SKU: CF.B3475

ISBN 9781491162026. UPC: 680160920709.

This work for violin and piano by Martin Bresnick is a play on the words suite and bittersweet. Each of the four movements is based on a Yiddish folk song, which in English translate to On the Road, My Resting Place, Black Cat, and Dona, Dona. Each of the four pieces is primarily based on a Jewish folk song, but re-envisions them in a modern context, akin to Bartok and Kodaly. The composer noted, I found it a very challenging, yet touching way to remain in contact with some part of my own past that I don't usually reveal. The title references the difficult (bitter) and pleasant (sweet) aspects of experiencing the tumultuous history of a people through their folk music.
This work for violin and piano by Martin Bresnick is a play on the words suite and bittersweet. Each of the four movements is based on a Yiddish folk song, which in English translate to On the Road, My Resting Place, Black Cat, and Dona, Dona. Each of the four pieces is primarily based on a Jewish folk song, but re-envisions them in a modern context, akin to Bartok and Kodaly. The composer noted, “I found it a very challenging, yet touching way to remain in contact with some part of my own past that I don’t usually reveal.” The title references the difficult (bitter) and pleasant (sweet) aspects of experiencing the tumultuous history of a people through their folk music.

SKU: PR.114419280

ISBN 9781491132357. UPC: 680160676125.

Inspired by Chinese tradition, this concerto-like dance suite includes: 1. Lion Dance, 2. YangKo, and 3. Muqam. Each movement draws from melodies and rhythms characteristic of various regions of China many centuries ago. CHINESE FOLK DANCE SUITE is available for violin with full orchestra, or as a recital work with piano.
Supported by a major commissioning award from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, Chinese Folk Dance Suite is written for solo violin and orchestra; it was premiered by The Women’s Philharmonic with violin soloist Terrie Baune, conducted by Apo Hsu, on March 10, 2001, at Yerba Buena Center For the Arts Theater in San Francisco.Inspired by various Chinese traditional folk dances, the suite has three movements:I. Lion Dance. Traditionally, people dance with richly decorated hand-made lions, accompanied by percussion ensemble, to celebrate happy occasions and major festivals throughout the country. In this composition, I use Chinese drum and other percussion instruments in the background, to form a dynamic and rhythmic texture responding to the solo part, which imitates the tunes played on the suona (traditional Chinese trumpet). The pitch materials came from the traditional Guangdong tune “Dragon Boat Racing,” and the Chaozhou tune “Lion Playing Ball.”II. YangKo. Originating in northern China, this is a major folk dance form in mass performance popularized in the country. In YangKo performance, people play rhythmic patterns on the drums hung around their waists while singing and dancing. In the second movement, I imagined a warm scene of YangKo dancing in distance. The solo violin plays a sweet and gracious melodic line while all members of the orchestra sing non-pitched syllables in different layers as the soft background, to imitate the percussion sound which produces the ever-going pulse.III. Muqam. This large-scale music and dance form, from the Uygur nationality in Xinjiang province, originated in the 15th century. My third movement use a 7/8 meter and the melodic style of Muqam music. The fiery dancing gesture culminates in the sustained climax section at the end of the work, after a colorful violin cadenza in both improvisational singing style and polyphonic writing with woven lines.

SKU: HL.14041762

9.0x12.0x0.071 inches.

'Romance for violin and piano is a short, reflective piece that exploits the lyrical qualities inherent in the combination. Originally written for a very young but talented violinist, Romance travels through numerous moods andcolours within a continuous musical development of the opening material. At first gentle and reflective with increasing dramatic outbursts outlined by the violin sforzandi and parallel sixths in the piano writing, numerous shortsolo passages in both instruments culminate in a fiery climax. Quickly subsiding into the calmer yet now more melancholy strains of the earlier stages of the piece, the ending is somewhat incomplete. This seems to suggest acontinuous turn of events alluded to in the music.'
             - Helen Grime



Born in 1981, Helen studied oboe with JohnAnderson and composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of Music. She graduated from the BMus course with First Class Honours and completed her Masters with Distinction in 2004. From 2005-07, Helenwas a Legal & General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music. In 2003 she won a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, and was awarded the intercollegiate Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well as allthe major composition prizes in the RCM. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas.Helen has had works commissioned by some of the most established performers and organisations including ENO, London Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center.Conductors who have performed her work include Daniel Harding, Oliver Knussen, Pierre Boulez and Yan Pascal Tortelier. Helen is the 2010 recipient of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund and Associate Composer of The Halle from the.