SKU: HL.49018099

ISBN 9790001158428. UPC: 884088567347. 8.25x11.75x0.457 inches. Latin - German.

On letting go(Concerning the selection of the texts) In the selection of the texts, I have allowed myself to be motivated and inspired by the concept of 'letting go'. This appears to me to be one of the essential aspects of dying, but also of life itself. We humans cling far too strongly to successful achievements, whether they have to do with material or ideal values, or relationships of all kinds. We cannot and do not want to let go, almost as if our life depended on it. As we will have to practise the art of letting go at the latest during our hour of death, perhaps we could already make a start on this while we are still alive. Tagore describes this farewell with very simple but strikingly vivid imagery: 'I will return the key of my door'. I have set this text for tenor solo. Here I imagine, and have correspondingly noted in a certain passage of the score, that the protagonist finds himself as though 'in an ocean' of voices in which he is however not drowning, but immersing himself in complete relaxation. The phenomenon of letting go is described even more simply and tersely in Psalm 90, verse 12: 'So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom'. This cannot be expressed more plainly.I have begun the requiem with a solo boy's voice singing the beginning of this psalm on a single note, the note A. This in effect says it all. The work comes full circle at the culmination with a repeat of the psalm which subsequently leads into a resplendent 'lux aeterna'. The intermediate texts of the Requiem which highlight the phenomenon of letting go in the widest spectrum of colours originate on the one hand from the Latin liturgy of the Messa da Requiem (In Paradisum, Libera me, Requiem aeternam, Mors stupebit) and on the other hand from poems by Joseph von Eichendorff, Hermann Hesse, Rabindranath Tagore and Rainer Maria Rilke.All texts have a distinctive positive element in common and view death as being an organic process within the great system of the universe, for example when Hermann Hesse writes: 'Entreiss dich, Seele, nun der Zeit, entreiss dich deinen Sorgen und mache dich zum Flug bereit in den ersehnten Morgen' ['Tear yourself way , o soul, from time, tear yourself away from your sorrows and prepare yourself to fly away into the long-awaited morning'] and later: 'Und die Seele unbewacht will in freien Flugen schweben, um im Zauberkreis der Nacht tief und tausendfach zu leben' ['And the unfettered soul strives to soar in free flight to live in the magic sphere of the night, deep and thousandfold']. Or Joseph von Eichendorff whose text evokes a distant song in his lines: 'Und meine Seele spannte weit ihre Flugel aus. Flog durch die stillen Lande, als floge sie nach Haus' ['And my soul spread its wings wide. Flew through the still country as if homeward bound.']Here a strong romantically tinged occidental resonance can be detected which is however also accompanied by a universal spirit going far beyond all cultures and religions. In the beginning was the sound Long before any sort of word or meaningful phrase was uttered by vocal chords, sounds, vibrations and tones already existed. This brings us back to the music. Both during my years of study and at subsequent periods, I had been an active participant in the world of contemporary music, both as percussionist and also as conductor and composer. My early scores had a somewhat adventurous appearance, filled with an abundance of small black dots: no rhythm could be too complicated, no register too extreme and no harmony too dissonant. I devoted myself intensely to the handling of different parameters which in serial music coexist in total equality: I also studied aleatory principles and so-called minimal music.I subsequently emigrated and took up residence in Spain from where I embarked on numerous travels over the years to India, Africa and South America. I spent repeated periods during this time as a resident in non-European countries. This meant that the currents of contemporary music swept past me vaguely and at a great distance. What I instead absorbed during this period were other completely new cultures in which I attempted to immerse myself as intensively as possible.I learned foreign languages and came into contact with musicians of all classes and styles who had a different cultural heritage than my own: I was intoxicated with the diversity of artistic potential.Nevertheless, the further I distanced myself from my own Western musical heritage, the more this returned insistently in my consciousness.The scene can be imagined of sitting somewhere in the middle of the Brazilian jungle surrounded by the wailing of Indians and out of the blue being provided with the opportunity to hear Beethoven's late string quartets: this can be a heart-wrenching experience, akin to an identity crisis. This type of experience can also be described as cathartic. Whatever the circumstances, my 'renewed' occupation with the 'old' country would not permit me to return to the point at which I as an audacious young student had maltreated the musical parameters of so-called contemporary music. A completely different approach would be necessary: an extremely careful approach, inching my way gradually back into the Western world: an approach which would welcome tradition back into the fold, attempt to unfurl the petals and gently infuse this tradition with a breath of contemporary life.Although I am aware that I will not unleash a revolution or scandal with this approach, I am nevertheless confident as, with the musical vocabulary of this Requiem, I am travelling in an orbit in which no ballast or complex structures will be transported or intimated: on the contrary, I have attempted to form the message of the texts in music with the naivety of a 'homecomer'. Harald WeissColonia de San PedroMarch 2009.

