SKU: PR.16400222S

UPC: 680160037841.

This work follows my Quartet No. 1 by five years. In terms of style and aesthetic aim, however, it seems light years away. Where the first work, a 28-minute, four-movement piece, took aim at cosmic conflicts and heroic resolutions, the present work is intended as a kind of divertissment. Harbor Music lasts a mere eleven minutes, is cast in a single movement with six sections, and should leave both performers and listeners with a feeling of good humor and affection.   The title comes from my experience as a guest in the magnificent city of Sydney, Australia. One of its most attractive features is its unique system of ferry boats: the city is laid out around a large, multi-channeled harbor, with destinations more easily approached by water than by land. Consequently, inhabitants of Sydney get around on small, people-friendly boats that come and go from the central docks at Circular Quay. During a week's visit in 1991, I must have boarded these boats at least a dozen times, always bound for a new location - the resort town of Manley, or the Zoo at Taronga Park, or the shopping district at Darling Harbour.   In casting about for a form for my second string quartet, a kind of loose rondo came to mind. Each new destination would be approached from the same starting-out point (although there are subtle variations in the repeating theme; it's always in a new key, and the texture is never the same). The result, I hope, is a sense of constant new information presented with introductory frames of a more familiar nature.   The embarkation theme, which begins the piece, is a sort of bi-tonal fanfare in which the violins are in G major and the viola and cello are in B-flat major. It is bold, eager, and forward-looking. The first voyage maintains this bi-tonality, beginning as a 9/8 due for second violin and viola in a kind of rocking motion -much as a boat produces when reaching the deeper water in the harbor. A sweet, nostalgic theme emerges over this rocking accompaniment. This music is developed somewhat, then transforms quickly into a much faster and lighter episode, filled with rising and falling scales (again, in differing keys). A scherzando interlude in short notes and changing meters provides contrast, and the episode ends with a reprise of the scales.   The second embarkation follows, this time in A major/C major. It leads quickly into a very warm and slow theme, in wide-leaping intervals for the viola. This section is interrupted twice by solo cadenzas for the cello, suggesting distant boat-horns in major thirds. The end of the episode becomes a transition, with boat-horns leading into the final appearance of the embarkation music, this time in trills and tremolos instead of sharply accented chords. The nostalgic theme of the first episode makes a final appearance, serving now as a coda. The rocking motion continues, in a lullaby fashion, leaving us drowsy and satisfied on our homeward journey.   Harbor Music was written for the Cavani Quartet, and is dedicated to Richard J. Bogomolny. Commissioned by his employees at First National Supermarkets as a gift, it represents a thank you from many of the people (including this composer) who have benefitted from his vision and generosity. An ardent advocate of chamber music (and a cellist himself), Mr. Bogomolny has for many years been Chairman of the Board of Chamber Music America. -- Dan Welcher.

SKU: GH.GE-11464

ISBN 979-0-070-11464-6. A4 inches.

Work note by the composer:

When I received the news of this commission, I had no idea what it would lead to. Writing for guitar solo is not the same as composing for orchestra where you have forty voices where you can easily mask an entire section. Here you are very naked to the bone.
The starting point for this work was from J.S. Bach's Chaconne in D-minor that Johannes had performed in concert, originally written for violin but there is a version transcribed for guitar and piano made by Ferruccio Busoni. When I went to Cortona (in Tuscany, Italy) completed the southern mentality of this work.
Arpalineais actually a merged word in Italian language. Arpa means harp, however in a musical context it's more or less resembled with the word arpeggio, which means broken chords. Lineameans line.

The work is divided in three parts.
I. Arpeggio: It starts with an opening chaconne-like sequence and is marked with a certain depth in which the chords starts to separate from the organum note in the bass and it culminates into a section called with rhythmical focus. These sections alternates, variates which each other.
The middle section has a playful and childish atmosphere where the guitarist knocks on the body of the guitar resembling a Spanish folk instrument cajon. This is leading to a section which tends more to a very aggressive fusion-like riff that loses control and reaches its climax at the end.

II. Linea: The static rhytmical pulse is now disintegrated and it forms more or less sort of a free, improvisational state in a rubatolike tempo. The character is described as a very hot day with temperatures rising above 37! C (or 100! F) where you can hardly do anything just sitting dozed off and pespiring because of the extreme heat watching a huge fog coming up in the evening that spreads around the Tuscan atmosphere.

