SKU: PR.161000820
UPC: 680160610822. 9 x 12 inches. Text: Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez; Dan Welcher. Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez, Dan Welcher. Original story by Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez; Lyrics by Dan Welcher.
Commissioned for the Kingsville (TX) Independent School District and its thriving music department, Welcher has created A Musical Fable for Children, based upon a story by Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez. A narrator tells the tale of two children on opposite sides of the border and the magical creatures who allowed them to see as the other sees. Welcher uses musical themes and instruments to help identify the characters for the audience. The musical play was performed at the Kingsville campus, as well as six other elementary schools in the district.The Need to See is a theater piece for children, featuring a narrator/singer and five instrumentalists. Designed to show children (aged 8-10) a fable about acceptance and diversity, the work also exposes children to live musicians in a highly portable, suitable-for-classroom theater piece.The narrator/singer begins by teaching the children a well-known Mexican folk tune, “Naranja Dulceâ€, which leads directly into the story. The fable concerns two figures from folklore: Don Conejo (the rabbit god) and Don Coyote (the coyote god). These two trickster/adversaries take on the task of helping Isabella, an American girl, and Tomà s, a Mexican boy, understand each other’s culture—by means of a trick. The two children, living on opposite sides of the Rio Grande in Texas and Mexico, have been taught to fear el otro lado (“the other sideâ€), and to stay away from the river. This causes both children to be nervous and afraid, and Conejo and Coyote decide to do something about that.Borrowing from another well-known tale, writer Santiago Vaquera-Và squez has the two trickster-deities perform a bit of hocus-pocus, exchanging the two childrens’ eyes for one day, so they can “see†through someone else’s perspective. The result, told in two languages with narration, song, and constant music, allows the children in the audience to participate as singers, and also as spectators to a tale that has relevance and contemporary meaning.  Employing three familiar songs from Latin American culture (“Naranja Dulceâ€, “Tengo una Muñecaâ€, and “Mambru se fue a la Guerraâ€), the piece takes its audience on a journey both familiar and new—and ultimately enlightening.
SKU: PR.114423360
UPC: 680160686285.
When the Newport Music Festival commissioned me for a piano trio in honor of their 2021 season, I looked for a topic that would celebrate an aspect of the Newport community. While researching the area, I was struck by the nine lighthouses situated around the island. The dual nature of lighthouses was particularly appealing to me: not only do they serve a vital role in the navigation of ships around rocks and land, but they are also a beautiful sight, particularly at night when their blinking beacons are clearly visible to the eye. It occurred to me that lighthouses link the past with the present, and will endure long into the future, with their beacons serving the same purpose for every generation.I became fascinated with the lighthouse on the property of Castle Hill Inn, located at the opening of the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay. This squat thirty-four foot granite structure was erected in 1890 on a very picturesque spot, right at the water’s edge. Its “characteristic,†the nautical term for each lighthouse’s unique light sequence that allows ships to identify the lighthouse, is to alternate on for three seconds, then off for three seconds. The lighthouse has also served as the starting and finish line for numerous high profile yacht races, as well as survived a massive hurricane in 1938, though the lighthouse keeper’s nearby residence wasn’t so lucky. American novelist Thornton Wilder wrote much of his 1973 novel Theophilus North while staying at the Castle Hill Inn; a passage from the book perfectly captures the dual nature of lighthouses:“At a later visit I was able to engage the pentagonal room in a turret above the house; from that magical room I could see at night the beacons of six lighthouses and hear the booming and chiming of as many sea buoys.â€In Beacon of the Bay, we first hear the lighthouse’s characteristic as its ruby light blinks on and off. This is followed by a simple theme that represents the lighthouse performing its solitary duty. As the piece progresses, we hear waves playfully lapping around its base, then yachts gracefully floating by; this is followed by a violent storm that churns the waves with so much force that they crash against the lighthouse’s granite body. But the steadfast lighthouse holds firm to the rocks, grandly blinking its ruby light. The music quiets back down to its simple theme, with yachts sailing by once more as the piece concludes.
SKU: HL.14063892
ISBN 9781785588341. UPC: 840126939231. 6.75x9.75x0.304 inches.
This album features 16 of John Tavener's anthems for SATB choir.
Contents include: 'A Christmas Round', 'Advent Antiphon', 'Agnus Dei', 'As one who has slept', 'Exhortation and Kohima', 'TheFounder’s Prayer', 'God is with us (A Christmas Proclamation)', 'A Hymn to the Mother of God', 'The Lamb', 'Mother of God, here I stand', 'Nunc dimittis', 'O that we were there', 'Rocking', 'Song for Athene', 'Today theVirgin' and 'What God is, we do not know'.