String quartet

SKU: BO.B.3664

Composed by Jordi Cervello. Published by Editorial de Musica Boileau (BO.B.3664).

Cuarteto San Petersburgo (The Saint Petersburg Quartet) was written between January and March 2011. It owes its name to the fact that Saint Petersburg has been a very significant city for me. I was invited there in 1988 to take part in a big contemporary music festival, but my uninterrupted bond with the city started on 2002, thanks to the negotiations of my friend and pupil Albert Barbeta. Since then, I have constantly travelled there in order to record a considerable part of my repertoire: seventeen pieces. In addition to the concerts we went to, I took the opportunity during my trips to visit the well-known conservatoire where so many great personalities from the world of music composition once taught, and the place that launched the most important violin school in the whole of Russia: the school of Leopoldo Auer. Spending a long time in Auer's classroom writing my concert for violin and orchestra was an unforgettable experience for me. His large portrait motivated me even further.

Cuarteto San Petersburgo evokes many of the most cherished and moving moments that I have had in this city. It is structured in four movements. The first one, Allegretto-Allegro, opens with an introduction that sets forth the two main themes, amid a soft and elastic atmosphere. The Allegro starts vigorously and in it we find changes in the tempo and moments of mystery, as well as certain seclusion, returning then to the emphatic theme where the counterpoint finds its place. The movement ends placidly.

The Scherzo-marcato that follows is marked by a persistent rhythm of triplets that carries on from beginning to end. The tempo does not change, but brief and decided themes are introduced, as well as passages of counterpoint. Brief and dissonant chords are heard throughout the movement, which ends vigorously.

The third movement, Ut, is a very special one. For a while already I had been playing with the idea of writing a movement that was to have the tonality C as a leitmotiv. This one is made up by two slow and static parts. In the first one, the first violin plays pizzicatti-glissandi. In the second, the first violin and particularly the violoncello settle on C while the other two instruments produce descending chromatic harmonies.

Finally, the Introduccion-Presto (the Introduction-Presto). It starts with some bucolic passages which remind us of the introduction to the first movement. A fast and energetic Presto suddenly erupts. A kind of moto perpetuo which alternates with two expressive passages and, towards the end, a viola and violoncello tremolo, all of great mystery and expectation, make way for a resounding finale marcato.

Organ - advanced

SKU: HL.49045437

For Organ. Composed by Enjott Schneider. This edition: Saddle stitching. Sheet music. Organ Large Works. Classical. Softcover. Composed 2016. 48 pages. Duration 24'. Schott Music #ED 22668. Published by Schott Music (HL.49045437).

ISBN 9790001162715. UPC: 841886029088. 9.0x12.0x0.168 inches.

On the occasion of the quincentenary of Reformation Day in 2017, the composer Enjott Schneider thoroughly studied Martin Luther the individual and all his contradictions. The result is a brilliant, demanding organ symphony which is perfect for concerts on the subject of Reformation and Martin Luther.The composer describes the five movements of the symphony as follows:'1st movement:Wir glauben all an einen Gott with its quintuplet-like beginning is very Gregorian in style, outlining the range of Lutheran emotionalism between the Middle Ages and the modern era. The irrationality of faith ultimately has priority over any thought and evidence. At the beginning of the movement, sounds of knocking on wood remind of the nailing of the Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of churches in Wittenberg. The chorale melody sometimes hides with an almost rough medieval saltarello, referring to Luther's robustness and vitality with which he knew to carry away even common people.2nd movement:In 1530, the electoral prince of Saxony presented to Luther at Coburg Castle the golden signet ring with the Luther rose which became the symbol of his theology of grace. A white heart with black cross is fixed on a five-petalled rose. To him, white is the colour of angels and ghosts, black stands for the pain of crucification: The just shall live by faith, but by faith in the Crucified. But the fact that the rose and the heart are the dominating symbols shows how Catholic Marian piety remained an ingredient of Luther's spirituality throughout his life. In line with the dominant five-petal structure of the rose, this movement was composed, to a large extent, in accordance with the floating, lyrical rhythm in 5/8 time.3rd movement:The omnipresence of death and dying - from the plague and war to the never-ending dangers of daily life - was an essential part of the world view of that time. Fears ensued that might heighten into the grotesque, e.g. in the pictures of Hieronymus Bosch. The Danse macabre was a popular motif in those years. Luther's chorale Mitten wir im Leben sind / mit dem Tod umfangen from 1524 (Enchiridion from Erfurt) is based on the Gregorian chant Media vita in morte sumus created in France around 750 and, with its idea of transience, inspired a simplistic air.4th movement:The famous confession delivered at the Diet of Worms in 1521, I stand here and can say no more. God help me. Amen, are not Luther's words but the version later used as text for a pamphlet. However, it represents quite plainly the straightforwardness and inevitability of his mission. Musically, it was made into a perpetuum mobile, i.e. a dogged, ostinato and never-ending musical air.5th movement:The Mighty Fortress, on the other hand, is one of the great symbols of Martin Luther which, with its shining C major key, embodies the Protestant ideology and willful nature of the Reformation unlike any other song. Heinrich Heine called it the Marseille anthem of the Reformation, Friedrich Engels the Marseillaise of the Peasants' Wars. This disputability is not thought through to the end but rather interrupted: With a jubilant birdcall version of the melody, the finale shows a rather chamber-music-like side of the ideals of freedom of Christians.'.

Recorder and Piano - Intermediate

SKU: FP.FBM04

Composed by Martin Bussey. Sheet Music and Books. This fresh and appealing work lives up to its name. Particularly diverting is the finale, a hornpipe subtitled The Knotted Sailor, in which the nifty performers have to negotiate frequent and teasing changes of rhythm at speed. Classical. Collection. Forsyths Publications #FBM04. Published by Forsyths Publications (FP.FBM04).

ISBN 9790570504077.

The opening movement is a free fantasia, contrasting with the middle movement, a scherzetto, in homage to, and based on the letters of the name of, the composer Douglas Steele, an assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham and a founding father of Chethams School, and which quotes from Steele’s beautiful carol The Snow Falls.
Divertimento was first performed by John Turner and Janet Simpson at a concert in aid of the Peter Cunningham Memorial Fund at Mellor Church on 17th January 2005. It uses both treble and descant instruments. The second movement was originally composed for a concert in Manchester Cathedral in memory of Douglas Steele, one of the founding fathers of Chetham's School, and quotes (by kind permission of Forsyth Brothers Ltd.), from his well-known carol The Snow Falls. It has been separately recorded by John Turner and Stephen Hough on Autumn Sequence – the music of Douglas Steele and his Circle (Campion Cameo 2040/41).
Martin Bussey was born in London in 1958. He was a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, during which time he studied composition with Robin Holloway. Following postgraduate singing study at the RNCM he settled in Manchester and held a number of posts, including Head of Academic Music and Director of Choirs at Chetham’s School of Music until 2013. He continues as Musical Director of the Chester Bach Singers, a Vocal Tutor at Manchester University, Chairman of the Finzi Friends and a Director of the Ludlow Song Weekend. Compositions include the highly successful monodrama about Mary I, Mary’s Hand, premiered in 2018; a significant collection of solo songs which includes settings of Housman, Hardy, and Walt Whitman, many recorded on the disc Through a glass; and much choral music, recorded by Sonoro under Neil Ferris in 2019.