Orchestra Piano

SKU: PR.11641861SP

Composed by William Kraft. Part. 35 pages. Duration 21 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #116-41861SP. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.11641861SP).

UPC: 680160685202.

What?! - my composer colleagues said - A concerto for the piano? It's a 19th century instrument! Admittedly we are in an age when originally created timbres and/or musico-technological formulations are often the modus operandi of a piece. Actually, this Concerto began about two years ago when, during one of my creative jogs, the sound of the uppermost register of the piano mingled with wind chimes penetrated my inner ear. The challenge and fascination of exploring and developing this idea into an orchestral situation determined that some day soon I would be writing a work for piano and orchestra. So it was a very happy coincidence when Mona Golabek phoned to tell me she would like discuss the Ford Foundation commission. After covering areas of aesthetics and compositional styles, we found that we had a good working rapport, and she asked if I would accept the commission. The answer was obvious. Then began the intensive thought process on the stylistic essence and organization of the work. Along with this went a renewed study of idiomatic writing for the piano, of the kind Stravinsky undertook with the violin when he began his Violin Concerto. By a stroke of great fortune, the day in February 1972 that I received official notice from the Ford Foundation of the commission, I also received a letter from the Guggenheim Foundation informing me I had been awarded my second fellowship. With the good graces of Zubin Mehta and Ernest Fleischmann, masters of my destiny as a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I was relieved of my orchestral duties during the Hollywood Bowl season. Thus I was able to go to Europe to work and to view the latest trends in music concentrating in London (the current musical melting pot and showcase par excellence), Oslo, Norway, for the Festival of Scandinavian Music called Nordic Days, and Warsaw, Poland, for its prestigious Autumn Festival. Over half the Concerto was completed in that summer and most of the rest during the 72-73 season with the final touches put on during a month as Resident Scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy. So much for the external and environmental influences, except perhaps to mention the birds of Sussex in the first movement, the bells of Arhus (Denmark) in the second movement and the bells of Bellagio at the end of the Concerto. Primary in the conception was the personality of Miss Golabek: she is a wonderfully vital and dynamic person and a real virtuoso. Therefore, the soloist in the Concerto is truly the protagonist; it is she (for once we can do away with the generic he) who unfolds the character and intent of the piece. The first section is constructed in the manner of a recitative - completely unmeasured - with letters and numbers by which the conductor signals the orchestra for its participation. This allows the soloist the freedom to interpret the patterns and control the flow and development of the music. The Concerto is actually in one continuous movement but with three large divisions of sufficiently contrasting character to be called movements in themselves. The first 'movement' is based on a few timbral elements: 1) a cluster of very low pitches which at the beginning are practically inaudibly depressed, and sustained silently by the sostenuto pedal, which causes sympathetic vibrating pitches to ring when strong notes are struck; 2) a single powerful note indicated by a black note-head with a line through it indicating the strongest possible sforzando; 3) short figures of various colors sometimes ominous, sometimes as splashes of light or as elements of transition; 4) trills and tremolos which are the actual controlling organic thread starting as single axial tremolos and gradually expanding to trills of increasingly larger and more powerful scope. The 'movement' begins in quiescent repose but unceasingly grows in energy and tension as the stretching of a string or rubber band. When it can no longer be restrained, it bursts into the next section. The second 'movement,' propelled by the released tension, is a brilliant virtuosic display, which begins with a long solo of wispy percussion, later joined in duet with the piano. Not to be ignored, the orchestra takes over shooting the material throughout all its sections like a small agile bird deftly maneuvering through nothing but air, while the piano counterposes moments of lyricism. The orchestra reaches a climax, thrusting us into the third 'movement' which begins with a cadenza-like section for the piano. This moves gently into an expressive section (expressive is not a negative term to me) in which duets are formed with various instruments. There are fleeting glimpses of remembrances past, as a fragmented recapitulation. One glimpse is hazily expressed by strings and percussion in a moment of simultaneous contrasting levels of activity, a technique of which I have been fond and have utilized in various fixed-free relationships, particularly in my Percussion Concerto, Contextures and Games: Collage No. 1. The second half of the third 'movement; is a large coda - akin to those in Beethoven - which brings about another display of virtuosity, this time gutsy and driving, raising the Concerto to a final climax, the soloist completing the fragmented recapitulation concept as well as the work with the single-note sforzando and low cluster from the very opening of the first movement.

Composed by Mary Ann Harbar (Willis). Perfect binding. Book and online audio. 142 pages. Published by Mel Bay Publications, Inc

Guitar Solo

SKU: IS.G6767EM

Composed by Silvio Leopold Weiss. Arranged by Ben Beuming. Plucked - Guitar. Metropolis Music Publishers #G6767EM. Published by Metropolis Music Publishers (IS.G6767EM).

