SKU: BR.SON-509

ISBN 9790004803318. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Editorial BoardThomas Phleps (Music), Georg Witte (Writings)Editorial MembersMusic: Oliver Dahin / Johannes C. Gall, Writings: Maren KosterEditorial CommitteeMusic: Hartmut Fladt, Werner Grunzweig, Elmar Juchem, Roland Kluttig, Giselher SchubertWritings: Albrecht Betz, Albrecht Riethmuller, Jurgen Schebera, Friederike WissmannThe editorial works are supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.Special volumes are made possible with the support of the following foundations:Klockner-Stiftung, Lotto-Stiftung, Hanns und Steffy Eisler StiftungThe goal of the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition (HEGA) is to present to the public all available compositions, writings and letters in an appropriately scholarly form. It takes a historico-critical approach and seeks to document the history of the works and writings by shedding light on their transformations, thus identifying the various versions as witnesses of evolving aesthetic and historical positions. Eislers complete oeuvre (only a limited number of his works had penetrated the publics awareness up until the 1990s) first became the object of an editorial undertaking when the Eisler - Gesammelte Werke (EGW) was founded by Nathan Notowicz. It was later placed under the direction of Manfred Grabs and Eberhardt Klemm, and began issuing its publications in 1968 through the intermediary of the Deutscher Verlag fur Musik in Leipzig. However, only four volumes of music and five volumes of writings were published. The Hanns Eisler Complete Edition pursues the work begun at that time, although it has had to fundamentally revise its editorial principles. In this respect, the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition can be considered as a completely new editorial undertaking. It became necessary to reconceive the organization of the volumes and series as well as the editorial guidelines in order to adapt the standards of historico-critical editing generally applicable today to the specific and sometimes singular circumstances of Eislers works.The Critical Commentaries pertaining to the main volumes follow the music section or, whenever they are too extensive, appear in a special volume.Series I: Choral MusicSeries II: Music for Voice and Instrumental Ensemble or OrchestraSeries III: Music for Voice and PianoSeries IV: Instrumental MusicSeries V: Incidental MusicSeries VI: Film MusicSeries VII: Sketches and FragmentsSeries VIII: Arrangements of works by other composersSeries IX: Writings, Letters and InterviewsSON 501 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2003.SON 502 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2007.

The major upheavals that transformed society and musical aesthetics during the first half of the 20th century also profoundly affected the life of Hanns Eisler, as well as his compositions and writings. The importance and scope of Eislers oeuvre are reason enough to make his works accessible to musical scholarship and practice in a comprehensive fashion. Price reduction for a subscription.

SKU: PR.416415760

UPC: 680160636532. 9 x 12 inches.

