SKU: HL.14008409

This is - so far - the earliest composition by Davies to be available for performance, and mighty interesting it is. Written while he was still a young student, it provides a candid glimpse of the thing that concerned him: how music could be both forward-moving in the classical Western sense (this is, after all, a piece for a wholly conventional medium) and repetitive in the manner of the Indian and medieval music in which he was interested. What results is a singular machine geared to an intermittent ostinato in the first violin. This movement for string quartet was first performed by the Arditti Quartet in May 1983, as part of the 40th Anniversary Gala concert of the Society for the Promotion of New Music at the Barbican Hall, London. Score (miniature). Duration c. 5mins.

SKU: MN.56-0095

UPC: 688670221057. English.

Originally conceived for the ensemble Enchanted Voices, these carols for SSA voices and organ (or piano) represent the composer’s desire for the tunes and texts to be heard in a new and fresh way. Largely contemplative, sometimes set against a gently-undulating foundation, these work well for concert and church use. Sometimes ethereal, sometimes other-worldly, the pieces succeed in bringing together the ancient purity of the medieval past and the here and now. Duration 3:32.

SKU: BT.GOB-000011-020

Rondeau of the Shepherds, so ran the official title of the famous Dutch Christmas carol ‘Midden in de winternacht’.
In 1948 wrote Dutch poet and writer Harry Prenen this text. The melody is known by the 17th/18th- century organ composers of suites Daquin, Balbastre and Dandrieu.
Rondeau of the Shepherds was subtitled Catalan Christmas Carol.
The song itself is because its origins in a Spanish (Catalan probably) Christmas song from the late Middle Ages, El Desembre congelat. The motives of this song (shepherds, flutes, drums) demonstrate knowledge of the Bible and give a picture of the late medieval Christmas experience. .
Perfect as an uptempo intermezzoin a church service.

‘Rondeau der herders’, zo luidde de officiële titel van het bekende kerstlied ‘Midden in de winternacht’.
In 1948 schreef dichter en schrijver Harry Prenen de tekst hiervan. De melodie is vooral bekend door de 17e/18e-eeuwse orgelsuitesvan de componisten Daquin, Balbastre en Dandrieu.
Het ‘Rondeau der Herders’ kreeg de ondertitel ‘Catalaans Kerstlied’.
Het lied zelf vindt namelijk zijn oorsprong in een Spaans (waarschijnlijk Catalaans) kerstlieduit de late middeleeuwen: ‘El Desembre congelat’. De motieven van dit lied (herders, fluiten, trommels, spontaan bloeiende natuur) getuigen van bijbelkennis en geven een beeld van de laatmiddeleeuwse kerstbeleving. .
Ideaalals uptempo intermezzo in een kerkdienst.

SKU: HL.14030979

Parts available: KP00248 The composer writes: The slow choral-like music which initiates Adieu was the result of an image or almost a dream that I had. Without being able to explain why, I imagined a procession of people, maybe medieval munks, wearing large gray mantles with Ku-Klux-Klan-like white cowls on their heads, something like a funeral procession. The title Adieu is partly a comment on this funeral procession, but also used because the piece is split up by three slow-ascending glissandi, a kind of farewell glissandi which removes the intervening music. The first absorbing glissando is soft and removes both the slow funeral choral and the agitating figures in the first half of the piece. The second glissando is given only to the cello and crawls out from the elegiac melodies in the middle part. The third and final glissando is intense and agitating, and prepares the way for the end of the piece. This end primarily deals with the relationship fast - slow. This relationship is turned topsy turvy: the music gets faster and faster until it is so fast that it suddenly becomes slow, so slow in fact that it is very quickly able to become extremely fast again.