SKU: AP.36-52711050

ISBN 9781628762013. UPC: 679360706787. English.

The word "hymn" comes from the Greek "hymnos", meaning a festive song.  To hymnologists (people who study hymns), the HYMN is the poetry, the lyrics, which is then set to a HYMN TUNE.  Many wonderful hymn tunes have been used over the centuries with several completely different sets of words.  The name of a hymn tune seldom matches the name of its hymn, and most people refer to hymns by their poetic names rather than their tune names.  However, some hymn tunes are so powerful, so flexible and so rooted in the collective social consciousness that they transcend whatever poetry is put with them.  Several tunes in this set have been used for many poems, most of which are unfamilar.  But we know the melody instantly!  Written for two violins and piano, both a viola and cello part are include to substitue for the 2nd violin.  Hymns (tunes) include: 1. All Glory, Laud and Honor (St. Theodulph), 2. Crown Him With Many Crowns (Diademata), 3. Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (Austria), 4. I Love to Tell the Story (Hankey), 5. Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise (St. Denio), 6. O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing (Axnon), 7. O Worship the King (Lyons), 8. Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty (Lobe Den Herren).

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: HL.14036341

ISBN 9780711955080.

Commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the Chilingirian String Quartet. Quoting Wood: In my Second and Third Quartets I attempted sectional, agglutinative forms: in my Fourth I return to the conventional four movement form of my First Quartet of 1962. Both works build up (as in the 19th century symphony) to the Finale, thus making it the most substantial movement, which provides a climax to the work. The First Movement has, in both works, only the status of an Introduction. But there the consciously willed resemblances end. This Introduction follows the Second Quartet to a certain extent, in that it provides a sort of 'cauldron', from which elements to be used later can all be plucked. Its opening will reappear at various points throughout the work, most completely at a climatic point of the Finale (bar 110). Subsequent material will be more fully worked out in the second movement, a large Scherzo. The Introduction concludes with an unusually placed violin cadenza (itself a rare feature in a string quartet, the idea lifted from Elliott Carter's First Quartet) of which the opening is to reappear halfway through the Finale. The Scherzo (which follows attacca) does not have at its centre a discretely characterized Trio: a figure in double-stops like a distant fanfare supplies the necessary contrast of a second idea. The Slow Movement has a secondary idea first heard on the cello and marked appassionato: an agitato middle section recalls the opening of the work, but in a formulation which will be found closely to anticipate its reappearance in the Finale. The Finale is planned on a broad scale. Only after a fully worked exposition of both primary and secondary material does the opening of the whole work return, now in a greatly extended form. Then, at bar 140, the tune of the violin cadenza is first harmonized in fanfare style on the upper instruments, then presented as a chorale on the lower ones, with a rushing semiquaver accompaniment above. This climatic activity mounts to the very end. The work is dedicated to the Chilingirian Quartet, old friends over many years. Score available separately: SOS04044.

SKU: PR.114413820

UPC: 680160585830.

Another prize-winning composition from Needham is his String Quartet No. 1, which sprang from an afternoon's exposure to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Says the composer, The work itself is about cycles. Nature cycles (day to night, seasonal, moon, tides, etc.), life cycles, and even cycles in music make their way into the piece, both consciously and subconsciously. The work is a homage to nature and to the affective spirit found in the music of Vivaldi..

SKU: FG.55009-414-7

ISBN 979-0-55009-414-7.

Voyage for violin and chamber orchestra (1990) and Voyage 2 for chamber orchestra (1991) are rich works which open new fields of possibilities for Jokinen's compositional career. The clarity and (in terms of traditional aesthetic) beautiful sonic world of Voyages highlight the new dimensions into which Jokinen's composition is travelling: even more original and unexplored corners of the aural consciousness.