SKU: PR.16400272S
UPC: 680160588442. 8.5 x 11 inches.
My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change. I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla. Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional. II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts] This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture. This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream. III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts] The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this. Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1. String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.
SKU: PR.164002720
UPC: 680160573042. 8.5 x 11 inches.
SKU: PR.144404550
UPC: 680160030859.
After finishing a serious woodwind quintet in the fall of 2001 [Tela Lacerata], I found, in the ensuing months, that its cinders/ashes were still impregnating my eardrums. Therefore, when I set out to write the present string piece, I realized that the musical veins of the quartet, like related cousins, were sharing the same blood as the earlier wind composition. The resultant Fifth Quartet evolved into two large, extended movements, each one containing seven parts that are played without pause. As the list of the various sub-sections clearly indicates, the formal structure of the movements appear to be identical: each with three main parts enveloped by interludes, plus an introduction and coda. However, the principal segments of the first (slow) movement gradually decrease in length, while those of the second (fast) movement increase. In addition, there is a goodly amount of sonic material stolen from the first movement which reappears -- stitched together in a new guise -- into the world of the second. for example, the bulk of Parts B and C of Movement II are lifted bodily, although elaborately modified, from their first appearances in the Introduction and Part A of the fist movement. This offers, I suppose at least a hint of a traditional recapitulation. As was true in the earlier woodwind piece -- both harmonically and melodically -- the embryonic growth of the musical fabric (primarily the tritone and perfect fifth) is omnipresent, almost obsessively, throughout the course of the whole work. These two intervals, not unlike plasticine, habitually transform themselves into the scales, chords, and melodic lines that pervade the texture of the quartet. Owing to the largely unrelieved dramatic flow, the shifting speed, and the often fervent intensity, the quartet places considerable demands on the dexterity, virtuosity, and stamina of the four performers. String Quartet No. 5 is approximately 22 minutes in duration and affectionately dedicated to my violinist wife Elizabeth, as a gift for our 47 years together. It was commissioned by the Corigliano String Quartet, New York, NY. -- Sydney Hodkinson.
SKU: PR.14440455S
UPC: 680160030873.
SKU: AP.36-52703028
ISBN 9781682962084. UPC: 746241248886. English.
The perfect variety album for holiday gigs or concerts. These arrangements include some fun quotes from classical tunes you will recognize and as usual, are evenly and lusciously scored by Bert Ligon to give everyone a shot at the tune. Contents: I'll Be Home for Christmas, Sleigh Ride, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.
These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.
SKU: BT.DHP-1175851-070
ISBN 9789043153829. English-German-French-Dutch.
Almost no other song in the history of pop has been covered in as many versions as the Beatles classic Yesterday from 1965. The original contains a string quartet accompaniment that provides the perfect backing for Paul McCartneyâ??s vocal and guitar parts. Nico Dezaire's arrangement recreates the unmistakable sound of the original whilst giving the impression that the entire song ideal was always meant to be played by string instruments. Bijna geen andere song in de geschiedenis van de pop is in zo veel verschillende versies gecoverd als Yesterday, de Beatles-klassieker uit 1965. Het origineel heeft een strijkkwartetbegeleiding die de perfecte backing vormt voor de zang en het gitaarspel van Paul McCartney. Vanuit dat gegeven is het maar een kleine stap naar een arrangement van de song voor alleen strijkkwartet. Deze bewerking van Nico Dezaire roept de oorspronkelijke sound op en geeft tegelijkertijd het idee dat niet alleen de begeleiding maar ook de melodie altijd al bedoeld was geweest om door strijkinstrumenten te worden gespeeld.Wohl kaum ein anderer Song der Popgeschichte wurde in so vielen verschiedenen Versionen bearbeitet wie der Beatles-Klassiker Yesterday aus dem Jahr 1965. Im Original bildet eine Streichquartett-Begleitung die perfekte klangliche Grundlage für Paul McCartneys Sologesang und sein Gitarrenspiel. Was also liegt näher, als den Evergreen gleich in Streichquartett-Besetzung aufzuführen? Nico Dezaires Bearbeitung lässt den Sound der Originalversion unverkennbar durchklingen und vermittelt doch den Eindruck, als sei nicht nur die Begleitung, sondern auch die Melodie selbst schon immer von Streichinstrumenten gespielt worden ... Yesterday, titre incontournables des Beatles composé en 1965, est lâ??une des chansons les plus reprises de lâ??histoire de la musique pop. Lâ??original comprend des parties pour quatuor cordes qui sont parfaites comme accompagnement pour la voix et la guitare de Paul McCartney. Câ??est donc une étape logique dâ??arranger ce titre pour quatuor cordes. La version de Nico Dezaire reproduit le son unique de lâ??original et pourrait même faire croire que même la ligne mélodique était composée pour les cordes lâ??origine !
SKU: HL.14043251
ISBN 9788759831380. English.
Juliana Hodkinson 's Is There Something You Can Tell Us for String Quartet. This ten minute piece was written for the Anima Quartet and was comissioned by SWR (South-West German Radio) for first performance at Theaterhaus Stuttgart on 7th June 2014 during the festival 'Lost & Found - Stimme. Text. Szene.'.The quartet's title and the titles of the individual movements are taken from Cynthia Troup's libretto 'Turbulence'. I Degrees of freedom II Hidden by an almost perfect balance III We are taught that it is out of reach IV For the real earth we do not know yet.
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