ISBN 9790365067671.

This sonata (WeissSW No. 15, London) is one of a new series of eight sonatas by Silvius Leopold Weiss arranged for the first time for guitar and published by Metropolis Music. Sonata X comes from Weissâ??s middle â??productiveâ?? period, thought to have taken place between 1719 and 1725. The original tablature manuscript is in the British Library (London Ms. Add. 30387). The Sonata has six movements: Allemande, Courante, Paisane, Sarabande, Menuet, and it ends with a Gigue. There is a another copy of this Sonata in the Warszawa Biblioteka Uniwersytecka Poland (in its entirety), and a copy in the Sächsisches Landesbibliothek in Dresden (Suite XXVI), which contains three concordant movements: Allemande, Courante, and the Gigue. The Dresden manuscript displays some differences from the London manuscript. This Edition has taken those differences into account in certain details. Originally, the Sonata is written in B flat major, a key often used by Weiss as it is appropriate for playing the lute, but rather awkward with the guitar. For ease and effectiveness of playing, I have transposed the Sonata a minor third lower to G major. To create more concordance with the baroque tuning of the lute, the G string is lowered by a semitone to F sharp. I suggest using a capodastro to achieve the original pitch. Based on the present standard of A at 440 Hertz, the capo should be placed at the 3rd fret. However, during Weissâ??s lifetime, it was more common in many parts of Germany to use a standard of A at 415 Hertz -â? a semitone lower. So, to hear the pitch heard by Weiss and his contemporaries, the capo should then be positioned at the 2nd fret.

(Eastern European and Jewish). By Clark Kimberling. For Flute. Solos. Bill's Music Shelf. World Music. Beginning-Intermediate. Book. 52 pages

Concert Band - Grade 4

SKU: HL.44007692

Grade 4 - Score Only. Arranged by James Curnow. Curnow Music Concert Band. Christmas, Holiday. 24 pages. Published by Curnow Music (HL.44007692).

UPC: 884088310486. 9x12 inches.

What a great energetic way to open your Christmas concert and bring focus to the joyful sounds of the season! Themes from Spain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, England and France lead us on a delightful Christmas tour, and James Curnow's outstanding orchestration technique ensures that all the musicians have rewarding parts to play. You'll enjoy the melodic twists and turns as the consistent unifying tempo charges implacably toward the exciting finale. (Grade 4).

Composed by Diane Abdi Robertson. Secular, Memorial, Children, Holocaust. Octavo. Published by E.C. Schirmer Publishing (EC.8109).

Organ (Organ)

SKU: HL.14013003

Composed by Henryk Gorecki. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Composed 2002. 16 pages. Chester Music #CH60910. Published by Chester Music (HL.14013003).

ISBN 9780711934948. 11.75x8.25x0.06 inches.

Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki's career spans more than 40 years, dating from the post-Stalinist era of the mid 1950s and embracing a catalogue of more than 70 acknowledged works. It was not, however, until the phenomenal success of his third symphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs Op 36, which brought the composer world-wide renown through its numerous performances and recordings, that his music reached an extended audience outside his native Poland. Since then the directness and emotional impact of his music have established him as one of the major figures of contemporary music.

Chamber Music Bass Drum, Clarinet in Bb, Flute, Glockenspiel, Marimba (4 1/3 octaves), Percussion:, Piano, Vibraphone, Violin, Violoncello, solo tenor voice

SKU: PR.14140089S

For Tenor and Orchestra. Composed by Steven Stucky. This edition: Sextet Version. Text by Czeslaw Milosz. Premiered by Noah Stewart, tenor, and the Berkeley Symphony, Joana Carneiro, Music Director. Contemporary. Score. With Standard notation. Composed 2013. 39 pages. Duration 13 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #141-40089S. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.14140089S).

UPC: 680160625437. 9 x 12 inches. Text: Czeslaw Milosz. Text by Czeslaw Milosz.

When commissioned by UC Berkeley to compose a major work, Steven Stucky turned to the poetry of Lithuanian-Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. One of Stucky's favorite writers, Milosz fled to the US in 1960, and joined the Berkeley faculty in 1961. He was still at Berkeley, his poems still banned back home in Poland, when he won the Nobel Prize in 1980. Many of his poems are dark, and some deal with the Holocaust. The Stars and the Roses sets three lighter, more lyrical poems for tenor and orchestra: Happiness, The Sun, and The Bird Kingdom, texts positively aglow with joy and tenderness. Comissioned by Berkeley Symphony, Joana Carneiro, Music Director, with funding from Music Alive, a national residency program of the League of American Orchestras and Meet the Composer.

Composed by Georges Liferman, Jacques Mareuil, Jean Lenoble. Collection. Choir part. 72 pages. Published by Editions a Coeur Joie (CJ.A135300036).