III. Finale: It starts off with fast one-note ostinati then more and more notes pop up like a gradual rain storm with thunder strikes! And eventually it leads to that is a large flood through the streets of an medieval Southern town. The work ends with a short circuit slapped strings along with extremely fast tremolos that reaches higher and louder as possible!

Benjamin Staern

SKU: KN.35675

UPC: 822795356755.

Based on the mythical Forest of Mirkwood from the Lord Of The Rings series. Gandolf the wizard instructed the elves to take the pathway through Mirkwood Forest for safe passage through the forest. This piece includes opportunities to work on dynamic contrasts, tremolos, and C naturals. Duration 3:15.

SKU: FG.55011-573-6

ISBN 9790550115736.

Kalevi Aho's (b. 1949) Clarinet concerto (2005) has five movements played without pause. The beginning Tempestoso is dramatic and powerful, but there is also a beautiful, slow middle section. The second movement consists of a virtuosic solo cadenza, which is dominated by mysterious tremolos on the clarinet.The cadenza leads to Vivace, con brio, which is the central climax of the concerto and the most virtuosic movement both for the orchestra and the soloist. Then follows the slow, melancholic and lyrical fourth movement Adagio molto. The Epilogue is slow, too; the atmosphere of the last movement is unreal, mysterious. The solo part at the end consists largely of broken, multiphonic clarinet sounds before the concerto fades out into a silence. The orchestral study score (ISMN 9790550096332) is available for sale and the orchestral material for hire.

SKU: AP.47456S

ISBN 9781470658076. UPC: 038081547909. English.

Perfect for young orchestras, this Halloween bass-tacular features the entire bass section playing walking bass lines. The piece is in 1st position for violins, violas, and cellos, and everyone gets to play exciting tremolos. (Correlates with Sound Innovations for String Orchestra, Book 1, level 5). This title is available in MakeMusic Cloud.

SKU: FJ.ST6401S

English.

The hand truly is quicker than the eye in this whimsical piece for developing strings! Using mostly stepwise motion, it is a wonderful study in legato and staccato styles. Written tremolos can be played at the director's discretion while optional, carefully scored percussion parts will certainly add to the intrigue. Pure magic!

SKU: UT.CH-321

ISBN 9790215326293. 9 x 12 inches.

Dediche is a series of short miniature pieces for solo guitar written in 1991 by Chiara Benati, an authoritative exponent of what can be called the School of Bologna, and who has devoted many pages of her catalogue to the guitar (Chiara won a first prize in 1986 at the Competition for Guitar Composition organized by the historic magazine Il Fronimo).
From the point of view of the guitar idiom, it is striking how the compositional research of Chiara Benati (who does not play the guitar) has penetrated deeply into the nature of the instrument. In my job of adding the fingering to the pieces, I started from the precise indications concerning the strings already provided by the Composer, who meticulously imagined the instrumental result created by the play of resonances and the consequent precise distribution of the parts on different strings (let us think of the tremolos superimposed on different strings in the second Dedica and the counterpoint in three parts each written on its own musical stave), with a skilful use of glissandos and other instrumental effects.
From the musical point of view, a similar meticulousness in writing is evident, shown, for example, by indicating the temporal separation between the figures by means of their spatial distance indicated in the score.
The result is an instrumentally and musically rigorous writing which also helps the performer by appealing to his ability to empathize, following the indications written in the score and in the key, with the expressive atmosphere of the work, and through that specific aspect of controlled performance flexibility and sound sensitivity necessary to render it properly.
These delicate miniatures, suffused with mystery and melancholy, and so masterfully written for the guitar, are in my opinion an important addition to the contemporary repertoire of the instrument.
(Piero Bonaguri).

SKU: HL.123825

ISBN 9781480366107. UPC: 884088962371. 9x12 inches.

200 stompbox reviews from the pages of Guitar World magazine! The ultimate buyer's guide for fans of distortion pedals, wah pedals, tuners, overdrive pedals, switching systems, flangers, fuzz pedals, tremolos and more! This awesome collection features the Electro-Harmonix English Muffin • Dunlop Cry Baby SW-95 Slash wah • DigiTech Scott Ian Black-13 Artist Series pedal • Coffin Case Bat Fuzz Pedal • Way Huge Aqua Puss MkII analog delay pedal • MXR Super Badass Distortion • and many more!

SKU: KN.35675S

UPC: 822795356755.

Based on the mythical Forest of Mirkwood from the Lord Of The Rings series. Gandolf the wizard instructed the elves to take the pathway through Mirkwood Forest for safe passage through the forest. This piece includes opportunities to work on dynamic contrasts, tremolos, and C naturals. Duration 3:15.