Choral SATB choir, piano

SKU: PR.342402070

Composed by Steven Stucky. -. Ars Nova Chamber Singers, Boulder CO. Performance Score. With Standard notation. Composed 7-Feb. 8 pages. Duration 3 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #342-40207. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.342402070).

ISBN 9781491111253. UPC: 680160643226. Octavo inches. Text: Archibald R. Ammons. Archibald Ammons. Text by A.R. Ammons.

To benefit Chorus America, Stucky allowed himself to be auctioned off as a prize - the high bidder would receive a new work from the composer. After a few years and not really hearing anything, Stucky suddenly found himself up against a deadline. He reached back to a favorite poem by A.R. Ammons, Eyesight, which, he says, Won't let...his reader rest till the very last word...one of those sudden insights that leave us breathless..
This piece has an odd history. A few years ago, I agreed to be one of the“prizes” in an auction to benefit Chorus America: the highest bidder wouldget a new piece from me, while their money went to the organization. Thewinning bid came from a collection of several professional choruses anddirectors. But I was always a little vague about the details, and, hearingnothing more about it for a few years, forgot the whole thing.One day I received a message from Thomas Edward Morgan, directorof the Ars Nova Chamber Singers in Boulder: they had scheduled thepremiere of my new piece for a few weeks later, and could they have themusic, please? I needed a text, quickly, and (as usual) I was in a Los Angeleshotel room, not at home with my books. So I turned to the internet andsoon tracked down my favorite poet, A.R. Ammons (1926-2001).Once I stumbled on “Eyesight,” I remembered having loved the poemyears before. Archie must have loved it, too, because he included it bothin his Collected Poems 1951-1971 and in the later Selected Poems. It haseverything you want in an Archie Ammons poem: what Edward Hirschcalled his “offbeat, sideways, unpredictable radiance,” his “homespunglory.” It has one of his trademark conversations with a mountain (perhapsfrom his native North Carolina), it has the fluid motion from one line tothe next (enjambment, if you want to get technical) that won’t let him orhis reader rest till the very last word of the very last line, and it has in thatlast line one of those sudden insights that leave us breathless: “some thingsthat go are gone.”I miss Archie, but he’s not gone. I’m grateful for the wonderful poems heleft us, and I’m grateful that he was always generous and kind when I hadthe chutzpah to add my music to his.

(Jazz Play-Along Volume 163). By John Coltrane. For E�§ Instruments, C Instruments, B-flat Instruments, Bass Clef Instruments. Jazz Play Along. Softcover with CD. 96 pages. Published by Hal Leonard

Violin, Cello, Piano Duet

SKU: HL.14041576

Composed by Kevin Volans. Music Sales America. Book Only. Composed 2011. 64 pages. Chester Music #CH74437. Published by Chester Music (HL.14041576).

9.25x12.0x0.21 inches.

For Violin, Cello and Piano Duet.

In the past composers wrote 'pieces' of music. More important pieces were called'works'. Nowadays, however, most composers write minutes. Phone up anyprofessional composer and ask how'r'ya doing? and nine out of ten will say something like: 'Terrible/ awful ... I've only written 4 (or .....) minutes and I have to write ... minutes!'
We're all commissioned to write minutes - like so many feet of wallpaper. Imagine this:' We loved your Jupiter Symphony Mr. Mozart, but it's 3 minutes less than wecommissioned.'

Fortunately most composers cheat a bit, and most commissioners don't sit with stopwatches in their hands.1000bars is not 1000 bars long. I stopped when the piece was finished. However it did turn out to be exactly 4'33' in duration.

What the piece itself is about has nothing to do with its title or length.

 - Kevin Volans