SKU: HL.50602321
UPC: 840126906653.
Solohouse is an experimental architectural project by the American materialist visionary Lebbeus Woods. The project consists of architectural drawings and models of a house for one person. The work for solo cello explores the potential for 1/4 tone writing, attempting to treat micro-tonality as an extended resource of melodic composition, hence creating nuance in the treatment of linear writing. The idea of planting musical objects in musical space was something the composer wanted to explore, putting on an author's hat and investigating form on terms of dramaturgy, using repetition as a structural device. Inspired by the Solohouse, the composer thought of the cello as a space of observation from which the occupier reflects.
SKU: HL.248688
UPC: 888680729080. 9x12 inches. English.
“Gordon Wright was the friend of a lifetime. For thirty years Gordon and I shared our two greatest passions: music and Alaska. Gordon was my musical collaborator, my next-door neighbor, my fellow environmentalist and my camping buddy. These miniatures are musical sketches of three moments and places in our friendship. Like Alaska, Gordon was larger than life. He always lived his own way. And he died just as he would have wanted. We found him lying on the deck of his cabin in the Chugach Mountains, curled up against his favorite birch tree, looking across the waters of Turnagain Arm toward the Resurrection Valley and the tiny settlement of Hope.” - John Luther AdamsThis music contains no normal stopped tones. All the sounds are produced as natural harmonics or on open strings. There are no harmonics higher than the sixth. So these sounds should be clear and resonant. Even so, balancing the harmonics with the open strings requires careful attention.The durations of the individual pieces are given at the end of each.The total duration of the set is about ten minutes.
SKU: HL.14017469
UPC: 884088812041. 8.5x11.0x0.419 inches.
Composer's Note When I considered the ensemble of eight cellos, I first thought of matt and dark textures. I also wanted to go back to some ideas on symmetry. While I was pondering all that, I saw snow flakes falling from the dark sky of the Finnish autumn. Focusing on the snow, the idea of writing variations on it and its various forms became clearer in my mind.Nuages de neige is a uniform and linear texture in which I realise my first impressions of that ensemble. The two Etoiles de neige are based on the idea of symmetry and repetition: the first one develops up to a certain point where it doubles back as in a mirror image, the second one consists of eight sections in which the harmonic structure is repeated, as well as a linear gesture that becomes ever more present. Aguilles de glace focuses on different pizzicati and superimposed ostinati. With Fleurs de neige I sought to recall the texture of those harmonic trills at the end of the first section, although more airy and diversified here. Kaija Saariaho.
SKU: BA.BA11043
ISBN 9790006543229. 33.5 x 25.5 cm inches.
Manfred Trojahn on the origin and title of his impressive virtuoso solo work:Admittedly I do not know if he had seagulls, but since Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, he will not have gone through life without at least the impression of the cry of seagulls. Nor do I know if seagulls played any part in his life in Rome. I myself was astonished when, one or two years ago in the Villa Massimo, I was, not exactly annoyed but disturbed by the strong rhythmical cry of seagulls. I was just about to write a bassoon solo when the seagulls started. Then the idea came to me that precisely this sequence of notes could serve as the basis of the work. And the sequence for the bassoon solo is, in turn, the basis of the piece for violoncello - this is how titles are born... Of course the violoncello meanders with virtuosic ease from the seagull motif to the 'elf-like' skittering brought to music by Mendelssohn and used time and again in his compositions, finally becoming a cabaletta. Now, cabalettas are not very representative of Mendelssohn, but as I was composing I definitely wanted to put a cabaletta in this passage. I am sure Mendelssohn and I will easily agree on this, especially since later justice is done to him in the rapid passages and, of course in the tonal cadenza at the very end, which is more indicative of his time than of mine ... isn't it?
