SKU: CY.CC2727

Paul Marie Theodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and Louis Diemer. His main influence was Cesar Franck. These three pieces were some of his many works for Piano. Opus 33 was inspired by a trip to Bayreuth, the musical home of Wagner and the Black Forest region. Opus 33 no. 1 from 1889 is titled ? with no explanation of itself. Opus 33 no. 10 is titled Lermoos, which is a delightful skiing village in Austria right on the border with Germany. Germany's largest mountain is in perfect view, possibly giving the movement its spirit.
Opus 28 is a Serenade for Violin and Piano published in 1900. It is lithe, subtle and lyrical.

SKU: CY.CC2769

As the title suggests the work dying and dancing for Euphonium solo and Piano accompaniment is in two parts, which are played without a pause between the two.

The first part, an adagio, is not necessarily meant to be evocative of the actual act of passing away, but more perhaps of the contemplation and reflection upon one's life as that time approaches, and particularly of sorrow over regret and disappointment. The unsettled mood of the music reflects this bitterness, and stands in contrast to the expansive peace of the grave, heard at the beginning and end of the adagio.

Dance, with ironic wit, the second part, is the other side of the same coin; perhaps humor of the gallows describes its spirit. At once fatalist and mocking, it brings to mind the words of the ancient teacher Koheleth, The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

I was pleased to compose dying and dancing in 2013 for Mark Kellogg, a superb Euphonium artist and my former trombone iProfessor at the Eastman School of Music.

SKU: CY.CC2658

Scenes From Childhood (Kinderscenen), Opus 15 is a set of 13 pieces of music that Schumann wrote for Piano in 1838. They are his reminiscences of childhood and have been beautifully scored for Euphonium & Piano by Ralph Sauer. The most well known of the movements is Tråumerei (Dreaming) and has been used in movies to portray love scenes because of its tenderness and beauty.

The music is appropriate for advanced performers and the collection contains close to 20 minutes of some very sublime and poetic music. Any of these pieces can be inserted into a recital program.

SKU: CY.CC2722

The Chants du Rhin (Songs of the Rhine), a cycle of six pieces, based on poems by Joseph Mery, were written in 1865, and Bizet performed two of them on 16 April 1866 at a soiree of the Beaujolais Philharmonic Society. The songs are grouped symmetrically around La bohemienne as the central piece, framed by two meditatively yearning pieces (in E and D flat major) and two vividly exuberant ones (similarly in E and D flat major), with L'aurore serving as an introduction.

In this cycle Bizet takes up the theme of the gypsy girl which had already entered European music in the operas The Bohemian Girl by the Irish composer Michael William Balfe and Verdi's Il trovatore, as well as in Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano. Bizet will return to it one year later in La jolie fille de Perth and ten years later in Carmen. The fourth piece Les confidences shows similarities in tonality, structure and motifs to the middle part of the third movement of Chopin's Sonata in B minor.

This version includes parts in B-flat treble clef as well as bass clef.