SKU: HL.14030976
ISBN 9788759853757. 9.5x14.25x0.086 inches. English.
The composer writes, 'Quite some time ago I heard - through a conversation in a mobile phone - a wonderful concert of ringing church bells from an European capital. I found it very hard to concentrate about the conversation, because I was so engrossed by the chaotic world of bell sound. The night after, I dreamt that the sound of those low singing bells was rising up from a piano in a huge empty concert hall. That experience became the starting point for my piano piece, 'The Shadows of Silence'. But before the piece gets to the ringing bells it moves through a landscape of shadows - Shadows of the silence before the bells - Silence before the storm - Shadows of melodies which all the time leaves traces even in the short passages of storm. After the passage with the low ringing bells the shadows of silence returns melted in to a lament, which are sending two regards. One to two small beautiful - not very well known - bars by Mozart, and one to the sextet in my own opera, 'Under the Sky'.
SKU: HL.50600925
ISBN 9781495095320. UPC: 888680688592. 9x12 inches.
Composer Note: In 1990, after eight years in the United States, I wrote my first work for solo piano, titled My Song, commissioned for Peter Serkin. At the time, my primary compositional concentration was to develop a melodic and harmonic style within the boundaries of Chinese folk music, which are mostly in pentatonic modes, and contemporary Western Classical music. As a result, all the four movements in My Song were either based on existing Chinese folk tunes or written in their style. I was asked recently by another virtuoso pianist friend, Yefim Bronfman, to write a work for solo piano. After the passing of 17 years, I wonder if there is any change in my writing. I therefore titled the new suite My Other Song.There are four movements in the composition, the first three of which are brief and provide contrast in character. The theme of the last movement, the longest, is based on a Buddhist chant heard at the wake for my mother in February 2005.–Bright Sheng.
SKU: BT.EMBZ60
English-German-Hungarian.
'Bartók wrote the first dance around the time of the Romanian movements of the 'Seven Sketches', after his first trip collecting Romanian folk music in July-August 1909. The second dance is the fruit of March the following year, and it was only after some time he decided they should be published as a pair. From the beginning, audiences were impressed by the first dance, in the composer's peculiar performance, with its initial drumming, and its driving rhythms. If less popular, compositionally the second dance is more original. He parades and varies his material in a chain form, and this too is reminiscent of the dances heard in the playing of Romanian Transylvanian villagemusicians, which in his scholarly work Bartók called 'motive dances.' (HCD 32525 Bartók New Series Vol. 25, László Somfai).
SKU: BR.EB-9450
ISBN 9790004189276. 9 x 12 inches.
It is quite amazing that the piano works of the English composer Ethel Smyth had remained unpublished until 2003. All of them were written during her Leipzig study years after 1877, a period that Ethel Smyth herself described as the happiest time of her life. In Leipzig, she met such musical giants as Brahms, Clara Schumann, Dvorak, Grieg and Tchaikovsky. It should come as no surprise that these encounters left stylistic traces in Ethel Smyth's piano oeuvre.Smyth wrote the three piano sonatas in 1877, yet they are stylistically diverse: Smyth raced through a kind of musico-historical evolution. Her point of departure was Haydn and Mozart, who clearly inspired her sonata in C major. It was followed by the impassionate sonata in C sharp minor, which was inspired by the actress Marie Geistinger. The two-movement fragment in D major, reflecting Ethel Smyth's admiration for Brahms, concludes the sonatas.Most of the other piano pieces borrow their atmosphere and titles from Baroque models (dance movements, genre pieces) and are technically undemanding. They have been arranged in this edition in order of progressive difficulty.It is quite amazing that the piano works of the English composer Ethel Smyth had remained unpublished to this day. She wrote all of these pieces during her years of study in Leipzig, after 1877.
SKU: BR.EB-8935
These Six Piano Sonatas op. 40 comprise the first great sonata cycle by Eduard Franck. Composed in a longer period before 1882, the sonatas immediately found a great, in part brilliant reception after publication.
