SKU: FV.FUE-2940

ISBN 979-0-50012-194-7.

These 8 pieces, all made short, are of opposing natures. The pieces succeedingly expose moments of elegy, fast rhythm, resonance, and of wandering and play in the fog of harmonics or clusters. The whole amounts to a fleeting and expressive work.

WP: in 1988 at 3rd biannual for music creation in Essonne, broadcasted on Radio-France.

SKU: FA.MFGT056

8.27 x 11.69 inches.

In 1959, Germaine Tailleferre wrote incidental music for a radio drama based on Philippe Jullian’s « Mémoire d’une bergère » or « Autobiography of an armchair » which traced the owners of this armchair from the court of Louis XV to England after the French Revolution, back to Paris and through the hands of various foreign owners (Arabian, American, German etc.). In illustrating this story Tailleferre used her great knowledge of musical styles to evoke these different settings, from the classical styles of French music of the XVIIIth century to classical, romantic, popular French styles as well as two evocations of American Blues/Ragtime music. These short pieces are interesting in and of themselves, in addition to illustrating Jullian’s story. The first piece may be repeated at the end, as it was in the original radio drama.

SKU: HL.14043546

9.0x12.0x0.088 inches.

Judith Weir 'S Day Break Shadows Flee For Solo Piano. This 10 Minute Work Was Commissioned By Bbc Radio 3. It Was First Performed By Benjamin Grosvenor On 1St September 2014, As Part Of The Proms Chamber Music Series At Cadogan Hall. ' Day Break Shadows Flee , Written For Benjamin Grosvenor, Is A Two-Part Invention, A Piano Solo Composition In Which The Two Hands Work In Close Co-Ordination But Independently. My Intention Was Generally To Avoid Using Thick Chords (Although Octaves And Other Clear Sonorities Are Included) While Allowing Both The Right And Left-Hand Lines To Be Free, Mobile And Expressive. The Treble And Bass Sectors Of The Keyboard Are Clearly Contrasted AndOften Widely Separated. In Atmosphere And Expression The Music Is Another Kind Of Two-Part Invention, Contrasting Bright, Upwards-Arching Phrases (Heard At The Opening And Evoking The Arrival Of Light At The Beginning Of The Day) With Veiled, Mysterious Scurryings, Suggesting The Stranger, More Nervous Life Lived At Night And In The Early Morning. ' - Judith Weir.

SKU: BT.CM168

Twelve Astrological Preludes were written over a period of roughly two years and several were broadcast on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night as well as in other concerts. Aquarius was written in 1994 as a filler to apopular BBC solo piano series of the time called At the Piano. It was named Aquarius for programming purposes and as Elms left the studio the producer called after him 'Only eleven to go' and so Twelve Astrological Preludes cameinto being.

The preludes, which run in the usual cycle, are based upon two melodic strands and there is one piece in each of the twelve major keys. The character and style of each
prelude alludes to certaincharactertraits of its particular birth sign and each piece bears the initials of a friend born under that particular sign.
Each prelude is prefaced by a printed description of some of the general characteristics deemed to beassociated with that sign. These are, of course, generalisations! Some preludes show a little deference to some of my favourite 'masters'.

Elms has recorded Twelve Astrological Preludes for the Herald label and they areavailable on the CD Moody Moves together with other pieces of his chamber music including the piano sextet from which the CD takes its name. More information is available at masterkeyboards.co.uk.