SKU: HL.48025294
ISBN 9783793143512. UPC: 196288172185. 9.0x12.0x0.042 inches.
In 1996, clarinettist Peter Jenkin, a member of the Sydney Alpha Ensemble, asked several composers in Australia to write one-minute pieces for a concert. Elena Kats-Chernin drew on melodic and harmonic material from her ensemble work ProMotion, written shortly before for the Bang-On-A-Can All-Stars. The result is a miniature slightly inspired by klezmer music, which brings many lively figures to life in just 25 bars, as the title suggests.
SKU: CF.CPS251F
ISBN 9781491159880. UPC: 680160918478.
About the Music Semper Gratus is Latin for always grateful. The piece was written in honor of James E. Champion, who taught band for thirty-eight years, twenty-five of which were spent in Florence, Alabama, where he was my elementary school and high school band director. His bands consistently achieved superior ratings throughout his career. He holds multi-decade-spanning memberships in professional music education organizations, continues to serve in helping with Alabama Bandmasters Association events, and conducts and performs in various community bands and ensembles. As my band director at Bradshaw High School, Mr. Champion encouraged me to perform one of my first compositions, a clarinet quartet, at solo/ensemble festival. He taught his students the fundamentals of music, the technical aspects of performance, and exposed them to the great standards of band literature. But in doing so, he also modeled leadership, work-ethic, good character, and fostered the love of the activity of band that led me to choose music education as a career. And for that, I will always be grateful. Performance Notes Measures 1-12: The beginning of the piece should be performed in a majestic, fanfare-like style. The woodwind cues should only be used if absolutely needed during this section. Measures 41-58: The concert toms should establish a presence, but not overpower the winds. The triangle and woodblock parts should be heard distinctly over the concert toms. A higher pitched woodblock should be used for this section. (A set of claves could be used in place of the woodblock if desired.) Measures 59-94: The entirety of the middle section should be played in a rubato style to maximize musical expression, exaggerating dynamics and ritardando sections. The quarter-note triplets in the middle and low winds should be emphasized at m. 70. The molto ritardando that begins at m. 70 should be allowed to build as long as possible in m. 71 before reaching the musical apex of the middle section at m. 72. At mm. 92-94, depending on the size of the ensemble, you may want to limit the number of players (or put one per part) to achieve the most delicate sound possible. Measures 95-End: In mm. 99-107, be sure that the eighth-note running mallet parts are heard as a background texture, but do not overpower the winds. In mm. 114-115, the accents on beats 2 and 4 in the lower winds should be exaggerated to contrast the feel of the previous four measures. In m. 118, all winds should cut off and breathe on beat two for maximum impact on the next three measures.About the MusicSemper Gratus is Latin for “always grateful.†The piece was written in honor of James E. Champion, who taught band for thirty-eight years, twenty-five of which were spent in Florence, Alabama, where he was my elementary school and high school band director. His bands consistently achieved superior ratings throughout his career. He holds multi-decade-spanning memberships in professional music education organizations, continues to serve in helping with Alabama Bandmasters Association events, and conducts and performs in various community bands and ensembles. As my band director at Bradshaw High School, Mr. Champion encouraged me to perform one of my first compositions, a clarinet quartet, at solo/ensemble festival. He taught his students the fundamentals of music, the technical aspects of performance, and exposed them to the great standards of band literature. But in doing so, he also modeled leadership, work-ethic, good character, and fostered the love of the activity of band that led me to choose music education as a career. And for that, I will always be grateful.Performance NotesMeasures 1-12:  The beginning of the piece should be performed in a majestic, fanfare-like style. The woodwind cues should only be used if absolutely needed during this section.Measures 41-58:  The concert toms should establish a presence, but not overpower the winds.  The triangle and woodblock parts should be heard distinctly over the concert toms. A higher pitched woodblock should be used for this section. (A set of claves could be used in place of the woodblock if desired.) Measures 59-94:  The entirety of the middle section should be played in a rubato style to maximize musical expression, exaggerating dynamics and ritardando sections.  The quarter-note triplets in the middle and low winds should be emphasized at m. 70.  The molto ritardando that begins at m. 70 should be allowed to build as long as possible in m. 71 before reaching the musical apex of the middle section at m. 72. At mm. 92–94, depending on the size of the ensemble, you may want to limit the number of players (or put one per part) to achieve the most delicate sound possible.Measures 95-End:  In mm. 99–107, be sure that the eighth-note running mallet parts are heard as a background texture, but do not overpower the winds. In mm. 114–115, the accents on beats 2 and 4 in the lower winds should be exaggerated to contrast the feel of the previous four measures.  In m. 118, all winds should cut off and breathe on beat two for maximum impact on the next three measures.
SKU: CF.CPS251
ISBN 9781491159873. UPC: 680160918461.
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.
