SKU: HL.1190017

UPC: 196288131830. 8.75x14.0x0.4 inches.

Concerto in One Movement for Organ and Chamber Orchestra (“Alaska”) was written for Madeline Schatz and the Arctic Chammber Orchestra. In one movement, the moods and tempos shift from a broad sustained beginning to a lively and rhythmic section, followed by a quiet, slower middle section. A brief organ cadenza introduces an extended, again lively and rhythmic final section. Although the organ is prevalent almost throughout, there are also important statements and colorations in the orchestra. One may recognize a few borrowed musical references: a rhythmic patter of the Inuit; the first phrase of the “Passion Chorale” from the 16th century composer Hans Leo Hassler; and the traditional Hebrew melody, “Yigdal.”.

SKU: BT.PMC3367

Each of the five connected movements in this choral cycle contains references to 'Light,' assembled from various sacred Latin texts. I composed Lux Aeterna in response to my mother's final illness and found great personal comfortand solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels - spiritual, artistic and intellectual. The work opens and closes with the beginning and ending of theRequiem Mass, with the central three movements drawn respectively from the Te Deum, O Nata Lux and Veni, Sancte Spiritus. The opening Introitus introduces several themes that recur later in the work and includes an extended canonon et lux perpetua. In Te, Domine, Speravi contains, among other musical elements, the cantus firmus Herzliebster Jesu (from the Nuremburg Songbook, 1677) and a lengthy inverted canon on fiat misericordia. O Nata Lux and Veni,Sancte Spiritus are paired songs, the former an a cappella motet at the center of the work and the latter a spirited, jubilant canticle. A quiet setting of the Agnus Dei precedes the final Lux Aeterna, which reprises the openingsection of the Introitus and concludes with a joyful celebratory Alleluia. --Morten Lauridsen.

SKU: HL.49046414

ISBN 9781540090522. UPC: 842819103974.

The American musical patrons Mildred and Robert Wood Bliss were considering which distinguished composer to commission to create a work in celebration of their 30th wedding anniversary in 1938. The couple had made the acquaintance of Igor Stravinsky in April the preceding year at the premiere of his ballet Jeu de Cartes in New York and had subsequently invited the composer to their country home 'Dumbarton Oaks' in Washington D.C. to talk about a new composition. Stravinsky only just managed to complete the work in time for the anniversary celebrations: its date of completion was also the date of its first performance. For his classically styled three-movement work, he selected the title Concerto in E flat, adding the subtitle Dumbarton Oaks as a dedication. The structure of the work references the concerto grosso: it features a soloist ensemble which unites in the tutti sequences but also plays in concertino groups during the solo episodes. Broken chordal structures characterise the central movement whereas the outer movements are distinguished through their use of fugato. Dumbarton Oaks went on to become one of Stravinskys mostsuccessful works, performed widely and delighting Mildred Bliss so much that she immediately issued another commission, for the Symphony in C. Its composer's very public commitment to American cultural life helped pave the way for Stravinskys emigration to the USA in 1945. As early as 1952 Leif Thybo created an arrangement for organ which Stravinsky probably did not know at the time of his life.