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: HL.48025036
UPC: 196288020813.
The piece was commissioned by a colleague Brett Dean of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the violist Walter Kussner, as part of a CD project with works for solo viola in 1998/99. Since then, the composer himself has played it himself countless times in concerts andlectures. Here it is now in a congenial adaptation for cello. The title Intimate Decisions comes from a painting by Dean's wife, theAustralian painter Heather Betts, and indicates the private nature of the music. According to Dean, writing a piece for a solo string instrument was strangely similar to writing a personal letter or an intense conversation with a close friend. The piece begins with a short series of individual intervals of a rather intangible character, followed by a more emphatic motif of a minor sixth and minor ninth, and later a chain of harmonies whirring down the lower strings. The various developing characters go through an increasingly decisive, ultimately dramatic conversation, in rhapsodic alternation with flighty virtuosity, but also calm and delicacy, only to fade away like an echo at the end.
SKU: BT.MUSM570366453
English.
'Brice Catherin, a cellist and a composer exploring the notion of the one-man-band concept, commissioned this work; this composition was subsequently the result of our collaboration. My aim has been to create a work where the cellist produces sounds using his full body: his hands (employing a variety of extended techniques on the Cello and external objects), his feet, his mouth (singing and playing the harmonica and flexible tube) and even his face on one occasion to muffle the strings. There are two central themes in the work: virtuosity and theatre, both strong, frequent features of my compositional oeuvre. After several meetings and experimentation with Brice, I chose asetup that enhances the musical scope without visually cluttering the stage. I am also using a rather unusual scordatura that not only changes the timbre of the instrument itself, but also helps create unique soundscapes that blend together with the sounds from the spring drums, the human voice (whistling, groans and other effects), a singing bowl, a harmonica and a flexible tube among others. The work is entitled Emmelia and there are two reasons for this: Emmelia derives from the prefix en (in) and the noun melos (harmony), thus meaning in harmony. The composition is structured and developed in clearly defined sections (noisy, harmonious, distorted, etc.), based on information revealed by a spectral analysis of an F1 spectrum on the cello (tuned a fifth below low C), played and recorded using a variety of attacks and triggering objects and methods. Emmelia is also the name of my baby daughter, who has been my constant inspiration since she was born.' - Evis Sammoutis.
SKU: HL.49047413
ISBN 9784113370373. UPC: 196288216544. 9.0x12.0x0.16 inches.
“[Bach's] six unaccompanied cello suites bring together three voices - two upper voices and a bass - into one line. If so, the Goldberg Variations, which have the same structure, might also be reproduced for unaccompanied cello. This sudden idea led me to the arrangement of the piece. Of course, it is impossible to reproduce every single note, but I aimed to arrange it in a way that all the notes would sound in our mind. When combining the three lines into one, the most crucial consideration was, 'What would Bach do?' I carefully read materials and scores, repeatedly listened to recordings, performed my arrangement in concerts, and revised it over and over. That time was not painful, but pure joy, and it was a time to immerse myself in 'being Bach.' It is no exaggeration to say that it was more a time of recreation rather than arrangement. The articulations and slurs are fundamentally based on the facsimile of the first edition (the edition by Anne Fuzeau Productions) that Bach himself owned. It is a highly credible edition with corrections in red written by Bach.” Arrangement period: 2017-2023 Premiere: December 8, 2020 at Daisuke Kitaguchi Cello Recital; Muramatsu Recital Hall Shin-Osaka (Osaka).
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