SKU: PR.110418390

ISBN 9781491134603. UPC: 680160685158.

Eric Ewazen’s THREE INVENTIONS were inspired by Bach’s Two-part Inventions, yet they sound thoroughly like Ewazen. Composed for harpsichord (with a piano adaptation following later), Ewazen’s inventions maintain a pure “one note per hand” texture until their final chord, with strong-but-free imitative counterpoint between the two voices. While Ewazen may be best known for his wind music, he is a pianist himself, and composers’ works for their own instrument are a direct insight into how they write for their own performances. The piano adaptation of THREE INVENTIONS is also available as a separate publication.
THREE INVENTIONS was written for my dear friend Maria Rojas, who premiered the work on a faculty recital at Juilliard. Maria is both a pianist and a harpsichordist, and I first met her when she gave a demonstration of the harpsichord for the students in my theory classes.I’ve always been captivated by Bach’s series of Two-Part and Three-Part Inventions. With the Two-Part Inventions, I’m amazed how Bach could create such wonderful intricacy and counterpoint with only two voices. I consequently modeled my inventions after the counterpoint of Bach, involving the traditional contrapuntal devices he used: imitation, development, harmonic and modal shifts, fragmentation, and sequence, essentially creating a dialog between two completely equal voices conversing with each other!Bach wrote 15 Two-Part Inventions (as well as 15 Three-Part Inventions, not to mention the 48 preludes and fugues in The Well-Tempered Clavier!), and that’s just the start of his voluminous repertoire for the keyboard! I was happy just to write three!!!Each of my inventions has a distinctive mood. The first is in a relaxed, yet cheerful C Major tonality (as a nod to Bach’s Invention No. 1 in C Major); the second is heartfelt and lyrical; and the third invention (involving a Gigue rhythm in the compound meter of 12/8) is energetic, and full of life and spontaneity. The third is primarily in a minor tonality, resulting in a feeling of drama, bringing the THREE INVENTIONS to an exciting finale.

SKU: HL.215263

8.25x11.5 inches.

I finished Psalm 23 Dominus regit me (The Lord Is My Shepherd), which inspired me musically, in 2013. This prayer of praise, being a radical act of trust in God, as Pope Benedict XVI once said, complements Credo in unum Deum. I was particularly moved by the personal tone of the Psalm author and by the landscape of life symbols that he painted. The psalmist, describing ancient nomads, compares God to a shepherd taking care of his flock. It is a hopeful metaphor of a journey in the future with kind and loving God as a guide - 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.' By interpreting the text with music, I wanted to avoid emotional directness, and to present the 'trust' in a contemplative way, as if it were a kind of a prayer - meditation. -Marcel Chyrzynski, translated by Monika Rokicka.

SKU: BR.OB-4497-27

ISBN 9790004312230. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Now they began to play. To my greatest surprise, it was a strong, full orchestra, outstandingly rehearsed, the tempi nearly all perfect, everything neat and well executed. My God, how I was moved to hear basically for the first time something of mine being played without me, and without anyone really paying much attention to me. And now this very piece, the Tannhauser Overture! I sat there plagued by an indescribable inner agitation - : unfortunately, I was being sharply observed by the public, which had taken note of this; yet I noticed nothing of all this, and burst into a river of beneficial tears. (...) At the close, the wild applause of the public that had no idea about what they had just witnessed The conductor and the entire orchestra turned towards me and cheered and applauded so much that I had to stand and thank them...(Richard Wagner from Strasbourg to his wife Minna on 15 January 1858).