SKU: HL.44011762

UPC: 884088896591. 9x12 inches. English(US)/Deutsch/Francais/Nederlands.

The hymn Nun ruhen alle Walder (Now All Forests Rest), arranged by J.S. Bach (No. 6, So sei nun, Seele, deine, from Cantata BWV 13), is a guiding light throughout this four-movement composition. Pütz wrote this work as a musical outcry against the wilful, profit-driven destruction of our environment. When Bach used the word ruhen (to rest) over 350 years ago, it probably had a different nuance from the meaning it has today. At the beginning of the 21st century - the so-called age of progress - nun ruhen alle Walder should mean now all forests die . Massive industrialization and globalization, coupled with pure greed, corruption, political scandals, an ever-wideninggap between the rich and poor, and other such senseless human actions, are pushing our blue planet closer and closer to the point of no return. This work is not intended to be a ranting accusation. It should remind us of the beauty and harmony that can exist all around us in nature, if we take care of it. Pütz hopes that this will, one day, help put a greater emphasis on humanity's survival, and coexistence with nature rather than the exploitation described earlier. All four texts were created by Australian poet Graeme King, whose works were discovered by Pütz, by chance on the internet. Pütz was especially captivated by King's clarity, and intrigued by the possibilities of adapting and melding the strong rhythmical structure of King's writing with his own musical language. The four movements are as follows: 1. Tears of Nature 2. Grrrevolution 3. Stand up! 4. Tomorrow The world premiere of Four Earth Songs took place on 7 July 2009 at the 14th WASBE-Conference in Cincinnati (USA). This work is dedicated in friendship to Jouke Hoekstra, conductor, and the Frysk Fanfare Orkest (the Frisian Fanfare-Orchestra).

De hymne Nun ruhen alle Walder, gearrangeerd door J.S. Bach (nr. 6, So sei nun, Seele, deine, uit cantate BWV 13), is de leidraad in deze vierdelige compositie. Putz schreef het werk als een muzikaal protest tegen de moedwillige,op winstbejag gebaseerde vernietiging van ons milieu. Toen Bach het woord 'ruhen' (rusten) meer dan 350 jaar geleden gebruikte, lag er waarschijnlijk een andere nuance in dan tegenwoordig. Aan het begin van de 21e eeuw - dezogenaamde eeuw van de vooruitgang - zou 'nun ruhen alle Walder' zelfs kunnen betekenen: 'nu sterven alle bossen'. De grootschalige industrialisatie en globalisering, in combinatie met pure hebzucht, corruptie, politieke schandalen,een groeiende kloof tussen arm en rijk, en andere dwaze menselijke verrichtingen, brengen onze blauwe planeet steeds verder in de problemen, tot er misschien geen weg terug meer is. Dit werk is niet bedoeld als een beschuldigendetirade. Het moet ons wijzen op de schoonheid en harmonie die in de natuur om ons heen kan bestaan, als we er goed voor zorgen. Putz hoopt dat er op een dag meer nadruk gelegd zal worden op het overleven van de mensheid invreedzame co-existentie met de natuur, zonder de eerdergenoemde uitbuiting. Alle vier de teksten zijn geschreven door de Australische dichter Graeme King, wiens werk Putz bij toeval tegenkwam op het internet. Hij werd getroffendoor Kings helderheid en raakte geintrigeerd door de mogelijkheid de sterke ritmische structuur van Kings teksten om te zetten in zijn eigen muzikale taal. De vier delen zijn de volgende: 1. Tears of Nature 2. Grrrevolution 3.Stand up! 4. Tomorrow De wereldpremiere van Four Earth Songs vond plaats op 7 juli 2009 tijdens de 14e WASBE Conference in Cincinnati (VS). Dit werk is in vriendschap opgedragen aan dirigent Jouke Hoekstra en zijn Fryskt Fanfare

