SKU: HL.48024204

ISBN 9781784542672. UPC: 888680751647. 9x12 inches.

The composer states: “Acequia Madre demonstrates an approach which was somewhat new to the style of my musical expression at the time of its composition [2012]: structuring a work with the focus on its melodic aspects. I drew inspiration from other creative artists through one of my 'rituals': I surrounded myself with the scores of composers who, for one reason or another, were on my mind at the time, like Iannis Xenakis, Alban Berg's 'Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano,' and 'Contrasts for violin, clarinet and piano' by Bela Bartok, plus Schubert's haunting final 'String Quartet No. 15.' Conquering technical difficulties is something I find particularly rewarding when playing acoustic instruments: fully aware that today's electronics can triumph over a composer's most demanding technical challenges, I love the idea of performers encountering their instruments with virtuosity ... doing something that seems to defy physical boundaries.&rdquo.

SKU: HL.50600566

8.25x11.75x0.07 inches.

The Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä reports that he experienced a phase whilst working on his Horn Concerto in 2011 during which he had the feeling of “having landed in a deadend”. To find a remedy, he decided to develop a kind of “finger exercise” for composers, comparable to the “warming-up process of an instrumental soloist before performing”. Räihälä remembers furthermore: “Instead of writing for orchestra, I started a short solo piece for clarinet. Little did I know that I had opened a Pandora's box! I wrote 'Soliloque 1: Étoffé' in two days. Perhaps this frenzy caused the music to become restless, with quick turns – in short, a rather virtuosic etude. The clarinet seeks paths, at first without success, but obviously finding one in the end. And what about the Pandora's Box? I had given the title the number one, and during the next two years I wrote five more Soliloques, solos of six to seven minutes, for various instruments, as well as one for soprano a cappella. The title Étoffé means 'rich', or 'well rounded', but also 'fabric' or even a 'patch' - and I felt that I had patched something in my work that was broken; indeed, working on the concerto now gave me a fresh start.”.