SKU: UT.CH-157

ISBN 9790215320369. 9 x 12 inches.

Vals d'la Masca; Il racconto della Montagna; Sequenze sotterranee

The Alpinia Suite was commissioned and composed for the festival <> and is dedicated to my friend and colleague Elio Galvagno. It was performed for the first time on August 30, 2011, in the Church of San Giovanni in Saluzzo, by an ensemble of professional and student guitarists from all over Europe. This piece was written to commemorate the first ascent of mount Monviso, by William Mathews, Frederick Jacomb, Jean Baptiste Croz and Michel Croz, exactly 150 years before, on August 30, 1861.
The first movement is a small Waltz. I imagined a Masca (a sort of alpine pixie, a teasing sprite), dancing all around the house and playing tricks, mostly harmless and funny. The Masca is a legendary and very important character in the folklore of my valleys, and all rationally inexplicable events of everyday life are ascribed to her - such as objects that cannot be found anymore, holes in flour sacks, salt in sugar bowls...
The next two movements are a homage to the Mountains. The Tale is a sort of journal, a bright and peaceful chronicle of a hike uphill, in which the beauty of the place is highlighted by an easy harmony and a sweet melody. After this, Underground sequences evokes that same world in a darker and nocturnal way; the faster pace and the choice of repeated and varying patterns are meant to show the transformation of the former environment into something more complex and tormented. Here mountains are a metaphor of human life, warts and all: their sundrenched slopes and their green pasture grasslands, but also their icy and dangerous northern sides, which demand calm, training and caution.
(G. Signorile).

SKU: PR.11641139L

UPC: 680160682126.

Barcarolles for a Sinking City was inspired by the city of Venice, a place that has long held the fascination of artists, writers and composers, and which I have been lucky enough to visit on several occasions. Sadly it seems that future generations may not be so lucky: in addition to the city's slow sinking and recently discovered tilting, studies predict that if global warming and the resultant rise of ocean levels is unabated, the entire city (as well as many other coastal cities around the globe) will be under water by 2100.   I. Funeral Gondola The late, cryptic piano works of Franz Liszt made a profound impression on me as a young composer, among them two works he entitled La Lugubre Gondola (usually translated as The Funeral Gondola ) which were said to be a premonition of Wagner's death in Venice, his coffin transported through the canals in a black gondola. These late pieces of Liszt acquired even greater significance to me after I spent two summers in Bayreuth under the patronage of Friedelind Wagner, the granddaughter of Wagner and great-granddaughter of Liszt. This movement is a meditation on Wagner, Liszt, Venice and its own evanescence. II. Barcarolle/Quodlibet The Quodlibet (Latin for what pleases) is a musical form dating back to the 15th century where many disparate melodies are juxtaposed. Popular in the Renaissance, sacred and secular melodies were combined, often to comical effect due to the resultant incongruity of the words. The form was considered the ultimate test of a composer's mastery of counterpoint. The most famous Quodlibet is without doubt the final Variation of Bach's Goldberg Variations. As a form the Quodlibet is less common in more recent music, although examples can be found in the works of Kurt Weill and David Del Tredici.   My own Barcarolle/Quodlibet was inspired by the (perhaps apocryphal) story of the funeral where musicians were asked to play a Bach Choral, but due to miscommunication played instead the Bacarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann. Here, the Bach Choral Allen Menschen mussen sterben (All Men Must Die) is heard in the strings pizzicato, with a tempo indication In slow motion. The alto line of the Bach suggests a phrase from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Alle Menchen werden Bruder) heard in the muted trombone. Before long, the famous tune from Offenbach's opera is heard, followed by quotations from iconic Barcarolles by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Faure, as well as two Venetian popular songs and more Beethoven.   III. Barcarola/Ostinato/Carillon An ostinato is a repeated musical figure, and carillon is Italian for music box. This movement references the obsolete genre of salon pieces that imitated music boxes: such works by composers like Liadov and Gretchaninov used to be a mainstay of pianists' encore repertoire. This movement is however much darker in conception than those pleasant trifles. Utilizing the full battery of percussion, the carefully notated temporal slowing of the ostinato becomes overwhelmed by a poignant chorale melody before this box is snapped shut.   IV. Barcarolle Oubliee (Forgotten Barcarolle) Marked limpido (still) the final movement begins with the sound of rain produced by a percussion instrument called (appropriately) a rain stick. Halting phrases in the harp coalesce into the accompaniment for a plangent melody heard in the clarinet. The central Adagio of this movement leads to a shattering climax, before the opening phrases return and dissipate into nothingness.

