SKU: PR.140401330

ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.

Nathaniel Dett was among America’s leading composers in the early 20th century, and MAGNOLIA SUITE is a beautiful example of his rich, hybrid style. Deeply inspired by the music and mission of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dett’s piano music springs from the late Romantic traditions of florid texture and embellishment, along with programmatic titles and raw emotion. It is notable for melody writing inspired by and paraphrasing African-American song. The 18-minute MAGNOLIA SUITE contains five movements, any of which may also be performed separately. This edition by Lara Downes provides a clean, new engraving that corrects the many errors and unclear indications appearing in the historical printing.
Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in a place that was built on freedom. The little village of Drummondville, Ontario was founded by enslaved Africans – Dett’s ancestors among them – who traveled the Underground Railroad out of the American South into Canada. Their journey brought them to a safe haven, a place where fortunes and futures could be transformed in the span of one generation, to lives full of new possibilities. You could call it “the place where the rainbow ends,” which is the title of the last movement of Dett’s Magnolia Suite.When Dett wrote these pieces, he was a young teacher at Lane College in Tennessee, a historically Black college that had been founded in 1882, the year of his birth. A place built on freedom, with the purpose of educating newly-emancipated slaves – a place designed to nurture the blossoming of ideas, the vibrant flowering of minds set free. This music is inspired by the gorgeous splendor of the magnolia blooms on that college campus, and also by the shared histories, experiences, and aspirations of the community that Dett found there.These five pieces pay affectionate tribute to lineage and legacy. They express gratitude for the bittersweet beauties of the present; nostalgia for the past (a bit romanticized, as the past always is); and an effervescent optimism for the future that awaits us in the place where the rainbow ends.

SKU: BT.WH32824CD

ISBN 9788759891490. English.

Denmark Revisited - Danish choral works for mixed voices a cappella. The University Choir Lille MUKO and soprano Else Torp, conducted by Jesper Grove Jørgensen. For many years now there has been a broad international interest in performing Danish choral works, not least from the 20th century, but often the Danish lyrics have been a hindrance in realising this goal outside Denmark. With this in mind we have thought it important to make Danish choral music more available through the release of selected works in which the Danish text is translated into English. With the present choice we have endeavoured to present works which fully demonstrate the wide range and originality ofDanish choral music: the particular, lyrical Danish tone of Svend S. Schultz and Jørgen Jersild; the original simplicity of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen; the characteristically Danish late romanticism of P.E. Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard; and the music of composers with their own particular musical idiom, such as Vagn Holmboe, Bernhard Lewkovitch, and Bo Holten. We have also tried to choose works with lyrics by writers that are specifically Danish in origin, including Hans Christian Andersen, Johannes V. Jensen, and Tove Ditlevsen. We hope that this release will help to spread knowledge and understanding of Danish choral music outside Denmark. (Jesper Grove Jørgensen) Content P. E. Lange-Müller: 3 Madonna Songs Rued Langgaard: 3 Rosengaard Songs Svend S. Schultz: Denmark Revisited Vagn Holmboe: Songs Towards the Deep of Spring, op. 85 Jørgen Jersild: Three Danish Love Songs Bernhard Lewkovitch: 3 Motets, op. 11 Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: 6 Simple Danish Songs Bo Holten: Rain and Rush and Rosebush.