SKU: EC.LMP046

These Four Dances from CLORINDA AGONISTES (Clorinda the warrior) are taken from a recently completed dramatic work; a hybrid opera & dance theatre work currently of the same title. The name Clorinda comes from Monteverdi’s opera Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda , whose libretto is from the epic poem by Tasso titled, Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Liberated). The dramatic work, which was commissioned by the London based Shobana Jeyasingh Dance company, the Sadler’s Wells Theatre and the Royal Philharmonic Society, was composed as a companion piece to Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento.

Contents:
I. Transitions
II. Pursuit
III. Shawq شوق (Yearning)
IV. Unity (We dance together)

SKU: BT.9781408114629

ISBN 9781408114629. English.

Now in a third edition, Abracadabra Cello has a fresh, contemporary new look and is the perfect book for pupil and teachers.

This title offers an identical selection of repertoire to the other booksin the Abracadabra Strings series, so they can be used in any combination for group or whole class lessons and mixed ensemble performances. Used alone, they remain ideal for individual tuition.

With tunes you know andwant to play, carefully graded in 20 learning steps, this new edition of the popular tutor also includes duets, trios and teacher's parts. Clear fingering and bowing diagrams and concise theory explanations help to teachthefundamentals of the instrument, and each new technical aspect is reinforced by several pieces using that particular technique.

Abracadabra Cello now also includes two CDs of performance and backing tracks, featuringselected orchestral backings.

SKU: HL.49018992

ISBN 9790001172417. UPC: 841886015265. 9.0x12.0x0.24 inches.

The pianist, composer, arranger and cabaret artist Peter Ludwig is an all-round talent from Bavaria. He writes film music, chansons, chamber music, piano music, and, above all, beautiful inspired tangos bridging the gap between South America and Europe. Together with the cellist Anja Lechner, he received the award of the German Phono Academy for his CD 'Tango mortale' in the 1980s. Since then, he has not been able to get the tango out of his mind, and today he performs as a pianist of the piano trio 'Tango a trois'. The tangos for violoncello and piano are a valuable addition to the cello repertoire and also perfect for concert performances.

SKU: HL.49047454

UPC: 842819101086. 9.0x12.0x0.358 inches.

My 3rd String Quartet is in six contrasted movements. Certain musical figures recur across the work, but there are few themes as such. The main emphasis is on contrast of mood, texture, harmony, pacing and timing. Unlike many of my works this quartet had no extra-musical inspiration, and in principle should have no subtitle. Certain features already present in my music became more prominent in this new work: modes (limited collections of pitches) have always helped me to focus musical character, but here a sense of key note for each mode became much more pronounced, as did the difference between modes for each section of the work. A sort of hybrid key-system emerged (even with equivalents of major and minor) which is not normal tonality, nor does it aim to imitate it. Unlike tonality this key-system includes noises, extended performance techniques and intervals outside Western tuning as available resources. What I hope it does is to focus the listening experience onto different musical areas, to encourage a sense of both modulation from one area to another and to give the music a sense of goal. No conscious knowledge of this is needed when listening: the music should communicate directly on its own. Here, then, is this collection of six musical colours, related and unrelated, different yet belonging together, variable yet in a set order. Hence the subtitle, chosen both for both its sound and its sense: 'hana no hanataba' meaning, in Japanese, 'bouquet of flowers'. A brief description: 1) Moderately fast. Short droplets of sounds gather increasing momentum. 2) Very fast. Canons and bells at different speeds. 3) Very slow - fast - very slow - very fast - very slow. The main slow movement and its main scherzo. An emphasis on non-tempered tunings and on inhaling and exhaling waves of sound. The slow sections feature florid melodic writing. In the exuberant scherzo competing duos and trios create imaginary folk music. 4) Extremely fast/extremely slow. Open strings and harmonics fuse into a single string instrument - like a sort of large resonating Medieval tromba marina. 5) Very fast. A variation on movement 2). Variation, Schoenberg told Cage, is just a sort of repetition 'with some things changed and others not.' 6) Slow - Very Fast - Fast - Slow. The opening calm harmonies and florid melodies evoke movement 3) in different music. The fast part features one overt theme: a fanfare-like call to attention which is subject to extensive development. There is much use of non-Western tuning. At its climax the music freezes into a frieze - a wall of sound standing in front of the audience with increasing obstinacy and certainty as the work grinds towards its cadence.

SKU: FG.55011-510-1

ISBN 9790550115101.

Matthew Whittall's preface to Bright Ferment (2019): I have a complicated history with the string quartet. Actually, it's not that complicated. I spent months writing a huge one in my early twenties and hastily withdrew it after a long delayed premiere, vowing never to write another. In a typical case of karmic retribution, my fear of the form would eventually be overcome by the unrefusable offer to write the compulsory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in my native Canada. The short duration requested, about nine minutes, also felt like a good way to wade gingerly back into the medium. The title was originally just a nice-sounding pair of words that surfaced in a brainstorming session with fellow composer Alex Freeman over an injudicious amount of fermented barley. When I looked it up later, I found that it was a phrase of older coinage, seemingly used more for poetic resonance than any fixed meaning. Ferment by itself denotes a state of confusion, change or lack of order. With bright, it takes on a more positive connotation with regard to society and creativity: a wild profusion of ideas barely checked by reason. (It may not actually mean that, but it describes this piece nicely, so let's go with it.) Fermentation in its trendy culinary usage is also hinted at via a recurrent percolating device of scattered pizzicati. As one may guess from the tone of this introduction, there is little attempt at gravity in Bright Ferment, the only means by which I felt I could sidestep the historical and expressive weight of the string quartet genre. Styles, gestures and moods are tossed around, cross-cut and abandoned in stream-of-consciousness fashion, connected by little except an intuitive sense of rightness in their juxtaposition. If the piece acquires depth in spite of me, it will only be because its disparate parts amplify and strengthen each other simply by being together - much like the ensemble itself. Bright Ferment was commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with additional funding from the Americas Society (New York), for the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Duration: ca. 9 minutes.