Angels We HaveHeard on High (minimalist)

Christmas carolarrangement for piano solo with narration by Stephen R Dalrymple

sequenced by thecomposer

� 2018, ℗ 2020 Stephen R Dalrymple

In 2017 I began researching andwriting a university level music textbook explaining contemporary classicalmusic composition techniques. In 2018 I finished the 300+ page manuscript and usedit to teach two university music course in Haiti that year.

It had been many years since I hadtaken the course myself, and needed to add to my knowledge of late 20thCentury and early 21st Century classical music composition techniques.During my research I grew interested in a classical music minimalist styleinfluenced by Terry Riley and Philip Glass. I have tried to use some of theirideas in this composition. There are 10 sections that can be repeated,reordered, and combined so that the performer actually makes a contribution tothe creation of the work.

Playing the piano at church behind areading of Luke 2, was my first experiment in this new form of music. When Ireturned home, I began to experiment in writing down the experience andrefining the work according to these minimalist ideas. The composition could beperformed with or without the narration, with a single narrator in a singlelanguage, or with the narration in multiple languages and/or with multiplevoices.

Suitable for preludes,offertories, concerts, personal meditation. Includes 2 versions 1) piano score,letter size 2) piano score, small pageformat for performing from 10.1 inch tablet. UpdatedDecember 2020.

(Note: Tell your computer whichpages you want to print. There are programs online that will allow you to splitpdf files so that you can choose the correct part of the pdf for your tablet.)

Les Bor�ades is a trag�die lyrique mise en musique, or a lyric tragedy put into music, a type of opera, in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). It is the last of his five such works. The libretto, attributed to Louis de Cahusac (1706?1759), is loosely based on the Greek legend of Abaris the Hyperborean and includes Masonic elements; the Bor�ades are the descendants of Bor�as.


'The Arts and The Hours' interlude from Rameau?s final opera, ?Les Bor�ades?, written in 1763 when Rameau was 80. �lafsson transcribed it for the modern piano because its colourful resonance allows for new and interesting textural possibilities in a piece that seems so ahead of its time: its rich harmonies of suspended 9ths and 11ths one could almost imagine Mahler writing in the late 19th century. In the original opera, based on a Greek legend, the interlude bears a somewhat lengthy title: ?The Arrival of the Muses, Zephyrs, Seasons, Hours and the Arts.? As all these mythical beings summoned to the stage have something to do with the arts and with time?s passing, �lafsson allowed himself to call my transcription simply ?The Arts and the Hours?, with a nod to the Greek aphorism best known in its Latin version as ?Ars longa, vita brevis?. Almost three centuries after his death, the legacy of his art is still growing, with works still being discovered, premiered and brought back from obscurity.



https://youtu.be/qTwqBVt2Clw