The 1712 Overture stands out in P.D.Q. Bach's oeuvre for two reasons, among others: it is by far the most programmatic instrumental piece among those by the minimeister of Wein-am-Rhein so far unearthed, and 2) its discovery has led to a revelation about the composer's father, Johann Sebastian Bach, that has exploded like a bombshell on the usually serene musicological landscape. The overture is based on an anecdote told to P.D.Q. Bach by a cousin, Peter Ulrich. Since P.U. Bach lived in Dudeldorf, only a few miles down the road from Wein-am-Rhein, he was P.D.Q.'s closest relative, and he was, in fact, one of the few members of the family who was on speaking terms with P.D.Q. The story, related to P.D.Q. (fortunately for us posterity types) in a letter, may be summarized thus: The town of Dudeldorf was founded by two brothers, Rudi and Dieter Dudel, early in the 18th century. Rudi remained mayor of the newborn burg for the rest of his long life, but Dieter had a dream of starting a musicians' colony, an entire city devoted to music, which dream, he finally decided, could be realized only in the New World. In 1712, he and several other bagpipers sailed to Boston, never to return to Germany. (Henceforth, Rudi became known as der deutscher Dudel and Dieter as the Yankee Dudel). Unfortunately, the head of the Boston Musicians' Guild had gotten wind of Dudel's plans, and Wilhelm Wiesel (pron. VEE-zle), known none too affectionately around town as Wiesel the Weasel, was not about to share what few gigs there were in colonial America with more foreigners and outside agitators. He and his cronies were on hand to meet Dudel's boat when it pulled into Boston Harbor; they intended to prevent the newcomers' disembarkation, but Dudel and his companions managed to escape to the other side of the bay in a dinghy, landing with just enough time to rent a carriage and horses before hearing the sound of The Weasel and his men, who had had to come around the long way. The Germans headed West, with the Bostonians in furious pursuit. soon the city had been left far behind, and by midnight so had the pursuers; Dieter Dudel decided that it was safe for him and his men to stop and sleep until daybreak. When they awoke, they found that they were in a beautiful landscape of low, forested mountains and pleasant fields, warmed by the brilliant morning sun and serenaded by an entrancing variety of birds. Here, Dudel thought, her is where I will build my colony. The immigrants continued down the road at a leisurely pace until they came upon a little church, all by itself in the countryside, from which there suddenly emanated the sounds of a pipe organ. At this point, the temptation to quote from P.U. Bach's letter to P.D.Q. cannot be resisted: They went inside and, after listening to the glorious music for a while, introduced themselves to the organist. And who do you think it was? Are you ready for this -- it was your old man! Hey, no kidding -- you know, I'm sure, that your father was the guy to get when it came to testing new organs, and whoever had that one in Massachusetts built offered old Sebastian a tidy sum to go over there and check it out. The unexpected meeting with J.S. Bach and his sponsors was interrupted by the sound of horse hooves, as the dreaded Wiesel and his men thundered on to the scene. They had been riding all night, however, and they were no spring chickens to start with, and as soon as they reached the church they all dropped, exhausted, to the ground. The elated Germans rang the church bells and offered to buy everyone a beer at the nearest tavern. There they were taught, and joined in singing, what might be called the national anthem of the New World. The melody of this pre-revolutionary patriotic song is still remembered (P.D.Q. Bach quotes it, in the bass instruments, near the end of the overture), but is words are now all but forgotten: Freedom, of thee we sing, Freedom e'er is our goal; Death to the English King, Long live Rock and Ross. The striking paucity of biographical references to Johann Sebastian Bah during the year 1712 can now be explained: he was abroad for a significant part of that year, testing organs in the British Colonies. That this revelation has not been accepted as fact by the musicological establishment is no surprise, since it means that a lot of books would have to be rewritten. The members of that establishment haven't even accepted the existence of P.D.Q. Bach, one of whose major works the 1712 Overture certainly is. It is also a work that shows Tchaikowsky up as the shameless plagiarizer that some of us have always known he was. The discovery of this awesome opus was made possible by a Boston Pops Centennial Research Commission; the first modern performance took place at the opening concert of the 100th anniversary season of that orchestra, under the exciting but authentic direction of John Williams.

SKU: HL.49018099

ISBN 9790001158428. UPC: 884088567347. 8.25x11.75x0.457 inches. Latin - German.

