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: M7.AST-6173

ISBN 9790203800002. UPC: 841886033597.

The work Selbstbildnis [Self Portrait] was composed in 1989 at the suggestion of the viola player Gunter Pretzel who was in search of compositions reflecting other pieces of music. The Prelude from Bach's first Suite for violoncello solo should be included in my composition. As a starting point, I chose a theme from my opera Sturmnacht [Stormy Night], thus combining two very significant personal things: the story of my first full-length opera and my love of Johann Sebastian Bach whose music I, as son of a church musician, grew up with. Back then, his portrait hung above my piano. Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz.

SKU: AP.36-52703029

ISBN 9781682962411. UPC: 746241228789. English.

Volume 3 explores major and minor keys up to 2 flats, violin 1 will play to 3rd position and the cello part also has minimal shifting. The nine tunes are very accessible rhythmically and these are quite appropriate for an accomplished middle school group. Contents: Linstead Market, I Love My Love, Still, Still, Still, Danny Boy, Down By the Salley Gardens, Jack Was Every Bit a Sailor, Bourree (Stoltzer), and Minuet and Gigue (Handel).

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: FH.VA1

ISBN 978-1-55440-563-3.

This groundbreaking series for viola offers a sound and progressive collection of Repertoire, Recordings, Etudes, Technique, and Orchestral Excerpts for the aspiring virtuoso. Representing all major style periods and a variety of genres, Viola Series, 2013 Edition offers all the music and tools needed to support a comprehensive course of study from the beginner to advanced levels. A rich and varied selection of music in each of these nine progressive volumes of repertoire appeals to violists of all ages. From the Preparatory Level through Level 8, students will be exposed to quality selections originally written for viola, fun arrangements of traditional fiddle and folk tunes, as well as contemporary pieces by notable composers such as Violet Archer, Carey Cheney, and Fritz Kriesler.
Baroque and Classical Repertoire:
Minuetto and Trio - Albrechtsberger, Johann Georg arr. Paul Jenkins
Vittoria, mio core! (Win My Heart!) - Carissimi, Giacomo arr. Christine Donkin
Tambourin - Rameau, Jean-Philippe arr. Christine Donkin
Hornpipe a l'inglese - Galliard, John Ernest arr. Christine Donkin
Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126 - Bach, Johann Sebastian arr. Kathleen Wood
If Love's a Sweet Passion, from The Fairy Queen - Purcell, Henry arr. Kathleen Wood
German Dance - Haydn, Franz Joseph arr. Jason Noble
Traditional and 19th-century Repertoire:
Linstead Market - Jamaican folk song arr. Harold Birston
Nocturne - Alard, Jean-Delphin
Big Foot Lou - Gearen, Joseph arr. Forrest Kinney
Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) - Japanese folk song arr. Joanne Martin
She's Like the Swallow - Canadian folk song arr. Forrest Kinney
Nouvelle agreable! (Good News!) - 18th-century French carol arr. Christine Donkin
20th-century Repertoire:
The Underworld of Worms and Other Crawlies - Wilkinson, Marguerite and Philip Bass
Dill Pickles - Johnson, Charles L. arr. Zav RT and Christine Donkin
Budapesto - Cheney, Carey
Full Steam Ahead - Jones, Kenneth
The Puppet Show, op. 5, no. 1 - Trott, Josephine transc. Barbara Barber
The Caissons Go Rolling Along - Gruber, Edmund L. arr. Forrest Kinney
Casting the Nets - Jones, Kenneth.

SKU: BR.EB-9270

ISBN 9790004185704. 9 x 12 inches.

I fell in love with the remarkable singing of the Tenores di Bitti on hearing their recordings as a student. Their uniquely intense vocal timbre, their harmony, which seemed pure and rough at once, and the sense that this music was, at root, not so much about performance as simply being together in the world, in a community of spirit. At the time, I had no intention of using this music to my own creative ends, but now, here we are: Sardinian Songbook is the second in a cycle of works for the Ligeti Quartet, all based on transcriptions of music from different throat-singing traditions. Like string quartets, the tenores usually sing in groups of four voices, but being free from instruments they stand very close together enabling the resonances of their voices to blend and interact in a special way. The quartet, of course, can only sit so close before their bows clash, so I have chosen instead to reflect this physical closeness inversely, by getting the players to stand increasingly far from one another as the piece progresses. In so doing, the initial state of sonic blend gives way to hocketing lines, opening up the sense of space.Christian Mason, 2018 The four movements may be played separately or as a collection. If played together the following order should be observed (see table of contents).

World premiere: Sheffield/UK, Firth Hall, April 14, 2018, Commissioned by Ligeti Quartet.