The sultan Shakriar convinced of the falshood and inconstancy of all women had sworn an oath to put to death each of his wives after the first night. However the sultana Scheherazade saved her life by arousing his interest in the tales which she told him during 1001 nights. Driven by curiosity the sultan postponed her execution from day to day and at last abandoned his sanguinary design. Scheherazade told many miraculous stories to the sultan. For her tales she borrowed verses from the poets and words from folk songs combining fairy-tales with adventures.

Folk Tune (also known as Sheep Shearing Song) was originally composed for piano by Eugene Goossens. This setting for symphonic band by Percy Grainger bears the hallmark ingenious application of instrumentation and harmonizing that Grainger became so well known for.

From this legendary stage show and film comes some of Broadway's most enduring music ? not only the memorable songs but also the dazzling ethnic dance music. Ira Hearshen's showcase is pure energy and musical excitementwith Tradition Wedding Dance #1 (The Bottle Dance) Perchik and Hodel Dance Chava Sequence and To Life.

Score-H'UN (Lacerations) is a FULL SCORE to the extensive work written by Bright Sheng. This work recounts the Chinese Culteral Revolution 1966-1976. This was a very dark sad time for the people of China. This work contains no melodybecause the composer felt this horrific time did not deserve one.

Score-John Jacob Niles' I Wonder As I Wander arranged for Orchestra.This Christian folk hymn was inspired by a song heard by Niles at a fundraising meeting for evangelicals which he attendedin Murphy North Carolina. Niles wrote of the moment he first heard the tune:'A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes wereunbelievable dirty and ragged and she too was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins.... But best of all she was beautiful and in her untutored way she could sing. She smiled as she sang smiled rather sadly and sang only a single line of a song'.Niles requested that the girl repeat the fragment seven times paying her a quarter per performance and left with 'three lines of verse a garbled fragment ofmelodic material—and a magnificent idea'. He completed his composition on October 4 1933 and I Wonder As I Wander was first performed on December 19 1933 at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown North Carolina.This melodic arrangement by Michael Brown offers an opportunity for every group of instruments to shine making it an excellent choice for school concerts or showcases.

In The Shadow Of The Bat - Concerto for Three Trombones and Orchestra by Niels Marthinsen (2009). Programme note: In the Shadow of the Bat is a triple concerto for three trombones and orchestra inspired by Batman and his enemies The Joker Two-Face and The Penguin. A central idea of modern versions of the Batman myth is that the batman is created by the fantastic villains that he fights and they are created by him - and that Batman is driven by revenge and hate barely held in check by an intense sense of justice. Batman represents 'the dark side' while the villains are hyper-imaginative colourful creative caracters who happen to be completely insane. The rivalry between soloists and orchestra is anything but friendly: The three soloists represent one villain each the orchestra 'is' the batman - and while the villains take centre stage during most of the concerto they are eventually overwhelmed by the sheer power of the orchestra and sent where they belong: The lunatic's asylum. The concerto begins with the creation of the batman: An eight year old boy persuades his parents to leave an opera performance before it is over; outside in an alley they are shot and killed by a criminal while the boy watches. And he decides that all criminals must be punished! Then follows the Villaineuos Fugue: a multi-part fugue-like exposition of villain motives and stylistic environments. It is the exposition of the joker (alto trombone) two-face (tenor trombone) and the penguin (bass trombone). And after a brief and very slow interlude where the three criminals form an alliance and make their plans the Toccata of Crime begins: Bright fast moving highly energetic expansive and colourful music still dominated by the soloists. But later the orchestra moves to centre stage with slow omnious swooping bat-music that climaxes as the soloists are defeated by the orchestra. In the Shadow of the Bat is commissioned

Composer's Program Note Repertoire operas occationally have orchestral suites: Bits and pieces of overture interlude etc. tied upin a bouquet of 'schönste Tränen'. Contemporary opera usually wither after the first season so the focusis on getting people to come and have a sniff before it's too late. Consequently it seemed obvious to meto start making orchestral excerpts from my operas that are meant to be played before the premiere (andafter please); I call them 'opera trailers' when they're substantial enough to be considered independent works and 'opera demos' when they're relatively short and moreappetizer-ish. SNOW WHITE'S MIRROR is a full scale two act dramatic opera written for the Danish National Opera. The opera is a modern re-telling for grown-ups of the brothers Grimm's fairy tale: Snow White is a self-centered teenage narcissist and the villain of the opera; she ends up loosing everyone but herself either because she kills them or because they decide they can't stand being around her anymore. But apparently she's o.k. with that...The music is intended for a large audience: it's basically pop music done with all the craftmanship of aclassical composer who's equally at home with large scale symphonic form avantgarde technique opera singing - and modern pop. The Trailer is in three movements. It contains three sections of the opera; the prelude an interlude close to the beginning of the second act and the final scene but one. It's a gloomy sort of trailer starting out in grand title sequence style moving on to a decidedly odd piece where Snow White find her way to the dwarfs (who're creepy junkies doing pornography to get money to buy dope) and ending in kind of an eerie rejection mood: Everyone still alive walks out on Snow White singing 'skin as white as snow hands red with blood soul as black as ivory'.(NM 2010)

