SKU: MN.12-128

UPC: 688670121289.

The three movements that make up Nocturnes, Book I are programmatic pieces that take as their points of departure a painting, the rhythms of a great city, and a poem. 1. The Starry Night is a written down improvisation based on Vincent van Goghs famous picture of the same name. The tonal material is a quite literal transformation of the visual elements of the painting: the melismatic cadenzas mirror van Goghs swirling starlight, and the powerful chords were suggested by the sinister trees that shoot upward to puncture the skys patterns. 2. Stovers Rag is a product of the ragtime revival of the early 1970s, when many composers tried their hand at writing concert rags. The New York night, which was not without its sinister element in those days, is expressed in an updating of the classic ragtime format. The piece looks backward as well, with the old French Baroque basse de trompette making an appearance in the trio section. 3. The Song of Shadows taps the nostalgic mood typical of the poetry of Walter de la Mare. The poem of the same name pictures a lone musician on a winter night, an dog sleeping before a sinking fire, and, at the end, the spirits that are summoned by music. The opening melody, played on an 8 flute with tremulant, suggests the blues-tinged sound of an alto saxophone, and throughout the movement the organs capacity for sustained tone is used to suggest and atmosphere of dreamy timelessness. The pieces were written in 1971 and first performed on July 2, 1972 at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, with the composer at the console.

SKU: HL.49033297

ISBN 9790001137751. UPC: 884088070496. 9.0x12.0x0.158 inches.

Though the work bearing this title is a portrait of childhood, it is a childhood quite different from the purely gameplaying and dreamlike childhood that is customarily represented. The childhood described here is carrying the seed, in all its purity, of all positive and negative qualities to be found the fully-grown men: a childhood both angelic and diabolical, and indeed very close to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw which was the direct inspiration for this monodrama.Its growth follows the innumerable sudden changes, turns and contrasts of the unsophisticated spirit. There is hardly any development at all, as each idea gives birth to the next or rejects the previons one, being object to every impulse, every tempest, every flux, every fear and delight. After a dreamlike introduction, in which two simple melodies stand out, comes a sudden awakening, Allegro, stamped all over with lavish and forever regenerating dynamism. A sudden halt leads a kind of outburst from the most simple folklore is singing, in regular, repeated notes. Again the question mark leads us to another melody, Tranquillo, of a sweet tempo, but brilliantly decorated with counter-point, its cursive traits leading this time to a kind of roguish march (Vigoroso).Yet soon there emerges a melancholic chant, Largo, in the Cromorne's timbre, and then, in the highest register of the Trumpet there reappears like a metamorphosed memory, the theme of the second movement. Passing other episodes, we come to Tempo giusto, insistent and glorious, interrupted by other passionate figures, cut off by unsettling silent moments and taken up again in always accelerating volleys.

SKU: HL.14031560

ISBN 9788759811009. International (more than one language).

STILL. LEBEN Organist Eva Feldbc:ek had been asking me for a long time to write for the organ without the use of iron blocks, extra stopping assistants etc .... unusual difficulties that belonged to my earlier organ music. I setmyselfthe task of Miting a ''handier'' kind of music for the organ. Once I had finished STILL. LEBEN, I didn't think I had achieved what I was looking for. True, the two movements did not involve odd things, but handy isn't really the word for them either. So I wrote the three movements in COUNTERMOVE to tidy up even more. And since I didn't think that was enough either, I wrote the really simple pieces under the title IN TRIPLUM. The three series(eight pieces in all, 2 + 3 + 3) sound very different, but they all take their point of departure from the nature and tonal resources ofthe organ. Everywhere there is polyrhythm or hierarchical layering, polychromaticism, diatonics and melody (the last of these only sparingly and in some of the movements). Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen.