To what God shall we chant our songs of battle? was commissioned by James O’Donnell and Westminster Abbey for a service of solemn commemoration on 4 August 2014 marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.Stark and gritty yet always rooted in tonality Matthews’s expressive harmonies bring a potent immediacy to the bitter disillusioned words of war poet Harold Monro and the two lyrical solos for soprano and tenor which set passages from the Book of Lamentations and St Luke’s Gospel. Beginning with a violent and impassioned energy this anthem ultimately offers little consolation. In the words of James O’Donnell it ‘leaves you standing on theedge of an abyss’ its impetus petering out in a series of hushed troubled questions.

Commissioned by the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts Limited with funds provided by the Arts Council of Wales for premiere in August 2012 by the Carducci String Quartet in St. Andrew?s Church Presteigne.Composer's Note.'Some years ago I noted down the opening theme of what I anticipated would be a relatively Classical string quartet ?Classical? in the sense of the forms adopted plus perhaps a predominantly lyrical tone of voice. The commission for this work from the Presteigne Festival for their 30th anniversary in 2012 gave me the opportunity of putting into practice this long-held idea. It isdedicated to the Festival and to the Carducci Quartet whose career as much-admired friends and colleagues I have greatly enjoyed.The only break with ?classical? tradition is that there are five movements instead of four with two Scherzi as the second and third though both these are very short and contrasting. I found myself listening to Haydn?s string quartets a lot before and during the composition of this work and I hope the spirit of his delight in writing for this medium is echoed in my own music. The opening movement is in sonata form unusually for me and lyricism is I hope the basis of it though there is a good deal of activity at times. The Scherzo light and marked by frequently-changing rhythms is followed by an equally short but ferocious Perpetuum mobile marked Wild und rasch (one of my favourite German tempo markings). The fourth movement is an intense Adagio in which a single phrase uttered strongly in unison is gradually transformed into gentle diatonic chords before the close intermingled with cadenzas for cello for viola and for the two violins together. The finale (a Rondo) resumes the classical tone of the first movement but apart from one dance-like episode it builds up a fair head of steam towards a final Presto which however ascends slows and quietens towards a gentle summer sky at dusk.'

20 Easy to Intermediate Pieces from four Centuries. Par NEUMANN EVA-MARIA (Arr.). Making music in a quartet uniquely nurtures young string players’ musical development, ensemble playing, listening to each other, and intonation. So, what could be more obvious than introducing the scoring of this genre, often referred to as chamber music’s supreme discipline, as early as possible. Indeed, composers have all along advised the classical string quartet’s outstanding compositions, but they are hardly easy to play for beginners. Here, with the present collection, is where Eva-Maria Neumann comes in. The two volumes include A total of 20 easy to intermediate arrangements of pieces from Bach to Bartók, together with specifically composed ones in string-quartet friendly keys - Reading scores and individual parts - additionally, individual part for violin III instead of viola - Tips on warming up, intonation, bowing, fingering, tempos, dynamics, and playing musically - Specific instructions for the individual pieces - Lists of supplementary original literature The pieces are also effective as scored for chorus./ Recueil / Quatuor à Cordes

The composer made this arrangement of the Third String Quartet for string orchestra in March 2003. The first performance was given by the Eos Orchestra New York conducted by Ken Selden in the Concert Hall Ethical CulturalSociety New York City on 24 April 2003.Quoting composer: In the summer of 1989 I composed a choral work Out of the Ruins for Agnieszka Piotrowska’s BBC2 documentary which dealt with the physical and emotional responsesof some of the inhabitants of Leninakhan to the earthquake which devastated Armenia the previous December. When he heard the recording of the work that I made with the Holy Echmiadzin Chorus under the fervent conducting of KhorenMeykhanejian Alex Balanescu suggested turning Out of the Ruins into a string quartet. There seemed no reason or opportunity to do this until I felt the need to add to the intensity of my experiences in Armenia the no lessprofound experience of witnessing the images of the Romanian revolution on television during the latter part of December 1989.Just as the structure of my Third String Quartet (1990) may connect it with the First so they alsoshare a debt to Thurston Dart (my professor at King’s College London between 1961 and 1965). It was Dart who had the inspiration to send me to Romania in 1965 ostensibly to study folk music. The volumes of transcriptions that Ibrought back with me had remained unopened until with this proposed ‘celebratory’ string quartet (though at the time it was difficult to know quite what to celebrate in postrevolutionary Romania) an occasion arose where I coulduse this material in what seemed to me was a non-exploitative manner. The compositional procedure was as follows: to take Out of the Ruins as a template on which the Romanian vocal or instrumental music would besuperimposed quite often stretched into new intervallic shapes through the demands of the completely pre-formed harmonic structure.

After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozartâ??s complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Volume II â?? in full score and individual parts. Included are the â??Early Viennese Quartetsâ? from 1773 K. 168â??173. Entries in the autograph manuscript by the composerâ??s father Leopold however suggest that the ordering of the six works into a unified series of quartets was his doing. In his preface Wolf-Dieter Seiffert shares brand-new findings on the actual chronology of the genesis of these quartets. Moreover he succeeds in correcting what in prior editions were occasionalinaccuracies in dynamics and articulation thereby producing a new assured musical text. With artistic input from the Armida Quartet Volume II of the String Quartets also sets the benchmark in the Mozart Edition! After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozartâ??s complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Volume II â?? in full score and individual parts. Included are the â??Early Viennese Quartetsâ? from 1773 K. 168â??173. Entries in the autograph manuscript by the composerâ??s father Leopold however suggest that the ordering of the six works into a unified series of quartets was his doing. In his preface Wolf-Dieter Seiffert shares brand-new findings on the actual chronology of the genesis of these quartets. Moreover he succeeds in correcting what in prior editions were occasionalinaccuracies in dynamics and articulation thereby producing a new assured musical text. With artistic input from the Armida Quartet Volume II of the String Quartets also sets the benchmark in the Mozart Edition!