Scott Joplin Reconsidered. Composed by Scott Joplin (1868-1917). Edited by Lara Downes. Collection. Theodore Presser Company #440-40028. Published by Theodore Presser Company

Chamber Music String Quartet

SKU: PR.164002720

Cassatt. Composed by Dan Welcher. Spiral and Saddle. Premiere: Cassatt Quartet, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL. Contemporary. Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. Composed 2007. WRT11142. 52+16+16+16+16 pages. Duration 24 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #164-00272. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.164002720).

UPC: 680160573042. 8.5 x 11 inches.

My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change.   I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]   The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla.   Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional.   II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts]   This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture.   This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream.   III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts]   The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this.   Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1.   String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Arranged by Newman/olt. Piano sheet music. Published by Theodore Presser Company. 2 guitars

Orchestra Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Contrabass

SKU: PR.416414510

For String Orchestra. Composed by Roger Zare. Sws. Contemporary. Full score. With Standard notation. Composed 2008. 24 pages. Duration 9 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #416-41451. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.416414510).

ISBN 9781598068191. UPC: 680160611379. 9x12 inches.

The enigmatic title of Roger Zare’s overture is an anagram of Zauberflöte — the work is based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, breaking down themes from the opera’s overture as well as the Queen of the Night aria, and spinning them out of control. Zare’s charming and clever work includes an “Overt Metrical Fugue,” (a serendipitous anagram of Magic Flute Overture) using a subject that mashes up all of the disassembled Mozart motives. After the fugue runs its course, Zare quotes small but recognizable parts of the overture almost verbatim, but only from the players farthest away from the conductor to create a disembodied sound.
This work is based on Mozart’s overture to The Magic Flute, breaking down the themes and motives from that overture as well as the famous Queen of the Night aria, “Der Hölle Rache,” and spinning them out of control. While the title seems to be nonsense, it is actually an anagram of “Zauberflöte.” I’m sure that Mozart would have appreciated the humor in this work, even though the harmonic language is quite far removed from the Classical era. The piece opens with repeated E-flats, suggesting the beginning of the main theme of the Magic Flute overture, and it gradually expands outward chromatically, creating gritty dissonances. Other borrowed motives from Mozart creep their way in, as well as complex polyrhythms on the repeated notes. I imitate the structure of Mozart’s overture by writing a fugue (subtitled “Overt Metrical Fugue,” a serendipitous anagram of Magic Flute Overture) using a subject that mashes up all of the disassembled Mozart motives. Gradually, I work in references to the excessively high coloratura part of “Der Hölle Rache,” treating it as a second subject. After the fugue runs its course, I quote small but recognizable parts of the overture almost verbatim, but only from the players farthest away from the conductor tocreate a disembodied sound.

Woodwinds (3(picc).2(cor ang).2.2. - 4.2.3.1. - timp - hp - str)

SKU: BR.OB-4943-30

Overture to the Opera. Composed by Richard Wagner. Folder. Orchester-Bibliothek (Orchestral Library). Overture; Romantic. Set of parts. 82 pages. Duration 9'. Breitkopf and Haertel #OB 4943-30. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.OB-4943-30).

ISBN 9790004325988. 10 x 12.5 inches.

A work which offers most interesting aspects also for studying, yet it is so difficult to perform that only a very correct and thoroughly edited score can provide the orchestral conductor with the proper presentation, this is what Wagner himself determined on 24 May 1860, when with his third attempt he finally had found the proper form for the overture of the Flying Dutchman. Indeed, he succeeded in writing a forceful concert piece which anticipates the story of the opera in a concentrated form: a dramatic Dutchman theme with thunderbolt and storm in Allegro con brio - and in contrast Senta's love theme in Andante, d minor against f major with the resulting conflicts and tensions. It's good that with the present edition the conductor can count on a very correct and thoroughly edited score!

Violoncello (3(picc).2(cor ang).2.2. - 4.2.3.1. - timp - hp - str)

SKU: BR.OB-4943-23

Overture to the Opera. Composed by Richard Wagner. Stapled. Orchester-Bibliothek (Orchestral Library). Overture; Romantic. Part. 8 pages. Duration 9'. Breitkopf and Haertel #OB 4943-23. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.OB-4943-23).

ISBN 9790004325964. 10 x 12.5 inches.

A work which offers most interesting aspects also for studying, yet it is so difficult to perform that only a very correct and thoroughly edited score can provide the orchestral conductor with the proper presentation, this is what Wagner himself determined on 24 May 1860, when with his third attempt he finally had found the proper form for the overture of the Flying Dutchman. Indeed, he succeeded in writing a forceful concert piece which anticipates the story of the opera in a concentrated form: a dramatic Dutchman theme with thunderbolt and storm in Allegro con brio - and in contrast Senta's love theme in Andante, d minor against f major with the resulting conflicts and tensions. It's good that with the present edition the conductor can count on a very correct and thoroughly edited score!

Viola (3(picc).2(cor ang).2.2. - 4.2.3.1. - timp - hp - str)

SKU: BR.OB-4943-19

Overture to the Opera. Composed by Richard Wagner. Stapled. Orchester-Bibliothek (Orchestral Library). Overture; Romantic. Part. 8 pages. Duration 9'. Breitkopf and Haertel #OB 4943-19. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.OB-4943-19).

ISBN 9790004325957. 10 x 12.5 inches.

A work which offers most interesting aspects also for studying, yet it is so difficult to perform that only a very correct and thoroughly edited score can provide the orchestral conductor with the proper presentation, this is what Wagner himself determined on 24 May 1860, when with his third attempt he finally had found the proper form for the overture of the Flying Dutchman. Indeed, he succeeded in writing a forceful concert piece which anticipates the story of the opera in a concentrated form: a dramatic Dutchman theme with thunderbolt and storm in Allegro con brio - and in contrast Senta's love theme in Andante, d minor against f major with the resulting conflicts and tensions. It's good that with the present edition the conductor can count on a very correct and thoroughly edited score!

Alto Saxophone. By Various Composers. Arranged by Darren Fellows. (Alto Sax). Schott. Book & CD Package. Size 9x12 inches. 36 pages. Published by Schott.