SKU: HL.44010826

UPC: 884088555818. 9.0x12.0x1.738 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.

Atlantic Odyssey was commissioned by the band program at Oakton High School in Vienna, VA, and its director, Dr. Cheryl Newton. The piece is in two extended movements and seeks to portray an imaginary yacht journey off the eastern seaboard of the USA. The first movement, Sunrise at Sea and the Ocean Awakes, opens with an atmospheric depiction of dawn at sea. Floating woodwinds soar above surging brass until a climax heralds the rising sun. Daylight reveals distant horizons and the prospect of a calm voyage, but the sea is never tamed and a light breeze whips up spray around the boat until a couple of high waves rock the boat alarmingly. But the sea soon calms again and the journey continues serenely. The second movement, Homeward Bound and Spindrift, sees us turn for home, the boat scything calmly through the gentle waves in perfect sailing conditions. But once again conditions change, a stiff breeze tugs at the sails and for a moment we are once again at the mercy of the wind and waves. A moment of calm returns but we are suddenly sprayed by spindrift as a gale picks up. The boat is in danger of overturning but we manage to trim the sail and take advantage of the strong winds to enjoy and exhilarating journey home.

SKU: 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.

SKU: BR.EB-2066

ISBN 9790004160770. 7.5 x 10.5 inches.

Text by the composer Translation: engl. (M. E. Browne) Place: Bagdad Characters: Der Kalif (baritone) - Baba Mustapha, ein Kadi (tenor) - Margiana, seine Tochter (soprano) - Bostana, eine Verwandte (alto) - Nureddin (tenor) - Abul Hassan Ali Ebn Bekar, Barbier (bass) - 1. Muezzin (bass) - 2. Muezzin (tenor) - 3. Muezzin (tenor) - Ein Sklave (tenor) - Vier Bewaffnete (2 Tenore, 2 Basse) Corneliuss opera got off to a bad start, to say the least: the scandal provoked at the first performance in Weimar in 1858 led to protests and ultimately to the resignation of Franz Liszt as court opera director. It was not until 1904 that the opera was played again in that city and proved that the scandal had not been caused by the work but by Liszts aesthetic views. The score was long considered as the ideal example of a musical comedy with a far too complicated plot. Today, however, many prominent commentators beg to differ: This is one of the sunniest scores ever written. Music in the spirit of Mozart and Mendelssohn: a highly delicate mixture of classical formal rigor and romantic irony, heightened with just a touch of exquisite sensuality that has just wafted in from the Orient. It is practically incomprehensible how Cornelius could have been regarded as a composer of the Wagner school for practically a century. With its intricate fusing of comedy, lyricism and sentimentality, it is precisely the opera that Schubert, Schumann, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Mendelssohn were unable to write. (Hans Zender).

SKU: CF.SPS78

ISBN 9781491152553. UPC: 680160910052. Key: Bb major.

Festival March is presented in a new edition arranged by Richard Summers. It is a tour de force composition for advanced bands and hearkens back to a bygone era during the golden age of the band movement. Directors and students will hear operatic music from composer Victor Herbert who is best known for his Christmas classic, Toyland. This is a richly scored masterpiece that deserves to return to standard status in concert band repertoire. We are proud to bring you this new setting of this cherished classic.
Festival March by Victor Herbert was written for the Pittsburgh Symphony and first performed under Herbert’s direction in Chicago on Dec. 9, 1901 celebrating the 12th anniversary of Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. Also known as the Auditorium Festival March, he included it many times for programs of a festival nature. The main theme Auld Lang Syne, a famous Scottish folk song, is incorporated many times along with brass fanfares, interludes and march melodies. This band arrangement is very similar to the original orchestral composition. The missing string parts, the addition of the saxophone section and other band instruments, editing of the superimposed triplets against sixteenth notes, to one or the other, and articulations suitable for the band, were major challenges. The style of early twentieth-century American music is captured here. This arrangement will give band musicians access to a fine piece of music that could only be appreciated by orchestra musicians up to now. Although suitable for many occasions, this piece is a great way to begin or end a December holiday concert.  Notes to the ConductorVictor Herbert’s music can be interpreted in a romantic style, which is the conductor’s responsibility to read in nuance and musicality. The beginning and other triple-tonguing sections of this piece have a March of the Toys quality to it.  The interludes and Auld Lang Syne sections are legato and musical. The March sections can also be shaped musically.About the ComposerVictor Herbert was born in Ireland in 1861 and raised in Germany. When he moved to America in 1886, he joined the Metropolitan Opera as principal cellist and eventually composed many works including forty-three operettas on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I, including Naughty Marietta and Babes in Toyland. Victor Herbert conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1898 to 1904 and then was the conductor of his own Victor Herbert Orchestra. He formed ASCAP with a group of composers in 1914 and was the director until his death in 1924. Among his thirty-one compositions for orchestra, Festival March was a favorite of his and was eventually published by Carl Fischer Music.  .

