SKU: BT.DHP-0991533-040
Following the spectacular movie Titanic, the story of the world famous ship stood in the spotlights once again. Piet Swerts was inspired by this catastrophic saga to compose this beautifully narrative piece, reflecting the massesof people in Southampton, playing children and the undulating sea. The piece gradually picks up impetuously culminating with the looming iceberg and the dramatic sinking of the Titanic.Le prologue dépeint l'excitation de cette foule impatiente d'embarquer sur le Titanic amarré dans le port de Southampton en Angleterre. Le motif principal de ce passage d’ouverture fait référence Big Ben, remarque touchante pour mieux installer le décor d'une scène typiquement britannique. L'agitation des futurs passagers s'exprime par des sections polyrythmiques. Le premier thème aux accents héro ques dérivé du motif Big Ben est exposé. La trame devient plus constante, fluide, répétitive, symbole du doux départ du célèbre palais flottant. Le tableau suivant est une aquarelle riche en couleurs ; motifs ascendants et descendants rappellent le voyage en haute mer. On entend lesenfants jouer, le Capitaine Smith donner des ordres. On perçoit aussi les différences d’atmosphère entre les ponts de première et deuxième classes ; la pression ronflante des moteurs. Tout est présent dans cette fresque musicale. On entend surtout l'accélération des moteurs suite un ordre du Capitaine soumis la pression de l'armateur. Faisant suite un accelerando, le piccolo et la percussion font écho d'un signal en morse provenant d'un autre bateau qui prévient d'un danger immédiat : la proximité d'un iceberg. Hélas, ce message est ignoré et les moteurs continuent de tourner plein régime jusqu'au moment fatidique où le Titanic heurte l'iceberg. Le motif plaintif du saxophone, accompagné de trilles des clarinettes, traduit l'arrêt des moteurs après la collision. La percussion marque le tristement célèbre S.O.S. en code morse : trois points, trois traits, trois points. Les passagers sont pris de panique. Finalement, nous assistons au lent naufrage du paquebot. L'épilogue reprend le motif initial qui se métamorphose en une fin dramatique.
SKU: HL.1428492
UPC: 196288202547.
The “Prayer of St. Francis” calls us to respond to inhumanity with humanity habitually as a movement towards peace. Opening with a dissonant cry for good will, the singers sing a series of entreaties, and the piano carries them over gently undulating quadruplets. The music flows freely till its final cadence.
SKU: PR.114424090
ISBN 9781491137383. UPC: 680160690107.
Stravinsky’s 1918 Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet has long been savored by clarinetists as a rare gem in the instrument’s repertory, full of rhythmic drive and Stravinsky’s jazzy neo-classicism. Composer and clarinetist Gregory M. Barrett’s remarkable adaptation for 3 clarinets is a tour de force, assimilating Stravinsky’s harmonic, rhythmic, and contrapuntal style to create a striking addition to the clarinet literature.Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet (1918) is a core work in clarinetists’ repertoire, and I havereimagined it for the convivial grouping of three players. The arrangement contains all of Stravinsky’soriginal, but now his solo line is shared among three in a new matrix of harmony, imitation, andcounterpoint.The molto tranquillo first piece develops from the emphasized C# in Stravinsky’s first measure andmoves to a somewhat somber mood when C# is revealed to be the dominant of F# minor. Withincreasing expansion of tessitura in the sustained harmonies, the sun comes out in the last phrase with ajoyous Eb major chord.The circus-like second piece finds the three clarinets whirling in the air in synchronized trapeze artiststyle. The emphasis is on imitation and fluid hand-offs. Chords with major 7ths and 2nds contrast withtriadic harmony. Following the cat and mouse middle section, where dancing patterns of twos andthrees alternate, the summit of the big top is reached again just before the players settle down to earthwith a welcome C major chord of respite.The ragtime burlesque of Stravinsky’s third piece is heightened by homophonic rhythm among the threeplayers. Each clarinet part has its own specialty. Clarinet 1 loves 32nd notes, Clarinet 2 shows off with fasttriplets, and Clarinet 3 likes the low notes and in general supporting its friends. Quartal harmony withstacked 4ths is emphasized, but where Stravinsky’s melody suggests triads, I have taken his hint. Thepropulsive rhythms are truly exciting, and with the wink of an eye, the music ends all too soon.
SKU: BR.EB-9240
ISBN 9790004185407. 9 x 12 inches.
Belcanto is a term for the Italian art of singing which took its development from the richly ornamented solo vocalism of the early 17th century (nobile maniera di cantare) and dominated European operatic singing until the first half of the 19th century. Complete control over the voice meant not only legato and messa di voce, but also appoggiatura and portamento, as well as virtuoso ornamentation by means of coloratura (canto fiorito). This development towards utmost virtuosity, emulating instrumental playing techniques, led to a mannered, artificial style on the one hand, but on the other also emphasized the physical aspects of interpretation (castrati were considered the ideal belcanto singers). And today? In his essay The Grain of the Voice, Roland Barthes writes: The grain is the body in the voice as it sings, the hand as it writes and the limb as it performs. Initially, he refers to the friction between language and voice in singing, but then transfers his thoughts to the physicality of instrumental music. In this spirit, I went in search of beautiful singing, a beauty which perhaps results in the very place where the grain, the roughness, meaning also physical resistance, are not smoothed over. The oboe seemed very suitable to me for singing with such a physical expressivity, as a very unruly instrument! The backbone of my piece is one single, quasi endless melodic line, consisting of intervals that are constantly pulled apart and contracted again (breathing). Many different actions attach themselves to these notes: coloratura, trills, chords (multiphonics), double flageolets. However, there are not only sound types, but also impulses, repetitions, rhythmic figures and other elements: composed elements of belcanto. In the opera tradition described above, these were improvised ornaments or additions; here they become composed figures which originate with the notes of the melody, but also pull on them, bend them, and charge them with physicality. (Jorg Birkenkotter).
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