Breitkopf & Hartel's new orchestral editions which follow the principles of Source Criticism for Practical Use.

SKU: BR.OB-5328-27

ISBN 9790004333860. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Cesar Franck wrote his Symphony in D minor in 1887/88; in spite of the work's lukewarm reception at its world premiere on 17 February 1889, the work was published during his lifetime. It was not until a few years later that the established conductors dared perform this work more frequently . It marked the inevitable triumph of a work which had once caused such a furor and whose individuality of conception burst the framework of the genre (double tonality of D and F minor in the opening movement; the combination of Andante and Scherzo in the central one; the recapitulation of the main themes and motifs of the previous movements in the finale). The work was finally accepted into the concert repertoire for good around the turn of the century, not least through the good offices of influential critics and composers.Just as with the previously published Carnival of the Animals (PB/OB 5321) by Saint-Saens, Franck's work also raises many questions concerning its origin and history. Peter Jost based his work on the first edition (the autograph was destroyed in a fire in 1935) as well as on the piano reduction (four-handed) by the composer.

A major work of the late-romantic repertoire, Cesar Franck's only symphony joins the ranks of Breitkopf & Hartel's new orchestral editions which follow the principles of Source Criticism for Practical Use.

SKU: BO.B.3436A

English comments:
On 11th March 1911, the great pianist and composer Enric Granados performed this piece as an absolute premiere at Barcelona's modernista concert hall Palau de la Musica Catalana. In spite of the great success achieved on the day of the premiere by this ambitious work for piano, organ and three choirs whose words in Catalan were provided by an unknown writer, the piece was never again performed or published. Its manuscript was assumed to be lost for decades and it was even thought that it might have been burnt in a fire. Finally, the pianist and Granados specialist Douglas Riva recovered it and offered it to Boileau Editorial de Musica for publication. El Cant de les estrelles was performed once again on 22nd March 2007, 96 years after its first performance, in New York's Ascension Church, with Douglas Riva himself at the piano and Dennis Keene conducting.

Comentarios del Espanol:
El 11 de marzo de 1911 el gran pianista y compositor Enric Granados interpreto esta obra, con caracter de estreno absoluto, en el modernista Palau de la Musica Catalana de Barcelona. Esta ambiciosa obra para piano, organo y tres coros, con texto en lengua catalana de autor desconocido, tuvo gran exito el dia de su estreno pero no se volvio a interpretar mas y tampoco fue editada. El manuscrito de El cant de les estrelles se dio por perdido durante decadas e incluso se penso que se habia quemado en un incendio. Finalmente, el especialista en Granados y pianista Douglas Riva lo recupero y ofrecio su edicion a Boileau Editorial de Musica. El Cant de les estrelles ha sido de nuevo interpretado el 22 de marzo de 2007, 96 anos despues de su estreno, por el propio Douglas Riva al piano bajo la direccion de Dennis Keene en la Iglesia de la Ascencion de Nueva York.