SKU: HL.49007122

ISBN 9783795722197. UPC: 196288077480. 9.0x12.0x0.282 inches. German.

The most important aspect of the violin method 'Die frohliche Violine' is the fun of learning to play the violin: The textbook is aimed at an early playful beginning with the instrument. Over the course of the lessons, the pupils are deliberately addressed in a language that corresponds to their age. Furthermore, the method provides a stylistically varied range of classical and folkloristic instrumental pieces, and always gives a lot of interesting information on the music and its composers.Vol. 1: Detailed introduction to the bow hold - songs and instrumental pieces, using exclusively the first type of fingering while focussing on rhythmic, melodic and technical variety - playful touching and feeling of violin-playing techniques such as pizzicato, position playing, harmonics and double stops. Vol. 1 is accompanied by a CD (T 3272) containing all songs and pieces with funny dialogues spoken by children. A motivating addition to violin lessons and a great gift idea!

SKU: PO.PE033S

ISBN 9781877218332. 30.5 x 22 cm inches.

Mondo Rondo is one of Farr's most widely performed chamber music works. It is immediately engaging due to its combination of exotic melodies and percussive, funky rhythms throughout the three contrasting movements. Farr incorporates a clever use of the ensemble with hocketting pizzicato, in which a tune is shared and passed between players. Farr combines this pizzicato with subtle body percussion (by tapping on the string instruments), which evokes the unique sound of the mbira (African thumb piano). This work is perfect for string quartets looking for repertoire that is energetic and enjoyable for listeners. This listing is for the study score only. Parts are sold separately.

SKU: BT.WH31498

ISBN 9788759824603. English.

String Quartet No.4 was composed by Hans Abrahamsen in 2012. Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Wigmore Hall For the Arditti Quartet. Programme note: The basic idea for my Fourth String Quartet was very clear to me: It should be quiet and soft music or to put it in a german term: hoch im Himmel gesungen ... (”High singing in heaven…”). Each of the four movements has a different scordatura/pitch. The first movement begins like my work ”Schnee” sky-high with an airy and soft melody by the first violin. The second movement is fast and ”movement and joy”-like. It consists of two duets and a reverse style counterpoint. While the sections were progressively longerin the first movement they are getting shorter and shorter in the second. ”Dark, heavy and earthy” is the third movement and its pizzicato recalls big black raindrops falling to the ground. It is the dark and grainy counterpart to the first movement whereas the fourth movement corresponds to the second. The fourth movement was planned as a dark and heavy counterpart but it turned out to be like ”babbling” music of a child. My Fourth String Quartet has become in its way a serene and cool piece. So the Quartet has been finished luckyly after twenty years it was already in 1990 that I was commissioned by Wittener Tage für Neue Musik to write the piece for Arditti Quartet. Hans Abrahamsen.

SKU: FG.55011-510-1

ISBN 9790550115101.

Matthew Whittall's preface to Bright Ferment (2019): I have a complicated history with the string quartet. Actually, it's not that complicated. I spent months writing a huge one in my early twenties and hastily withdrew it after a long delayed premiere, vowing never to write another. In a typical case of karmic retribution, my fear of the form would eventually be overcome by the unrefusable offer to write the compulsory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in my native Canada. The short duration requested, about nine minutes, also felt like a good way to wade gingerly back into the medium. The title was originally just a nice-sounding pair of words that surfaced in a brainstorming session with fellow composer Alex Freeman over an injudicious amount of fermented barley. When I looked it up later, I found that it was a phrase of older coinage, seemingly used more for poetic resonance than any fixed meaning. Ferment by itself denotes a state of confusion, change or lack of order. With bright, it takes on a more positive connotation with regard to society and creativity: a wild profusion of ideas barely checked by reason. (It may not actually mean that, but it describes this piece nicely, so let's go with it.) Fermentation in its trendy culinary usage is also hinted at via a recurrent percolating device of scattered pizzicati. As one may guess from the tone of this introduction, there is little attempt at gravity in Bright Ferment, the only means by which I felt I could sidestep the historical and expressive weight of the string quartet genre. Styles, gestures and moods are tossed around, cross-cut and abandoned in stream-of-consciousness fashion, connected by little except an intuitive sense of rightness in their juxtaposition. If the piece acquires depth in spite of me, it will only be because its disparate parts amplify and strengthen each other simply by being together - much like the ensemble itself. Bright Ferment was commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with additional funding from the Americas Society (New York), for the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Duration: ca. 9 minutes.