SKU: PR.416416130

UPC: 680160642182. 9 x 12 inches.

On the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy, I composed this work as the sun was rising over the ocean in the mornings and gently sifting through the clouds against the lingering fog. As the piece developed, it took on a shape of its own and gradually became centered around diminished chords and the interval of a tri-tone (diminished 5th). I love these chords for their angst and for their sadness, but also for their flexibility. My piece is very textural in nature; and yes, it does have a melody of sorts, and yet, this melody comes and goes, and is never quite grasped until the end. Portions of it are repeated and spun out creating layers of sound without the heaviness of form. It is indeed a depiction of mist, where one minute you see things and the next they are gone. As you move through the piece, you find that the trumpet is also an antagonist, creeping in with a haunting cry; a reminder of things unsettled. Throughout the piece, we are quietly searching. We search for a tonal center for stability, and also for a melody that will make us feel fulfilled. Once found, we hold them for an instant, and then like the clouds and like life itself, they are gone. We are warmed by their presence and saddened by their loss. I hope that you will reflect upon your own memories of life's quiet moments as we enjoy the world premiere of this new work together. Mist is not a piece to be analyzed, but rather a piece to be experienced and absorbed. As you listen, release your mind, embrace your emotions, close your eyes, and allow the mist to creep in.

SKU: HL.49045166

ISBN 9790220135002. UPC: 888680724214. 8.25x11.75x0.276 inches.

Violin Concerto is scored for a Classical-sized orchestra, with the addition of a harp and celeste, and lasts around 17 minutes. Although the work sets out to explore the lyrical characteristics of the solo instrument, it is only gradually that the violin finds its full, lyric voice, and thence, as the work progresses, a more dominant role. This, in one sense, is the 'journey' of the piece. The work's straightforward formal scheme consists of three movements (roughly fast-slow-fast) framed by a reflective introduction and epilogue. However, these formal divisions exist within a single, unbroken arc. Such an overall symmetrical shape places the slow Arioso (itself divided into three subsections) at the midpoint, sandwiched between the two Allegro movements. The dramaturgy of the piece centers on a twofold search. First there is the ongoing pursuit to recapture the simple melodic material stated by the solo violin - accompanied by thar harp's bass register - during the opening bars. Whilst aspects of this melody are invoked frequently throughout (especially in the violin cadenza which closes the Arioso movement), it is only with the final and most important climax of the work that the melody appears again in its complete form, now accompanied by violent, orchestral stabs. The second search is for a tonal resting place, the arrival of which is delayed until the close of the epilogue. The original version of the Violin Concerto, commissioned by the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, was premiered in Amsterdam in February 2012 with Gordan Nikolic as soloist. The present, revised version was created for Barnabas Kelemen and the Halle.

SKU: CA.7005312

ISBN 9790007228293. Key: D major. Language: Latin.

With a duration of about 10 minutes, Schubert's Magnificat D 486 in C major is one of the more concise settings of the well-known Marian canticles, originally for the service of Vespers. It was composed in late summer 1815, and is therefore probably one of a series of church music works Schubert wrote in his youth for Lichtenthal Parish Church. The work requires a large-scale orchestra with strings, woodwind, and brass. The four-part choir contrasts with four soloists; this quartet sings the peaceful middle section of the three-section work. For the Carus edition Schubert's own autograph manuscript of his Magnificat was consulted again for the first time since 1888. Until 1989 this had been thought to be lost. This work is now available in carus music, the choir app! Score and part available separately - see item CA.7005300.

SKU: CL.011-4871-00

Moos...cowbells...yodels...alphorns... Cowbell Lullaby is an imaginative piece which transports you to Switzerland, joining cows at the end of their day’s journey high in the Alps. The herd comes to life in the opening measures, lowing with excitement until the cows are calmed by a delicate lullaby. Dance music of the town band momentarily stirs them before the lullaby once again calls them to bed. Your developing players, and the audience as well, will udderly enjoy hanging out with the dairy farmer and his Alpine herd. Mooooo!

About C.L. Barnhouse Command Series

The Barnhouse Command Series includes works at grade levels 2, 2.5, and 3. This series is designed for middle school and junior high school bands, as well as high school bands of smaller instrumentation or limited experience. Command Series publications have a slightly larger instrumentation than the Rising Band Series, and are typically of larger scope, duration, and musical content.