SKU: SU.91770900

Instrumentation: String Quartet & recorded excerpts from 1946 Gordon Quartet recording of Beethoven String Quartet No. 15, Op. 32
Duration: 6'
Composed: 2015
Published by: Subito Music Publishing.

SKU: HL.48022745

UPC: 884088925222. 9.0x12.0x0.12 inches.

SKU: PR.114405050

UPC: 680160008377. 11 x 14 inches.

Although structurally it subdivides into five movements, the entire quartet emerges as one vast continuum. There are no formal breaks between movements. However, certain musical signposts can be discerned, associated with each of the movements' terminations and new beginnings. The opening movement, The Nostalgia of Clanging Bell Sonorities, begins floating on recurrent Bbs whose soft rhythmic flow slowly puts into motion strong undercurrents suggestive of the latent power of water... After several suggestions of tolling bells, the movement gradually fades into hushed tones of veiled and very distant sonorities. It uses a unique efffect, for the first time in a musical context, conveyed through the use of extra heavy practice mutes. The second movement, The Spill of Water , disengages itself from the first through its distinct contrast in tempo. Water moves fast, and when it splashes, it tends to run wildly. In this case, it happens to be bubbly water that gushes forth bodly... smashing across rocky shorlines. So, too, the music attempts to conjure such moods. At the end of this movement, a cello cadenza emerges, introducing an introspective type of melodicism. The third movement, The Poignancy of Memory, contains many silences as it tries to convey memory through fragmented remembrances much like often occur in our dream state. Progressing through several slowly building images, it gradually works itself into juxtaposition of musical images. Towards the movement's end, high harmonics are sounding in all four instruments while left hand pizzicato notes in the cello pluch the last remembrances of this central core. Almost imperceptibly, the viola assumes leadership as it dissolves into: The fourth movement, The Fluidity of Motion, which has mostly the viola, but also the cello, articulating lyrical statements against the sheets of sound conjured up by the two violins playing a flood of swirling figures, evokes a kind of static motion in spae. Here, the virtually imperceptible manner in which this hushed whisper continues incessantly, can suggest the potential fluidity with which movement may inch forward... Later into the fourth movement , two fairly extended solos by the second and then the first violins, lead to a kind of spontaneous dialogue among the four instrumentalists. Eventually, this musical conversation gets caught up in: The fifth movement's The Rush of Time, which opens with a hushed flurry of speed, precipitates the Finale. It generates, at first slowly, but then very swiftly, whole shifts of rhythmic fields that initially seem to conflict with one another. Ultimately, this use of 'psycho-rhythmics contributes to an on-rush of motion and time. Rhythmic changes are, at times, abruptly precipitated with but little or no preparation creating a kind of inevitability in forward thrust, while the movement rushes forward with a feeling of gradual and continuous acceleration. It gathers density as more and more notes are piled progressively upon successive beats. The attempt is to spark tension and ignite excitement by means of frenetic confrontations of dissimilitudes. Ultimately - with the help of time - these polarities centrifically spin out their own destinies with their accompanying fall-out and own inevitable resolutions.

SKU: HH.HH477-FSP

ISBN 9790708146889.

The term ‘freygish’ is typically found in klezmer music but derives from a much older cantorial mode, also known under several other titles including the Ahava Rabbah mode, the Mode of Supplication, and Altered Phrygian mode. It is used for the setting of ‘Ahava Rabbah’, or ‘abounding love’, the Ashkenazi prayer and blessing sung during the synagogue morning services. When performed, either in synagogue or in a klezmer setting, the mode can be developed into a variety of short phrases and melodic forms. Jeremy Arden has taken this beautiful irregular scale and filtered its melodic forms through my own musical sensibilities to create a dialogue between Jewish musical traditions and the western musical canon, expressed here through the rigorous crucible of the string quartet.

SKU: HL.14020990

ISBN 9780711923904. 5.5x7.5x0.283 inches.

If Davies's Cello Concerto has already evoked comparisons with Elgar's, that is perhaps an indication not only of its wealth of solo melody (there is hardly a page where the cello is not singing, or if not that, then dancing), and of its predominantly slow tempos, but also of its musical stature. This second Strathclyde concerto is a virtuoso piece for the entire ensemble, which is used almost throughout as a clutch of soloists rather than as a tutti block. The general tone is one of passionate but interior dialogue, especially in the opening Moderato and the slow movement; and though the finale is more extrovert, the work ends back in quietness and rumination.

SKU: HL.48022748

UPC: 888680019853. 9.0x12.0x0.094 inches.

Confluences is a three-movement work for clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano which was composed for the New York Continuum Ensemble in 2001. In the short first movement, a two-note motif wanders through the strings while the piano plays delicate figures in the descant. The second movement, Grazioso, is the most elaborate among the three, beginning with a fast arch-shaped theme played by the clarinet. The final movement, entitled 'peaceful, floating', contains a transparent dialogue between all members of the ensemble. Confluences was premiered at the Knitting Factory in New York City in 2001.