SKU: HL.48186421

UPC: 888680831660. 9.0x12.0x0.08 inches.

“Born in 1961, French composer Nicolas Bacri began learning the piano at age seven before entering the Paris Conservatoire. Bacri's career has seen him winning many prizes for his compositions and with Melodies of Melancholy composed as recently as 2012, he remains a prolific composer. Bacri's catalogue contains a wide variety of compositions, from 8 String Quartets to 6 Symphonies. Melodies of Melancholy for Soprano and Piano, Opus 119a, is made up of four songs using the lyrics of Alvaro Escobar Molina, a Colombian writer who currently resides in Paris. The songs are; 1) To the Sea, 2) Hush, my Child, 3) Some Say, and 4) Only. With the volume beginning with the lyrics in French, English, German or Spanish, Bacri's Melodies of Melancholy is highly versatile and makes for an exciting performance work for advanced Sopranos.”.

SKU: HL.14028929

Written for Moray Welsh whilst still an undergraduate at York University. This piece was completed in mid-September. Inspired by Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf. A solo 'cello seemed an appropriate medium for music which might explore the character of Harry Haller, with his desire for bourgeois comfort and his strong misanthropic and suicidal tendencies. The opening theme attempts to express this - melancholy, nostalgic, a bit Biedermeyer (cf. Brahms Intermezzi). The basic theme of the book, at its simplest, is that every human personality consists of hundred of different personalities - within every man there lurks a wolf. Accordingly the tendency of my piece is for all its musical material to become distorted, either by thematic transformation or by changes of timbre. There are three movements played without a break. The first is a character portrait of the Steppenwolf. The second is concerned in the most general sort of way with the dance elements in the novel - Harry's being taught to dance and appreciate low 'popular' music - a tango is recapitulated in a waltz and 'Yearning', a popular song of the time (1927) is hinted at. The third movement concerns the Masked Ball and the Magic Theatre. Mozart is one of Hesse's great loves and he is repeatedly mentioned in the book. Inevitably some Mozart quotes have been worked in, the most significant being a reference to The Magic Flute 'fire and water' flute theme in the middle of the second movement. Long before I finished the piece, I was disenchanted with the work of Hesse. Much of Steppenwolf I now find rather embarrassing and the claims currently made for Hesse's greatness seem to me exaggerated. Since my piece is in no important sense programmatically specific, this change of heart doesn't really matter. ~ David Blake.

SKU: BT.9781408114629

ISBN 9781408114629. English.

Now in a third edition, Abracadabra Cello has a fresh, contemporary new look and is the perfect book for pupil and teachers.

This title offers an identical selection of repertoire to the other booksin the Abracadabra Strings series, so they can be used in any combination for group or whole class lessons and mixed ensemble performances. Used alone, they remain ideal for individual tuition.

With tunes you know andwant to play, carefully graded in 20 learning steps, this new edition of the popular tutor also includes duets, trios and teacher's parts. Clear fingering and bowing diagrams and concise theory explanations help to teachthefundamentals of the instrument, and each new technical aspect is reinforced by several pieces using that particular technique.

Abracadabra Cello now also includes two CDs of performance and backing tracks, featuringselected orchestral backings.