ISBN 9790004186022. 9 x 12 inches.
These Six Piano Sonatas op. 40 comprise the first great sonata cycle by Eduard Franck. Composed in a longer period before 1882, the sonatas immediately found a great, in part brilliant reception after publication.So, for instance, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik opined on 11 May 1883: Since Beethoven probably few top-ranking composers have brought into being such creations as Eduard Franck. [...] Several of them deserved to be performed symphonically, because prevalent in them are dramatic elements [...]. Eduard Franck's piano sonatas are perceived in our time as a modest continuation of the classical and romantic piano sonata in line with a recognized and proven model. With op. 40 now appearing, Breitkopf & Hartel begins its edition of Eduard Franck's piano works, thus completing the picture of the romantic piano sonata in the second half of the 19th century.
SKU: FP.FLJ36
ISBN 9790570504213.
Famous sea shanty Haul Away Joe, here arranged for solo piano by talented 20th Century British composer John Longmire.Longmire was born in Gainsborough in 1902 and the publication success of his innovative 'Nine Insect Pieces' in 1924 led to him writing over 50 volumes of music for the piano, many of which remain in print with Forsyth Publishing today. A long-time friend and biographer of John Ireland, they lived together in Guernsey while Ireland wrote some of his finest works and only narrowly escaped the German invasion of 1940, escaping on an overcrowded ferry pursued by a submarine.After returning to the island post-war, Longmire composed the 'Song of Guernsey' for Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh visit in 1949. Later in 1957, when Elizabeth visited again as Queen, he conducted his 'Song of Welcome' sung by 6600 children in St Peter Port. In 1950 he married and emigrated to New Zealand where he was Music Master at Northcote College, Auckland, conductor of the Royal Auckland Choir and a broadcaster hosting weekly talks on music on NZBC. Returning to Guernsey, he became an examiner for Trinity College of Music, also writing 100 pieces for the exam syllabus and adjudicating for Trinity and the ABRSM internationally.
SKU: PR.110418370
ISBN 9781491135075. UPC: 680160686247.
Composed as an organ solo by the 17-year-old Ives for his own performance purposes, the beloved Variations on America is a treat for any occasion, whether a holiday concert, a serious recital, or other special event. Danny Holt’s transcription for Piano, Four Hands adds a dazzling new option to play at home or on stage, taking best advantage of Ives’ tremendous contrasts in color, dynamics, and texture.Composed when Charles Ives was a teenager, Variations on “America†is both a convenient introduction to Ives’ body of work, and an early example of his iconoclastic musical voice and creative genius. Just a few years after composing this piece, Ives would leave home to study music at Yale. But until then he had been taught by his father, George (who had been a bandmaster in the Civil War). George subjected the young Ives to experiments such as singing a song in one key while being accompanied in another, or arranging for two marching bands to converge on a town center, with the resulting cacophony that ensued.The Variations exemplifies an early period of experimentation in Ives’ work, spurred on by the unusual pedagogy of his father. The piece is particularly notable for its use of bitonality in the two interludes, subtly foreshadowing more well-known examples by Stravinsky, Bartók, and others by approximately two decades.The bitonal interludes were so ahead of their time, in fact, they were omitted from the first copy that was submitted to a publisher in 1892. (Alas, the piece was rejected even despite these “shocking†elements having been left out, and it wasn’t published until more than five decades later.) There is some ambiguity about when exactly Ives added the interludes into his manuscript copy, though ample evidence suggests he had performed the piece with the interludes around the time he notated the piece in 1891-92. In any case, in light of this piece and his other polytonal explorations from the last decade of the 19th century, it seems fair to give Ives credit for being a pioneer in this area!This arrangement for Piano, Four Hands, closely follows Ives’ original version for organ, setting aside William Schuman’s popular adaptation for symphony orchestra and William Rhoads’ band transcription of the Schuman orchestration. Pianists will find that the piece