On letting go(Concerning the selection of the texts) In the selection of the texts, I have allowed myself to be motivated and inspired by the concept of 'letting go'. This appears to me to be one of the essential aspects of dying, but also of life itself. We humans cling far too strongly to successful achievements, whether they have to do with material or ideal values, or relationships of all kinds. We cannot and do not want to let go, almost as if our life depended on it. As we will have to practise the art of letting go at the latest during our hour of death, perhaps we could already make a start on this while we are still alive. Tagore describes this farewell with very simple but strikingly vivid imagery: 'I will return the key of my door'. I have set this text for tenor solo. Here I imagine, and have correspondingly noted in a certain passage of the score, that the protagonist finds himself as though 'in an ocean' of voices in which he is however not drowning, but immersing himself in complete relaxation. The phenomenon of letting go is described even more simply and tersely in Psalm 90, verse 12: 'So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom'. This cannot be expressed more plainly.I have begun the requiem with a solo boy's voice singing the beginning of this psalm on a single note, the note A. This in effect says it all. The work comes full circle at the culmination with a repeat of the psalm which subsequently leads into a resplendent 'lux aeterna'. The intermediate texts of the Requiem which highlight the phenomenon of letting go in the widest spectrum of colours originate on the one hand from the Latin liturgy of the Messa da Requiem (In Paradisum, Libera me, Requiem aeternam, Mors stupebit) and on the other hand from poems by Joseph von Eichendorff, Hermann Hesse, Rabindranath Tagore and Rainer Maria Rilke.All texts have a distinctive positive element in common and view death as being an organic process within the great system of the universe, for example when Hermann Hesse writes: 'Entreiss dich, Seele, nun der Zeit, entreiss dich deinen Sorgen und mache dich zum Flug bereit in den ersehnten Morgen' ['Tear yourself way , o soul, from time, tear yourself away from your sorrows and prepare yourself to fly away into the long-awaited morning'] and later: 'Und die Seele unbewacht will in freien Flugen schweben, um im Zauberkreis der Nacht tief und tausendfach zu leben' ['And the unfettered soul strives to soar in free flight to live in the magic sphere of the night, deep and thousandfold']. Or Joseph von Eichendorff whose text evokes a distant song in his lines: 'Und meine Seele spannte weit ihre Flugel aus. Flog durch die stillen Lande, als floge sie nach Haus' ['And my soul spread its wings wide. Flew through the still country as if homeward bound.']Here a strong romantically tinged occidental resonance can be detected which is however also accompanied by a universal spirit going far beyond all cultures and religions. In the beginning was the sound Long before any sort of word or meaningful phrase was uttered by vocal chords, sounds, vibrations and tones already existed. This brings us back to the music. Both during my years of study and at subsequent periods, I had been an active participant in the world of contemporary music, both as percussionist and also as conductor and composer. My early scores had a somewhat adventurous appearance, filled with an abundance of small black dots: no rhythm could be too complicated, no register too extreme and no harmony too dissonant. I devoted myself intensely to the handling of different parameters which in serial music coexist in total equality: I also studied aleatory principles and so-called minimal music.I subsequently emigrated and took up residence in Spain from where I embarked on numerous travels over the years to India, Africa and South America. I spent repeated periods during this time as a resident in non-European countries. This meant that the currents of contemporary music swept past me vaguely and at a great distance. What I instead absorbed during this period were other completely new cultures in which I attempted to immerse myself as intensively as possible.I learned foreign languages and came into contact with musicians of all classes and styles who had a different cultural heritage than my own: I was intoxicated with the diversity of artistic potential.Nevertheless, the further I distanced myself from my own Western musical heritage, the more this returned insistently in my consciousness.The scene can be imagined of sitting somewhere in the middle of the Brazilian jungle surrounded by the wailing of Indians and out of the blue being provided with the opportunity to hear Beethoven's late string quartets: this can be a heart-wrenching experience, akin to an identity crisis. This type of experience can also be described as cathartic. Whatever the circumstances, my 'renewed' occupation with the 'old' country would not permit me to return to the point at which I as an audacious young student had maltreated the musical parameters of so-called contemporary music. A completely different approach would be necessary: an extremely careful approach, inching my way gradually back into the Western world: an approach which would welcome tradition back into the fold, attempt to unfurl the petals and gently infuse this tradition with a breath of contemporary life.Although I am aware that I will not unleash a revolution or scandal with this approach, I am nevertheless confident as, with the musical vocabulary of this Requiem, I am travelling in an orbit in which no ballast or complex structures will be transported or intimated: on the contrary, I have attempted to form the message of the texts in music with the naivety of a 'homecomer'. Harald WeissColonia de San PedroMarch 2009.

