SKU: AP.49068S

ISBN 9781470647834. UPC: 038081567051. English.

This multi-level piece includes a full set of parts for grade 2 as well as a full set for grade 3 ensembles. Mix and match the parts as you need---perfect for mixed-ability ensembles!

String Thang by Mark Wood is based on the twelve-bar blues. The blues has deep roots in American history, developed out of the work songs and chants of African-American slaves. The Great Migration of the first half of the 20th century saw freed slaves and their descendants move to northern and eastern parts of the U.S., taking their music with them. The blues took on different forms; in turn it helped to create rock, jazz, hip-hop, and other popular genres. A twelve-bar blues uses a repeating chord progression which allows musicians to express themselves creatively with each recurrence. If anything defines the blues, it is the use of blue notes---pitches that don't usually belong in a given key---and elements of improvisation. String Thang uses both blue notes in the main tune and the solo violin's part, as well as improvisational principles in the solo. For string orchestra with optional rock rhythm section parts. (2:45)

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SKU: LO.30-2105LA

UPC: 000308105933.

This inspiring new treatment of a favorite hymn promises to add vitality to every Easter service. The congregation joins in singing the hymn and the choir concludes with a jubilant Alleluia! Christ is risen today! (From Out of the Shadows: SATB - 55/1085L; SAB - 55/1086L).

SKU: HL.14008415

UPC: 884088808242. 8.5x11.0x0.261 inches.

This work, written by Maxwell Davies in 1983 for chamber orchestra, was commissioned to celebrate the quartercentenary of Edinburgh University. The first performance was given by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Edward Harper in October 1983. Duration c. 29mins. This work was thought through in outline following a visit to the ruined pre-Reformation church of Hoy in Orkney, on a fine Spring afternoon after Maxwell Davies had played the harmonium for the tiny congregation in its large bleak Victorian replacement. The old church was surrounded by the graves of centuries, the more recent ones with familiar names, largely of people who lived in houses now ruinous - crofters, fishermen, clerics, sea-captains. Next to it stood the chief farmhouse, the Bu, going back to Viking times. He thought of the lives and deaths encompassed there, expressed through hundreds of years of music in the church, and in the big barn of the farm. The plainsongs 'Dies Irae' and 'Victimae Paschali Laudes' are used throughout the work - the first concerning the Day of Judgement, from the Mass for the Dead, the second particular to Easter Sunday and the Resurrection. These are subject to constant transformation - the intervallic contour slowly changes from one into the other, and their notes are made to dance through Renaissance astrological 'magic square' patterns. The orchestra consists of double woodwind, two horns, two trumpets and strings.

SKU: AP.49439

ISBN 9781470650544. UPC: 038081571324. English.

Heroes Among Us by Gary Fagan is an original overture-style work for string orchestra that was inspired by the many people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure many school children who could not go to school received at least two hot meals each day throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. School bus drivers and cafeteria workers put in long hours to prepare meals and deliver them to students who otherwise may have gone hungry during the week. While teachers, nurses, doctors, etc. received accolades during the months when schools were out of session, many adults stepped in to take care of other necessities to ensure the well-being of the students they served. (3:30).

SKU: HL.49001811

ISBN 9790001024136. UPC: 073999276060. 9.0x12.0x0.129 inches.

Right at the beginning of the overture, Telemann comes up with a surprising idea. After the -'bare' entry of the wind section, the string tutti do not join in the playing until the third bar. The 'harlequinade' often appearing in Telemann's overture suites obtains its attraction not least from syncopes and from a permanent change of tone colour. The 'Espagniol' whose title prom-ises a bit of urbanity turns out to be a saraband, the 'Bourree en Trompette' justifies its name by the tone repetitions typical of trumpet music.In the context of the whole, the 'Sommeille', a harmonically unusual movement in C minor, is almost a piece across the border. Even in this gently rocking piece, Telemann is not at a loss for unobtrusive wit when he lets the upper parts die down shortly before the end, only a single bass tone represents the last chord.

SKU: AP.49899

ISBN 9781470657338. UPC: 038081575483. English.

Kingsgate Castle, by Michael Story, named for the majestic 18th-century structure on the southeast coast of England, is set in a traditional ABA overture form. (2:40).