SKU: HL.48186484

UPC: 888680828844. 9x12 inches.

“English Horn (or flute or clarinet or alto), Violin & Cello Rarely has a musical work been better characterized by its subtitle than Nicolas Bacri's Lyric Interlude: 'A Study in Pastoral Style'. When, in 2008, the composer received the commission for a piece with English horn from Cecilia Benner, patron of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, he immediately thought of the duo between this instrument and the oboe that Berlioz, in the Symphonie fantastique, placed at the beginning of the 'Scène aux champs', making suddenly appear a nocturnal country landscape where two shepherds carry on a dialogue on their pipes. First performed in March 2009 at one of the Scarab Club Concerts in Detroit, the Lyric Interlude for English horn, violin and cello (Op.110a) nonetheless proclaims another tradition: that of British pastoralism, illustrated by the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), the 50th anniversary of his death having just been celebrated. This score pays him homage of rare sensitivity: set off by refined counterpoint, the undulating lament of the beginning, rhythmically supple, evokes the waving wheat, as does Vaughan Williams in the opening undulation of his Symphony No.3. The lyrical effusion, briefly interrupted by a scherzo in 6/8, again pours out, making the work evolve towards a slow, ecstatic atmosphere, close to the last of the English composer's Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes. Far from bucolic, postcard clichés and servile imitation, this Lyric Interlude opens the doors to a realm where pure beauty reigns. The composer also wrote another version of this work for English horn (or flute, clarinet, or viola) and piano, Op.110b (AL 30 750)&rdquo.

SKU: PR.140401330

ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.

Nathaniel Dett was among America’s leading composers in the early 20th century, and MAGNOLIA SUITE is a beautiful example of his rich, hybrid style. Deeply inspired by the music and mission of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dett’s piano music springs from the late Romantic traditions of florid texture and embellishment, along with programmatic titles and raw emotion. It is notable for melody writing inspired by and paraphrasing African-American song. The 18-minute MAGNOLIA SUITE contains five movements, any of which may also be performed separately. This edition by Lara Downes provides a clean, new engraving that corrects the many errors and unclear indications appearing in the historical printing.
Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in a place that was built on freedom. The little village of Drummondville, Ontario was founded by enslaved Africans – Dett’s ancestors among them – who traveled the Underground Railroad out of the American South into Canada. Their journey brought them to a safe haven, a place where fortunes and futures could be transformed in the span of one generation, to lives full of new possibilities. You could call it “the place where the rainbow ends,” which is the title of the last movement of Dett’s Magnolia Suite.When Dett wrote these pieces, he was a young teacher at Lane College in Tennessee, a historically Black college that had been founded in 1882, the year of his birth. A place built on freedom, with the purpose of educating newly-emancipated slaves – a place designed to nurture the blossoming of ideas, the vibrant flowering of minds set free. This music is inspired by the gorgeous splendor of the magnolia blooms on that college campus, and also by the shared histories, experiences, and aspirations of the community that Dett found there.These five pieces pay affectionate tribute to lineage and legacy. They express gratitude for the bittersweet beauties of the present; nostalgia for the past (a bit romanticized, as the past always is); and an effervescent optimism for the future that awaits us in the place where the rainbow ends.