SKU: BR.SON-511

ISBN 9790004803448. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Editorial BoardThomas Phleps (Music), Georg Witte (Writings)Editorial MembersMusic: Oliver Dahin / Johannes C. Gall, Writings: Maren KosterEditorial CommitteeMusic: Hartmut Fladt, Werner Grunzweig, Elmar Juchem, Roland Kluttig, Giselher SchubertWritings: Albrecht Betz, Albrecht Riethmuller, Jurgen Schebera, Friederike WissmannThe editorial works are supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.Special volumes are made possible with the support of the following foundations:Klockner-Stiftung, Lotto-Stiftung, Hanns und Steffy Eisler StiftungThe goal of the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition (HEGA) is to present to the public all available compositions, writings and letters in an appropriately scholarly form. It takes a historico-critical approach and seeks to document the history of the works and writings by shedding light on their transformations, thus identifying the various versions as witnesses of evolving aesthetic and historical positions. Eislers complete oeuvre (only a limited number of his works had penetrated the publics awareness up until the 1990s) first became the object of an editorial undertaking when the Eisler - Gesammelte Werke (EGW) was founded by Nathan Notowicz. It was later placed under the direction of Manfred Grabs and Eberhardt Klemm, and began issuing its publications in 1968 through the intermediary of the Deutscher Verlag fur Musik in Leipzig. However, only four volumes of music and five volumes of writings were published. The Hanns Eisler Complete Edition pursues the work begun at that time, although it has had to fundamentally revise its editorial principles. In this respect, the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition can be considered as a completely new editorial undertaking. It became necessary to reconceive the organization of the volumes and series as well as the editorial guidelines in order to adapt the standards of historico-critical editing generally applicable today to the specific and sometimes singular circumstances of Eislers works.The Critical Commentaries pertaining to the main volumes follow the music section or, whenever they are too extensive, appear in a special volume.Series I: Choral MusicSeries II: Music for Voice and Instrumental Ensemble or OrchestraSeries III: Music for Voice and PianoSeries IV: Instrumental MusicSeries V: Incidental MusicSeries VI: Film MusicSeries VII: Sketches and FragmentsSeries VIII: Arrangements of works by other composersSeries IX: Writings, Letters and InterviewsSON 501 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2003.SON 502 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2007.

The major upheavals that transformed society and musical aesthetics during the first half of the 20th century also profoundly affected the life of Hanns Eisler, as well as his compositions and writings. The importance and scope of Eislers oeuvre are reason enough to make his works accessible to musical scholarship and practice in a comprehensive fashion. Price reduction for a subscription.

SKU: HL.283507

Exit Music for Orchestra was composed by Bent Sorensen in 2006-07. Exit Music was commissioned by the Bergen International Festival for the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and is dedicated to Per Norgard on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Programme note It began with a dream, as it always does when I compose. I dreamt that I was standing in an open doorway on a hill in an otherwise open landscape. I do not know what was behind the door, but in front of it - towards the landscape - I saw my music disappearing. I stood looking for the music, and started to hear it, to remember it in time with its disappearance. The dream continued to recur as strange pictures in my daydreams, and I continued to try to write down the music that had vanished. It was also the dream that gave the piece its title- Exit Music. Exit Music is based on three simple songs (the songs that vanish through the doorway): a little lullaby, which continues to reappearin fragments; a strange polyphonic pop song that refers to a section of my opera Under the Sky; and a passionate little love song, which concludes the piece on the strings, very quietly and in unison. These simple songs are then constantly overpainted by enervating repeated motes in fairly simple rhythms, which push the songs out of the room. (Bent Sorensen).

SKU: HL.48187646

UPC: 888680845186. 5.5x7.5x0.568 inches.

Interestingly, Schumann?s Third Symphony was in fact his last symphony, as the fourth symphony was actually composed after the first. The Symphony No.3 in E flat Op.97 was written 1850 during the composer?s tenure as conductor at Dusseldorf on the famous river Rhine. Schumann claimed that the history and spirit surrounding the noble river inspired him when writing the symphony, hence it being called the ?Rhenish? symphony. The symphony was less successful at its premiere in February 1851 (conducted by Schumann himself) than his previous two symphonic premiers had been.This symphony is in five movements, with the ?extra? fourth movement, originally subtitled ?In the style of an accompaniment to a solemn ceremony?, was inspired by a visit to Cologne Cathedral.Available here is a study score of Schumann?s Symphony No.3 in E flat ?Rhenish? Op.97 , which is ideal for study and perusal usage..

SKU: HL.14009640

The Chanson de Nuit was originally entitled Evensong, though it is difficult to discern any religiosity in the work. And although published in 1897, scholars suggest that these works may have been written in the 1880's. The contrast of the two melodies which Elgar then intertwines yield a satisfying short work, especially with the composer's fine Orchestration.Elgar published the Chanson de Nuit - and its partner, Chanson de Matin - at the time of his life when he was also creating the Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius. This work was originally created as a Violin and Piano duet, but Elgar then Orchestrated the work and it was presented at the Proms. Sincethen, other arrangements have been created.