Tenor & String Quartet

SKU: PE.EP72822

Composed by Jonathan Dove. Voice(s) & Various Instruments. Edition Peters. Living Composer. Score and Part(s). 164 pages. Duration 00:30:00. Edition Peters #98-EP72822. Published by Edition Peters (PE.EP72822).

ISBN 9790577011769. 232 x 303mm inches. English.

I have only visited Damascus once, twenty years ago, on the way to Palmyra.  I had a purpose (I was writing music for a play about Palmyra’s Queen Zenobia) but essentially I was a tourist.  Like any visitor, I was thrilled to step out of the noisy modern city into the magical ancient world of the walled Old City, its vibrant souk leading to the magnificent mosque, and a labyrinth of winding, narrow streets filled with the smell of unleavened bread.

In Palmyra, I was met with extraordinary kindness everywhere.  On one occasion, a little Bedouin boy noticed that I was risking sunstroke wandering bare-headed among the spectacular ruins: he showed me how to tie a turban, then took me to have tea with his family in their tent.

Since then, I have watched helplessly as these places of wonder have been devastated and their inhabitants scattered and killed.  When the Sacconi Quartet suggested that I might choose a Syrian poet for our collaboration, I welcomed the idea.

I searched for a long time to find a contemporary poet whose work might gain from any music I could imagine.  I felt it was important to find first-hand accounts of the Syrian experience – but, of course, I was always reading them in translation.  In an anthology called Syria Speaks, I was astonished to read something that looked like prose, but was full of poetry.  It was Anne-Marie McManus’s fine translation of Ali Safar’s A Black Cloud in a Leaden White Sky – an eloquent, thoughtful, contained yet vivid account of life in a war-torn country, all the more moving for its restraint.

In setting these words, I have not attempted to imitate Syrian music.  However, there is what might be called a linguistic accommodation in my choice of scale, or mode.  Several movements are in a mode that I first discovered while writing a cantata commemorating the First World War: it has a tuning that I associate with war, its violence and desolation.  This eight-note mode is similar to scales found in Syrian music.  I did not choose it in the abstract: it emerged from the harmonies I was exploring in the earlier work, and emerged again as I was looking for the right musical colours to set Ali Safar’s words.  In this work, its Arabic aspect is more prominent. - Jonathan Dove

This product is Printed on Demand and may take several weeks to fulfill. Please order from your favorite retailer.

Violin and Piano

SKU: BT.ALHE29553

Composed by Reynaldo Hahn. Classical. Book Only. 96 pages. Heugel & Cie #ALHE29553. Published by Heugel & Cie (BT.ALHE29553).

French.

Having been considered as a 'fashionable' and 'cliché' composer of his day, Hahn's compositions are possibly not as well-known as they ought to be. Sonata In C Major for Violin andPiano, however, shatter these prejudices held, representing the engaging diversity of the composer's music.

Venezuelan-born Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947) entered the Paris Conservatoire at 10 years old. Hereceived a high standard of musical education from Decombes, Lavignac, Dubois and Massenet, before becoming a prolific and versatile composer himself, writing works for all genres. For Hahn, music was a magical art andhiscompositions often contain expressions of his otherwise hidden emotions and moods. Sonata In C Major contains a variety of different features, making for a pleasant and evocative piece for advancedviolinists.

Violin - Difficulty: easy-medium to medium

SKU: HL.844286

By The Beatles. Chart. Classic Rock, Britpop and Psychedelic Rock. Violin solo songbook (no accompaniment). 64 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.844286).

ISBN 9780793533008. UPC: 073999442861. 9x12 inches.

60 of McCartney and Lennon's greatest, including: All My Loving* Eleanor Rigby* Help!* I Want To Hold Your Hand* Yesterday* more. Includes discography.

Having been considered as a 'fashionable' and 'cliche' composer of his day, Hahn's compositions are possibly not as well-known as they ought to be. Sonata in C major for Violin and Piano, however, shatter these prejudices held, representing the engaging diversity of the composer's music. Venezuelan-born Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947) entered the Paris Conservatoire at 10 years old. He received a high standard of musical education from Decombes, Lavignac, Dubois and Massenet, before becoming a prolific and versatile composer himself, writing works for all genres. For Hahn, music was a magical art and his compositions often contain expressions of his otherwise hidden emotions and moods. Sonata in C major contains a variety of different features, making for a pleasant and evocative piece for advanced violinists.

Performed by The Beatles. Chart. Softcover. Size 9x12 inches. 94 pages. Published by Hal Leonard Corporation.

Chamber Music Cello, Piano, Violin

SKU: PR.114423360

Composed by Stacy Garrop. Set of Score and Parts. 24+12+12 pages. Duration 8:30. Theodore Presser Company #114-42336. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.114423360).

UPC: 680160686285.

When the Newport Music Festival commissioned me for a piano trio in honor of their 2021 season, I looked for a topic that would celebrate an aspect of the Newport community. While researching the area, I was struck by the nine lighthouses situated around the island. The dual nature of lighthouses was particularly appealing to me: not only do they serve a vital role in the navigation of ships around rocks and land, but they are also a beautiful sight, particularly at night when their blinking beacons are clearly visible to the eye. It occurred to me that lighthouses link the past with the present, and will endure long into the future, with their beacons serving the same purpose for every generation.I became fascinated with the lighthouse on the property of Castle Hill Inn, located at the opening of the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay. This squat thirty-four foot granite structure was erected in 1890 on a very picturesque spot, right at the water’s edge. Its “characteristic,” the nautical term for each lighthouse’s unique light sequence that allows ships to identify the lighthouse, is to alternate on for three seconds, then off for three seconds. The lighthouse has also served as the starting and finish line for numerous high profile yacht races, as well as survived a massive hurricane in 1938, though the lighthouse keeper’s nearby residence wasn’t so lucky. American novelist Thornton Wilder wrote much of his 1973 novel Theophilus North while staying at the Castle Hill Inn; a passage from the book perfectly captures the dual nature of lighthouses:“At a later visit I was able to engage the pentagonal room in a turret above the house; from that magical room I could see at night the beacons of six lighthouses and hear the booming and chiming of as many sea buoys.”In Beacon of the Bay, we first hear the lighthouse’s characteristic as its ruby light blinks on and off. This is followed by a simple theme that represents the lighthouse performing its solitary duty. As the piece progresses, we hear waves playfully lapping around its base, then yachts gracefully floating by; this is followed by a violent storm that churns the waves with so much force that they crash against the lighthouse’s granite body. But the steadfast lighthouse holds firm to the rocks, grandly blinking its ruby light. The music quiets back down to its simple theme, with yachts sailing by once more as the piece concludes.