SKU: PR.44641341L

UPC: 680160667437. 11 x 17 inches.

I wrote this piece with a darker sonority and an emphasis on lyricism, qualities that I associate with the viola. In the first movement, titled Fantasia, the viola begins with a quiet and free cadenza, becoming more passionate until the woodwinds join in dialogue with the soloist. Gradually the rest of the orchestra enters, exploring ideas from the solo cadenza while introducing a new theme that reappears in the last movement. The second movement is a scherzo, mischievous in mood with the orchestra and viola trading barbed jokes. The antics are interrupted by a brass chorale with embellishment from the viola. The scherzo then resumes with prominent contributions from the bassoons. The last movement, titled Nocturne, plays with different kinds of music associated with the night. A sensual and romantic atmosphere gives way to something more menacing and ultimately violent. After a climax from the full orchestra, soft strings and solo viola lead us into the coda, taking an ambiguous idea from the first movement and transforming it into a lyrical and heartfelt prayer. The concerto ends with the solo viola ascending on the crest of an orchestral wave of sound.

SKU: HH.HH462-FSP

ISBN 9790708146711.

Cicada larvae live underground for years, creeping about slowly and peacefully in the darkness until that sudden, beautiful brief moment when, one warm, damp summer’s eve, they emerge, metamorphosed into a highly mobile life form. Gaily they dance in the sunshine, singing ardently to the trees in all their greenery --- but only for a short while, for, just as suddenly, they are gone. The same process repeats year upon year. The life cycle of this string quartet resembles that of the cicada. Initially, two embryonic cells remain hidden within dense, gloomy note-clusters; over time they evolve into buds, grow and then blossom. They appear for the first time in their adult form in the fast middle section, where they assume the shape of two very popular Chinese folk melodies, Jasmine and Old Six Blows, albeit in wholly chromaticized and defamiliarized variants. After their grand efflorescence, these forms gradually dissolve into transparent wisps of sound.

SKU: HL.14027979

ISBN 9788759888780. English.

Corona - The Solar Trilogy No. 3 for Orchestra was composed by Poul Ruders in 1995. Programme note: CORONA makes the final part of the SOLAR-TRILOGY, a huge symphonic triptych about the life and behavior of the Sun. The first'panel' GONG depicts the birth, life and final collapse of our nearest star, the second ZENITH describes in its ultra-slow tempo the patient rise of the Sun toward midday ferocity and its subsequent setting. CORONA, then, is a symphonic 'portrait' of the phenomenally hot whispy brim encircling and radiating from the Sun, a sizzling halo of electrons and photons visible only during a total eclipse. Formally CORONA follows the process of such totalityin progress:the gradual eclipsing by the Moon - total darkness with thefierce, sparkling outer corona - the gradual 'rebirth' of the light toward the full gl.ory and warmth of the Sun.Besides the obvious astronomical narrative of the SOLAR-TRILOGY there's a metaphysical angle too, underlying each of the three compositions: GONG, in spite of its apparent energy, may be the most pessimistic of them all, epitomizing the death and ultimate annihilation of the prime source of Life itself. ZENITH is a hommage to human aspiration and spiritual endurance and CORONA ends with Hope and Glory after a journey from depression throughtotal despair. Super-structurally, the zenith of ZENITH makes the zenith of the entire trilogy, i.e. when the E- flat of the unisone horns in ZENITH is heard, we are exactly halfway through the collected work. Poul Ruders.

SKU: HL.35004811

UPC: 747510049128. 8.5x11 inches.

For generations, the people of the world walked in darkness, unable to find their way. They yearned for a king who would lead them. Could This Be the Day? is one of the most memorable moments from Joseph and Pamela Martin's cantata, Canticle of Joy, and is available here as a separate octavo. Orchestrated by Brant Adams and incorporating “O Come, O Come. Emmanuel,” this hauntingly beautiful Advent choral expresses the world's deep longing and emotional prayers of hope that the Messiah will come.