Der Choral Nun ruhen alle Walder, hier in einer Bearbeitung von J.S. Bach (Nr. 6 So sei nun, Seele, deine aus der Kantate BWV 13), zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch diese viersatzige Komposition, die als musikalischer Aufschrei (Anfang!) gegen die mutwillige, profitgesteuerte Zerstorung unserer Umwelt gedacht ist. Sicher hatte das Wort ruhen vor über 350 Jahren, als der Liedtext entstand, eine andere Bedeutung als heute. Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts, im sogenannten Zeitalter des Fortschritts, müsste es leider wohl eher heissen: Nun sterben alle Walder... Massive Industrialisierung, Globalisierung, aber auch Profitgier, Korruption, politische Unfahigkeit,krasse Unterschiede zwischen arm und reich, und schlussendlich die Uneinsichtigkeit des einzelnen Menschen haben dazu geführt, dass der Blaue Planet heute kurz vor dem Kollaps steht. Dieses Werk soll jedoch nicht nur anklagen, es soll auch die verbliebenen Schonheiten unserer Natur aufzeigen, in der Hoffnung, dass es einmal gelingen wird, die Rettung der Natur und den Schutz der Umwelt über die oben genannten Interessen zu stellen. Alle vier Texte stammen aus der Feder des australischen Dichters Graeme King, dessen Werk der Komponist durch einen glücklichen Zufall im Internet entdeckte. Besonders inspirierend war die Direktheit von Graemes Aussagen, aber auch die kraftvolle Rhythmik seiner Verse mit den daraus resultierenden Moglichkeiten der musikalischen Umsetzung. Die vier Satze sind wie folgt überschrieben: 1. Tears of Nature 2. Grrrevolution 3. Stand up! 4. Tomorrow Die offizielle Uraufführung von Four Earth Songs fand am 7. Juli 2009 statt, anlasslich der 14. WASBE-Konferenz in Cincinnati (USA). Das Werk ist dem Dirigenten Jouke Hoekstra und dem Frysk Fanfare Orkest (Friesischen Fanfareorchester) in aller Freundschaft gewidmet.

Le cantique Nun ruhen alle Walder, dont la ligne melodique fut reprise par Jean-Sebastien Bach pour son choral So sein nun, Seele, deine (Choral ndeg6 - Cantate BWV 13), est le fil conducteur de cette oeuvre en quatre mouvements concue comme un cri contre la destruction volontaire de la nature pour le profit. Plus de trois siecles nous separent du temps de Bach. Si les mots sont restes les memes, leur sens primitif connait cependant quelques nuances. Ainsi, au XXIe siecle - considere comme le << siecle du progres >>, il conviendrait de traduire Nun ruhen alle Walder (les forets se reposent ) par Les forets se meurent. La mondialisation et l'industrialisation massiveassociees a l'avidite predatrice, a la corruption politique, aux actions humaines irrationnelles et au fosse grandissant entre riches et pauvres conduisent notre planete bleue a se rapprocher chaque jour un peu plus du point de non retour. Cette composition n'est pas une accusation acerbe, mais plutot une exhortation a prendre soin de cette beaute si harmonieuse que nous offre la nature. Et peut-etre, prendrons-nous enfin conscience de l'importance d'une situation de coexistence avec la nature, necessaire pour la survie de l'espece humaine, et non d'exploitation qui conduit a la destruction. Un jour, alors qu'il naviguait sur Internet, Marco Pütz decouvrit l'oeuvre du poete australien Graeme King. Fascine par la clarte de l'ecriture et le rythme des vers, Marco Pütz imagina les multiples possibilites d'adaptation et de mise en musique qu'offrent les poemes de King. Il choisit quatre poemes sur la nature pour creer son oeuvre Four Earth Songs (Quatre chants de la terre). 1. Tears of Nature (Les larmes de la Nature) 2. Grrrevolution 3. Stand up! (Levez-vous !) 4. Tomorrow (Demain) Four Earth Songs est dedie amicalement a l'Orchestre de Fanfare de Frise (Frysk Fanfare Orkest) et a son chef, Jouke Hoekstra. L'oeuvre a ete donnee en creation mondiale par l'orchestre dedicataire a l'occasion de la 14eme Convention de la WASBE a Cincinnati aux.

SKU: BR.DV-6081

ISBN 9790200460032. 9.5 x 12 inches.

