SKU: PR.114422520

ISBN 9781491134788. UPC: 680160683833.

After decades as a renowned oboe virtuoso, Katherine Needleman was improvising at the piano during the quarantine summer of 2020 when her ideas congealed in a powerful way. Within a week she completed a 16-minute oboe sonata inspired by the world’s overlapping crises. This riveting three-movement sonata bears the title qua resurget ex favilla, drawn from the Dies Irae text referring to rising back from ashes. Needleman won the International Double Reed Society’s Inaugural Commissioning Competition by entering her own recording of this work, performing as both oboist and pianist from her living room. As a result, IDRS commissioned her to compose a new work for English horn and piano which was premiered at their 2021 Virtual Symposium and programmed for the live 2022 convention.
I’m not exactly sure how, in a life consumed by music, I never put anything on paper between the time I stopped at age 10 and the age of 42. I mean, I have some ideas why, but that could easily dissolve into a feminist manifesto or a condemnation of my musical education and the overwhelming culture of American oboe playing, the vehicle through which I’ve made a living my entire adult life. Rather than go there, I will just say this is the first piece I put on paper in my adult life.Six months into COVID-19 lockdown in the US, the world was feeling pretty weird. I had familiarized myself with the music notation program, Sibelius, for recent arranging projects. I had written some mockeries of A.M.R. Barret oboe etudes in response to an assignment I was given (and did appropriately first). When I descended into a dark chorale in the middle of the fourth mockery, I realized I needed a new vehicle. I wrote a short, ridiculous piece for my husband’s birthday, and then, the next night, when improvising at the piano, like I’ve done since I was seven years old, this piece came to me. However, this time, I sketched it out into Sibelius. Over the course of the next week, I found notating and picking permanent, official notes to enter into the computer challenging. But it was all done on paper in seven days, and I took another few for dynamics and articulations thinking they might be useful for someone else, if I would ever be lucky enough for someone else to play it.I don’t have much to say about the music of qua resurget ex favilla itself. It’s a personal statement couched in the feelings of that time. The US presidential election was looming large and ugly in my mind, well, that and the end of life as we knew it, but I also had some bizarre feeling that everything would be okay.

SKU: FG.55011-774-7

ISBN 9790550117747.

Tommi Hyytinen (DMus, Finnish horn player and pedagogue) writes about this collections:

I composed these 30 Etudes for Low Horn to be at the same time instructive and at the same time fun and interesting to play. The etudes consist similar technical challenges than a low horn player confronts in orchestra. The etudes also encompass many of the technical challenges that a horn player encounters in chamber music and in solo repertoire, especially since many of the touring soloists in the 18th and 19th centuries were Cor-Basse players. Some of these etudes are not the most serious in nature in the horn literature, but nevertheless they challenge and develop the playing technique in wide variety of ways. The ambitus of the etudes is very virtuosic, encompassing almost four octaves. Some of the etudes are more melodic and concentrate in lyrical phrasing, legato-playing, sound and intonation, others contain technically tricky passages, articulations and fingerings. Rhythmic accuracy and ‘finding the groove' is of utmost importance in all of the etudes. The etudes develop the sound and control of the low register of the horn and flexibility between the registers. These 30 Concert Etudes work as individual pieces or as a set of pieces. You can for example choose a set of etudes and perform them in a concert or matinée. I hope you have as much fun practising and playing these etudes as I had composing them..

SKU: HL.48182012

UPC: 888680905873. 9.0x12.0x0.048 inches.

“On the summits (Sur les cimes) by Eugène Bozza (1905-1991) is a very enjoyable piece for F Horn and Piano which lasts 7 minutes. Difficult to play, it requires the mastering of techniques such as the glissando, the lip trill and the mute. Also challenging because of its cadenza part, it was composed in one movement which features five sections. Eugène Bozza won different prizes at the Conservatoire de Paris such as the First Prizes for the Violin, conducting and composition, as well as the Grand Prix de Rome. He composed several operas, chamber works and ballets among others.”.

SKU: CY.CC2644

Fred Stride is one of Canada's finest arrangers in the jazz idiom with many great works in his repertoire. Fred has arranged a winner with a cute, jazzy version of Deck the Halls for Brass Quintet. This 4 minute work for advanced performers is in swing style and is fun and challenging to perform with all players getting a kick at the can. Fred mixes up the rhythms, adds jazz harmonies and what you have is a great show-stopper.

Bravo Fred!

SKU: ST.C525

ISBN 9790570815258.

The Ukrainian Suite for wind quintet dates from 1983 and is in three movements. In the opening Allegretto, there is a hint of minimalist techniques, where the unusual harmonic shifts will challenge the players to forget conventional cadences. Several parts share parallel rhythms in many places, while one part carries the melodic material. Similar principles can be seen at work in the Moderato con moto second movement, where persistent repeated notes accompany the melody. The third movement, also Moderato at the start, builds towards a final section where all five parts share very similar note patterns, and excitement is generated by the contrasting dynamics and the relentless drive of the rhythms. This quintet was originally published by Phylloscopus Publications in 2001 and set from the manuscript by C.M.M. Nex and F.H. Nex.

Flute, Oboe, Clarinet in B flat and A, Horn in F and Bassoon. Score and 5 Parts included.

Former Spartan Press Cat. No.: PP391.

SKU: M7.AHW-197

After retiring from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Carmelo Barranco dedicated himself to transcribing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach for horn. In this edition, he has compiled Bach's 15 Inventions into trios for horn. This music will be perfect for graduation recitals or other performances, or just as a way to challenge yourself and friends.