SKU: CF.YAS223

ISBN 9781491162712. UPC: 680160921461. Key: A minor.

The Valkyrja (Old Norse meaning “choosers of the slain”) were noble maidens that brought dead heroes to the afterlife. They were responsible for sending half of those who die in battle to Odin’s Valhalla where they would prepare for Ragnarök. In the beginning of this dramatic piece, the upper and lower strings duel for dominance, setting the scene of an epic battle. The middle section depicts the Valkyries (represented by a lyrical cello melody) descending from the heavens to take their chosen to Valhalla. The battle resumes, now with the Valkyries sifting through the corpses to find the fallen heroes that would continue to fight at Ragnarök.

About Carl Fischer Young String Orchestra Series

This series of Grade 2/Grade 2.5 pieces is designed for second and third year ensembles. The pieces in this series are characterized by:
--Occasionally extending to third position
--Keys carefully considered for appropriate difficulty
--Addition of separate 2nd violin and viola parts
--Viola T.C. part included
--Increase in independence of parts over beginning levels

SKU: HL.50600566

8.25x11.75x0.07 inches.

The Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä reports that he experienced a phase whilst working on his Horn Concerto in 2011 during which he had the feeling of “having landed in a deadend”. To find a remedy, he decided to develop a kind of “finger exercise” for composers, comparable to the “warming-up process of an instrumental soloist before performing”. Räihälä remembers furthermore: “Instead of writing for orchestra, I started a short solo piece for clarinet. Little did I know that I had opened a Pandora's box! I wrote 'Soliloque 1: Étoffé' in two days. Perhaps this frenzy caused the music to become restless, with quick turns – in short, a rather virtuosic etude. The clarinet seeks paths, at first without success, but obviously finding one in the end. And what about the Pandora's Box? I had given the title the number one, and during the next two years I wrote five more Soliloques, solos of six to seven minutes, for various instruments, as well as one for soprano a cappella. The title Étoffé means 'rich', or 'well rounded', but also 'fabric' or even a 'patch' - and I felt that I had patched something in my work that was broken; indeed, working on the concerto now gave me a fresh start.”.