Duration: full evening

Translation: German (W. Ebermann/M. Koerth), Engl. (D. Llyod-Jones), French (M. Delines)
Place and time: Partly on the estate, partly in Petersburg, in 20ies of the 19th Century

Characters: Larina, Owner of the Estate (mezzo-soprano) - Tatiana (soprano) and Olga (alto), her Daughters - Filipjewna, Wet Nurse (mezzo-soprano/alto) - Eugen Onegin (baritone) - Lenskij (tenor) - Prince Gremin (bass) - A Commander (bass) - Saretzkij (bass) - Triquet, a French Man (tenor) - Guillot, a Valet (silent part) - Country Folk, Ball Guests, Squire, Officers (chorus) - Waltz, mazurka, polonaise and Russian dance (Ballet )

There is an interesting parallel between the subject of the opera and Tchaikovsky's life during the year he wrote the work (1877): in each case, a letter provokes fateful developments in the lives of the protagonists. In the opera, Tatyana's love letter to Eugene sets off the tragedy, whereas in real life, the love letter of a pupil led the composer into a marriage, which lasted all of ... three months. Tchaikovsky took this doomed decision without love, solely because the circumstances want it and because I cannot act differently. Certain allusions made, for example, in a letter of January 1878 to Taneyev suggest that the composer's personal situation also flowed into the work: I did not want anything to do with the so-called 'grand opera.' I am looking for an intimate but powerful drama which is built on the conflict of circumstances which I myself have seen and experienced, a conflict which truly moves me. Partly for this reason the composer decided to call the work not an opera but lyrical scenes.Eugene Onegin, conceived by Tchaikovsky for limited resources and a small stage, is the most frequently performed Russian opera today along with Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, which represents a completely contrary aesthetic stance.

Tschaikowskys letzte Oper - auf ein Libretto seines Bruders Modest nach der Dramenvorlage des danischen Schriftstellers Henrik Hertz - lebt von den poetischen Momenten und den symbolbeladenen Charakterportrats der Hauptfiguren: Die junge blinde Jolanthe wird von ihrem Vater aus Sorge um ihren Makel und zum Schutz ihrer Jungfraulichkeit und vor den Widrigkeiten der Welt in einen paradiesischen Garten gesperrt. Er befielt zu ihrem Schutz sie um ihre Blindheit unwissend zu lassen. Ein Arzt warnt sehen werde sie nur konnen wenn sie es selbst wolle gleich welche Angste aus der vollstandigen Erkenntnis der Welt erwachsen. Als der junge Vaudemont in ihre Abgeschiedenheit einbricht und sich beide ineinander verlieben befreit er sie von ihrer Unwissenheit erklart was Farbe und Licht bedeuten. Erst die Liebe zu ihm macht sie sehend.

Die dunkle Welt der Jolanthe zeichnet Tschaikowsky zu Beginn musikalisch durch eine Introduktion ausschliesslich fur Blaser. Erst mit dem Eintritt in die unbekannte Welt der Liebe und des Sehens verwendet Tschaikowsky einen warmen Streicherklang. Gerade dadurch stiess die Oper wohl bei Zeitgenossen auf Verstorung. Tschaikowskys ,,Jolanthe nimmt in seinem Opernschaffen eine Sonderstellung ein: neben dem glucklichen Ende einer Apotheose des Lichts und der Liebe mit einem religios gepragten Schlusschoral ist es eines der wenigen Buhnenwerke Tschaikowskys ohne Bezug zur russischen Geschichte. Der ausgepragte Lyrismus des Werks verweist stattdessen auf Tschaikowskys Nahe zur franzosischen Kultur die im 19. Jahrhundert einen starken Einfluss auf Russland hatte. Die Oper wurde 1892 am Mariinsky-Theater in Sankt Petersburg als Auftragswerk zusammen mit seinem Ballett ,,Der Nussknacker uraufgefuhrt.