for Orchestra-Avskedsvariationer/Farewell Variations for Orchestra by Britta Byström (2005). Programme Note Farewell Variations sees the careful approach towards Haydn by Britta Byström. Although you have the title reference to the ”Farewell” Symphony Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 Byström’s approximations are being made in a subtle way similar to her free interpretation of literary works. You will not find any direct thematic connections between Byström and Haydn. Byström’s Haydn inspiration comes in form of the various titles which have been given to a lotof Haydn symphonies in the post-Haydn era. Byström wanted to go in sort of an opposite direction: To compose music based on ”Haydnish” symphonic titles. A kind of symphonic Haydn catalogue appears in the movements. Farewell Variations consist of fourteen variations of Byström’s own thematics. The work begins in sighing and broken phrases – like the shadow of a dance. The titles of the variations lead to the description of daily events starting with morning. A day of Haydn! The last variation farewell ends with the musicians playing on by on. As such there is no story but the titles are the main focus here. Byström says that she musically ”tried to capture some of Haydn’s ease and insights”. Tony Lundman           

Dramma per musica in thre acts-Rodelinda Regina de' Longobardi HWV 19; Opera in three acts. After Giulio Cesare and Tamerlano Rodelinda is the third masterly opera that Handel composed between December 1723 and January 1725. The words were written by Nicola Haym the author of many other Handel librettos. The first performance took place at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket London on 13 February 1725. Rodelinda thrives entirely on the ethical supremacy of conjugal love and thus prefigures the great operas by Gluck and Beethoven on the same subject. The plot is taken from the history of the Lombard royalty. Oskar Hagen’s revival of Rodelinda in 1920 ushered in the modern Handel operamovement. The work forms the climax to a series of dramatic masterpieces that includes Handel’s most significant operas. Handel returned to Rodelinda on two occasions in December 1725 and in May 1731. Many far-reaching changes were necessary owing to the different skills of the new singers. For example Handel wrote three new arias and a duet for the first revival. Yet the changes he made for this performance doubtless to accommodate the needs and wishes of the singers also improve the work’s dramatic substance. Our vocal score is based on the Urtext of the full score published in the Halle Handel Edition (II/16) and reproduces the various alternative readings and versions in an appendix. Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition.U47 Full score (BA4064) & vocal score (BA4064-90) available for sale. Performance material (BA4064-72) available for hire

Invisible Cities for Orchestra by Swedish composer Britta Byström (2013). Programme note: Invisible Cities is an orchestral piece inspired by the Italian writer Italo Calvino's novel 'Le città invisible' (1972). The novel consists of many short poetical descriptions of wondrous cities. This is what the explorer Marco Polo reports to Kublai Khan of what he has seen during his travels. Gradually though Kublai Khan begins to suspect that Marco Polo all the time describes one and the same city but in many different ways: Marco Polo's own hometownVenice.  This was also my musical idea: to present the same motif in many different ways. The piece has eleven movements just as the novel consists of eleven different kinds of cities. Before every new musical 'city' there is a 'walk' – a little piano line which takes the listener from one city to another. This piano line is a quotation from Witold Lutoslawski'sVenetian Games. There are also other music connected to Venice hidden in my piece: the well-known Barcarolle by Offenbach and some fragments from Carnival in Venice. These references are the 'invisible cities' of my piece the material hidden under the music's surface. Marco Polo explains to Kublai Khan: 'To distinguish the other cities' qualities I must speak of a first city that remains implicit. For me it is Venice.'  (c) Britta Byström  Britta Byström’s careful ear for musical qualities such as timbre and resonance has resulted in an idiom that could almost be labeled impressionistic. She began composing already as a teenager and later studied composition at Musikhögskolan in Stockholm with Pär Lindgren and Bent Sørensen.