translates well to the instrument. Ideally, the choreography and logistics of elbow-to-elbow four-hands playing approximates the wild joy one gets from watching an organist play the piece (e.g., the elaborate pedal part in the final variation).In preparing this publication, attention was paid to details in the dual Critical Editions (Presser 443-41003) of both Ives’ manuscript edition and the 1949 publication edited by organist E. Power Biggs (who is credited with discovering what had been a long-lost, forgotten work.) But as with much of Ives’ output, attempting to create a true ‘urtext’ score is a futile endeavor, and especially with a piece such as this one – in which Ives incorporated improvisation in live performance – seems unnecessary anyhow. True die-hards are of course encouraged to consult the critical editions and even find inspiration in the orchestrated version. Generally, performers are advised to be wild, have fun, and not to be too rigid in their interpretive choices.Dynamics in this arrangement mostly follow the organ score closely. Pianists will use good judgment about pedaling throughout, which should be straightforward and intuitive. Courtesy accidentals have been provided frequently – without parentheses – balancing the need for extra clarity in the context of Ives’ murky musical language, and a desire to avoid unnecessary clutter.A few notes that might inform interpretive decisions:mm. 15-16: There are inconsistencies here between Ives’ original manuscript and the 1949 Biggs edition, regarding the top voice in m. 15, beat 3 (C# vs. Cn) and m. 16 (D Major vs. D Minor).mm. 76-84 & 143-146: In both Interludes, Ives emphatically notates extreme dynamic contrast, in order to highlight the bitonality. Although it may seem counterintuitive (or even a misprint, as has apparently been misconstrued by some), performers are urged to follow the composer’s marking!m. 109: Two-note slurs have been added here for clarity and consistency with other similar passages, though they do not appear in either the original manuscript or Biggs.m. 112: The last two eighth notes of Primo appear as 16ths in the original manuscript.mm. 183-186: The original manuscript has a slightly different bass line.mm. 184 & 186: Primo gestures have been re-written to be slightly more idiomatic for Piano, Four Hands.m. 186: The breath mark at the end of this bar does not appear in either the manuscript or Biggs, but is an editorial suggestion – aside from being appropriately dramatic, it will indeed be necessary in a reverberant hall!I would like to thank Steven Vanhauwaert, the other half of my piano duo, 4handsLA, for his input on early drafts of this arrangement.— Danny Holt, April 2022.
SKU: BR.EB-9253
World premiere of the orchestral version: Stuttgart, January 1, 2018World premiere of the piano version: Mito, June 17, 2017
Have a look into EB 9283.
ISBN 9790004185537. 9 x 12 inches.
Marche fatale is an incautiously daring escapade that may annoy the fans of my compositions more than my earlier works, many of which have prevailed only after scandals at their world premieres. My Marche fatale has, though, little stylistically to do with my previous compositional path; it presents itself without restraint, if not as a regression, then still as a recourse to those empty phrases to which modern civilization still clings in its daily utility music, whereas music in the 20th and 21st centuries has long since advanced to new, unfamiliar soundscapes and expressive possibilities. The key term is banality. As creators we despise it, we try to avoid it - though we are not safe from the cheap banal even within new aesthetic achievements.Many composers have incidentally accepted the banal. Mozart wrote Ein musikalischer Spass [A Musical Jape], a deliberately amateurishly miscarried sextet. Beethoven's Bagatellen op. 119 were rejected by the publisher on the grounds that few will believe that this minor work is by the famous Beethoven. Mauricio Kagel wrote, tongue in cheek, so to speak, Marsche, um den Sieg zu verfehlen [Marches for being Unvictorious], Ligeti wrote Hungarian Rock; in his Circus Polka Stravinsky quoted and distorted the famous, all too popular Schubert military march, composed at the time for piano duet. I myself do not know, though, whether I ought to rank my Marche fatale alongside these examples: I accept the humor in daily life, the more so as this daily life for some of us is not otherwise to be borne. In music, I mistrust it, considering myself all the closer to the profounder idea of cheerfulness having little to