Neben der Produktion des Munchner Rundfunkorchesters wurde ,,Jolanthe szenisch erfolgreich bei den Festspielen Baden-Baden mit Anna Netrebko und Piotr Beczala als Liebespaar rehabilitiert. Ausserhalb Deutschlands lief die Opernraritat in Toulouse Tokyo San Sebastian und Monte Carlo. Zuletzt erneut die ,,Suddeutsche Zeitung: ,,Jolanthe ist eine Opernausgrabung die ,,wirklich zu Unrecht vergessen ist. Tchaikovsky's last opera - on a libretto by the composer's brother Modest based on the drama by the Danish author Henrik Hertz - derives its life-blood from its poetic moments and the symbol-laden portraits of the leading characters: the blind young Yolanta is kept prisoner in a paradisiacal garden by her father who fears for her purity and her virginity and seeks to protect her from the adversities of the world. To do so he orders everyone to keep her ignorant of the fact that she is blind. A doctor warns that she will only be able to see when she is ready to do so herself no matter what fears might result from a complete experience of the world. When the young Vaudemont breaks into her secluded world and the two fall in love he frees her from her ignorance and explains the significance of color and light. It is through her love for him that she is finally able to see. At the beginning of the work Tchaikovsky depicts Yolanta's dark world with an introduction scored exclusively for winds. It is not until her discovery of the unknown world of love and sight that Tchaikovsky uses a warm string sound. This is what many of the composer's contemporaries found disturbing about the opera.

Tchaikovsky's Yolanta occupies a special place in the composer's operatic oeuvre: for one it has a happy ending an apotheosis of light and love with a religiously stamped closing chorale; for another it is one of Tchaikovsky's few stage works without any reference to Russian history. Instead the work's pronounced lyricism points to the composer's closeness to French culture. which exerted a strong influence on Russia in the 19th century.

The opera was given its world premiere at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 1892. It had been commissioned along with the ballet The Nutcracker. Next to the production by the Munchner Rundfunkorchester Yolanta was also successfully rehabilitated in a recent staged production at the Baden-Baden Festival with Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala as the lovers. Outside of Germany the operatic rarity was performed in Toulouse Tokyo San Sebastian and Monte Carlo.

In closing another quote from the Suddeutsche Zeitung: 'Yolanta' is an operatic rediscovery of a work that was truly 'wrongly forgotten'.

SKU: PR.466000470

UPC: 680160099405. 11 x 17 inches.

This is the second incarnation of a work I first composed in 1994 for symphonic wind ensemble. The earlier version was intended to be the summation of three-part suite, each part being named for a different national park in the Western United States. This orchestral version, commissioned in 1999 by the Utah Symphony and dedicated to the memory of Aaron Copland, is more than a re-scoring of the earlier piece; it is a re-thinking of all its elements. Zion is a place with unrivaled natural grandeur, being a sort of huge box canyon in which the traveler is constantly overwhelmed by towering rock walls on every side of him -- but it is also a place with a human history, having been inhabited by several tribes of native Americans before the arrival of the Mormon settlers in the mid-19th century. By the time the Mormons reached Utah, they had been driven all the way from New York State through Ohio and, with tragic losses, through Missouri. They saw Utah in general as a place nobody wanted, but they were nonetheless determined to keep it to themselves. Although Zion Canyon was never a Mormon Stronghold, the people who reached it and claimed it (and gave it its present name) had been through extreme trials. It is the religious fervor of these persecuted people that I was able to draw upon in creating Zion as a piece of music. There are two quoted hymns in the work: Zion's Walls (which Aaron Copland adapted to his own purposes in both his Old American Songs and the opera The Tender Land) and Zion's Security, which I found in the same volume in which Copland found Zion's Walls -- that inexhaustible storehouse of 19th-century hymnody called The Sacred Harp. My work opens with a three-verse setting of Zion's Security, a stern tune in F-sharp minor which is full of resolve. (The words of this hymn are resolute and strong, rallying the faithful to be firm, and describing the city of our God they hope to establish). This melody alternates with a fanfare tune, whose origins will be revealed in later music, until the second half of the piece begins: a driving rhythmic ostinato based on a 3/4-4/4 alternating meter scheme. This pauses at its height to restate Zion's Security one more time, in a rather obscure setting surrounded by freely shifting patterns in the flutes, clarinets, and percussion -- until the sun warms the ground sufficiently for the second hymn to appear. Zion's Walls is set in 7/8, unlike Copland's 9/8-6/8 meters (the original is quite strange, and doesn't really fit any constant meter), and is introduced by a warm horn solo. The two hymns vie for attention from here to the end of the piece, with the glowingly optimistic Zion's Walls finally achieving prominence. The work ends with a sense of triumph.