  Symphony No. 3 (1972-1975) by Per Nørgård. Per Nørgård's third symphony commissioned by The Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (conductor Herbert Blomstedt) was premiered in Copenhagen in 1976 and received wide attention. The work gives comprehensive expression to a new realm of musical experience which the composer began to explore toward the end of the 1960s. While the first period in Nørgårds production in the 1050s represents his personal interpretation of the Nordic music tradition – evidenced for example in his “Piano Sonata No. 2” (1957) and“Constellations” for chamber orchestra (1958) – and the second period in the 1960s saw him working with serial techniques musical collage and a new sound-palette - especially in the orchestral works “Iris” (196-67) and “Luna” (1967) – with “Voyage into the Golden Screen” (1968) Nørgård arrived at a new compositional technique based on the use of a special form of a so-called “infinity series” a principle of musical motion to be applied to all kinds of scales (chromatic diatonic et cetera). It is characteristic that that Nørgård in the 1970s chose to cultivate diatonic infinity series already evident in the mythological opera “Gilgamesh” (1971-72). Thus the Symphony No. 3 begun directly after the opera combines the infinity series major and minor scales the partial series of natural harmonics and “sub-harmonics” (Nørgårds terminology) with rhythmic patterns based on the Golden Section (the Golden Mean) in a nexus of synchronous yet disparate elements which serve the composers vision of musical coherence.. The works which followed the symphony – the operas “Siddharta” (1975-79) and “The Divine Circus” (1981-82) and Symphony No. 4 (1981) – usher a new

“Eine kleine Nachtmusik” “... written with ease, but skillfully refined” “Eine kleine NachtMusick” is how Mozart entered the Serenade in G major in his personal catalogue of works on 10 August 1787. It was written without any known incentive or commission during the time that Mozart was composing “Don Giovanni”, a time when he was celebrating his greatest success as an opera composer. The work is one of the jewels of Mozart’s output, combining bright radiance and a natural simplicity with brilliant refinement. Similarly, the autograph manuscript of this perfect masterpiece is captivating because of its balanced clarity and beautiful handwriting. The manuscript was inaccessible to the public for almost half a century, but now Bärenreiter has received exclusive permission to produce a new facsimile of Mozart’s original. The edition reproduces the facsimile pages as individual sheets and leaves, reflecting the way the original copy has survived. These pages – in high-quality colour printing, each trimmed individually – are presented in a handsome box. This is accompanied by a booklet with an introductory text by Wolfgang Rehm including information on the genesis of the composition and the various aspects of the autograph manuscript. “The fact that it’s all over town does not alter anything in the quality of this occasional piece written with ease but skillfully refined.” (Wolfgang Hildesheimer) BÄRENREITER FACSIMILE The seal is used exclusively for facsimile editions published by Bärenreiter which meet the highest demands in both scholarly and technical terms. The distinguishing features include: - a facsimile in high-quality colour printing - scholarly commentary •Facsimile of the autograph score KV 525 •Introduction: •I. 1787: The work. Its background, genesis, significance and impact •II. The Autograph. Its clear, its twisted paths •Notes and References •Einführung: •I. 1787: Das Werk. Sein Umfeld, seine Entstehung, Bedeutung und Wirkung •II. Das Autograph. Seine eindeutigen, seine verschlungenen Pfade •Anmerkungen •Watermark No. 55 •Facsimile of the autograph fragment KV 525a Edition no.: BVK 2282 ISBN: 9783761822821 Volume / Series: Documenta musicologica II/46 / Bärenreiter Facsimile Editor: Rehm, Wolfgang Language(s) of work: German, English Product format: Facsimile Binding: in a case Pages / Format: 38 S. - 25,4 x 34,0 cm

Full Score-Eugene Onegin the most popular of Tchaikovsky's operas is widely considered a theatrical masterpiece. Adapted from a novel in verse form by Aleksandr Pushkin it is the tale of a jaded Russian aristocrat who scorns the love of Tatyana an attractive young girl of the provincial petty nobility. After years of aimless wandering Onegin returns to St. Petersburg to find Tatyana much changed and married to a prince. Onegin falls in love but this time she rejects him in favour of marital fidelity. Full lyrics in Russian.

Performer Level (correlates with Book 1 p. 34) Based on She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain this version is geared for that first concert experience.

This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 2nd May 2000 at the Barbican Centre London conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies. Duration c.23 minutes. Peter Maxwell Davies: The hornwriting is extremely virtuoso throughout not least in exploring the full range of the horn from the deepest notes in the bass normally exclusive to an orchestral fourth horn player to the highest most exposed sostenuto of afirst horn soloist presenting here challenges of embouchure and sheer stamina I should think fairly unprecedented.Solo part and piano reduction on sale (CH61758) Conductor's score and orchestral parts available for hire.