Cello

SKU: HL.14028929

Composed by David Blake. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Music Sales #NOV120425. Published by Music Sales (HL.14028929).

Written for Moray Welsh whilst still an undergraduate at York University. This piece was completed in mid-September. Inspired by Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. A solo 'cello seemed an appropriate medium for music which might explore the character of Harry Haller, with his desire for bourgeois comfort and his strong misanthropic and suicidal tendencies. The opening theme attempts to express this - melancholy, nostalgic, a bit Biedermeyer (cf. Brahms Intermezzi). The basic theme of the book, at its simplest, is that every human personality consists of hundred of different personalities - within every man there lurks a wolf. Accordingly the tendency of my piece is for all its musical material to become distorted, either by thematic transformation or by changes of timbre. There are three movements played without a break. The first is a character portrait of the Steppenwolf. The second is concerned in the most general sort of way with the dance elements in the novel - Harry's being taught to dance and appreciate low 'popular' music - a tango is recapitulated in a waltz and 'Yearning', a popular song of the time (1927) is hinted at. The third movement concerns the Masked Ball and the Magic Theatre. Mozart is one of Hesse's great loves and he is repeatedly mentioned in the book. Inevitably some Mozart quotes have been worked in, the most significant being a reference to The Magic Flute 'fire and water' flute theme in the middle of the second movement. Long before I finished the piece, I was disenchanted with the work of Hesse. Much of Steppenwolf I now find rather embarrassing and the claims currently made for Hesse's greatness seem to me exaggerated. Since my piece is in no important sense programmatically specific, this change of heart doesn't really matter. ~ David Blake.

String Quartet

SKU: HL.14031808

Composed by David Blake. Music Sales America. Classical. Score. Music Sales #NOV120479. Published by Music Sales (HL.14031808).

UPC: 888680020156. 0.023 inches.

Cello and Orchestra

SKU: HL.14004538

Composed by David Blake. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Music Sales #NOV890187. Published by Music Sales (HL.14004538).

ISBN 9780853608318. 0.228 inches.

Commissioned by the BBC for Moray Welsh and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and first performed in Cheltenham in 1993. Facsimile Study Score. Duration c. 25 minutes.

Guitar SATB Piano Accompaniment

SKU: HL.14004551

Composed by David Blake. Music Sales America. Choral. Book [Softcover]. Music Sales #NOV072482. Published by Music Sales (HL.14004551).

ISBN 9780853609438.

Setting of three poems by Yannis Ritsos in greek, with english translations. First performed in Corfu in 1995 by the Greek National Chorus (director Nikos Efthimiades) and the York University Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Duration c. 13 mins.

Violin

SKU: HL.14010998

Composed by David Blake. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Music Sales #NOV120677. Published by Music Sales (HL.14010998).

String Quartet

SKU: HL.14002638

Composed by David Blake. Music Sales America. Classical. Score. Music Sales #NOV954184. Published by Music Sales (HL.14002638).

String Quartet

SKU: BT.MUSM570207435

Composed by David Blake. Set (Score & Parts). 24 pages. University of York Music Press #MUSM570207435. Published by University of York Music Press (BT.MUSM570207435).

English.

David Blake's String Quartet No. 4 was composed in 2004, commissioned by the Northern Aldborough Festival for the Sorrel Quartet.