do with humor. However: Isn't a march with its compelling claim to a collectively martial or festive mood absurd, a priori? Is it even music at all? Can one march and at the same time listen? Eventually, I resolved to take the absurd seriously - perhaps bitterly seriously - as a debunking emblem of our civilization that is standing on the brink. The way - seemingly unstoppable - into the black hole of all debilitating demons: that can become serene. My old request of myself and my music-creating surroundings is to write a non-music, whence the familiar concept of music is repeatedly re-defined anew and differently, so that derailed here - perhaps? - in a treacherous way, the concert hall becomes the place of mind-opening adventures instead of a refuge in illusory security. How could that happen? The rest is - thinking.(Helmut Lachenmann, 2017)CD (Version for Piano):Nicolas Hodges CD Wergo WER 7393 2 Bibliography:Ich bin nicht ,,pietistisch verformt. Ein Gesprach [von Jan Brachmann] mit dem Komponisten Helmut Lachenmann, in: FAZ vom 7. Juni 2018, p. 15.World premiere of the piano version: Mito/Japan, June 17, 2017, World premiere of the orchestral version: Stuttgart, January 1, 2018, World premiere of the ensemble version: Frankfurt, December 9, 2020.
SKU: HL.354338
ISBN 9781705107669. UPC: 840126936964. 9.0x12.0x0.109 inches.
Richard Wilson was born in Cleveland on May 15, 1941. He studied piano with Roslyn Pettibone, Egbert Fischer, and Leonard Shure, andcello with Robert Ripley and Ernst Silberstein. After beginning composition studies with Roslyn Pettibone and Howard Whittaker, he went on in 1959 to Harvard, studying with Randall Thompson, G.W. Woodworth, and principally with Robert Moevs, and graduating in 1963 magna cum laude. Awarded the Frank Huntington Beebe Award for study abroad, he continued studying piano with Friedrich Wührer in Munich, and composition, again with Moevs, in Rome, where he also gave piano recitals. Wilson joined the faculty of Vassar College in 1966. He was appointed to the Mary Conover Mellon Professorship of Music there in 1988, and he has served three times as chairman of the Department of Music. Wilson has been commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, the American Symphony, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, Chamber Music America, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, and the Library of Congress. His works have been heard in such American musical centers as New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Cleveland, and Los Angeles and at the Aspen Music Festival, but also in London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Zurich, Milan, Amsterdam, Graz, Leningrad, Stockholm, Tokyo, Bogota, and a number of Australian cities. The recipient in 1992 of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1994, the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004, and has served as composer in residence with the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992. Wilson has been praised by 21st Century Music as a “splendidly talented and highly accomplished composer whose music rewards seeking out†and by the New York Sun as “possessed of a hard-won idiom that has grown and developed over the years into a probing blend of wit, classic form, modern harmony, and impressionistic color.†Writing in the New Yorker, Andrew Porter called his String Quartet No. 3 a “richly wrought and unusual composition,†while the New York Times called it “a work of substance and expressivity ... [that] merits a place in the active repertory.â€.
SKU: HH.HH597-SOL
ISBN 9790708213123.
After the positive reviews of Animal Jazz, the composer was encouraged to write a sequel of pieces that would provide more of a challenge to the player, using diverse key signatures, a wider use of the piano keyboard range and more complex rhythms. Diving into musical genres from around the world I've come up with this colourful and eclectic collection, where you can find influences from blues, jump jive, ragtime, latin, disco, funk and classical music. In Who’s Harry, we’re transported to Africa with an afrobeat groove, reportedly invented by Tony Allen, the Nigerian drummer with Fela Kuti·s band. Jump Jive Jellyfish, as the title suggests, has a lively jump jive feel. The well-known Cuban dance style of Cha-cha-cha is gracefully danced by the Chickens, while our Penguins are enjoying a parade with a ragtime flavour. In Brazil, the Alpacas are holidaying and dancing to a jazz-style samba.
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