SKU: HL.368695

ISBN 9781705141779. UPC: 840126969085. 9.0x12.0x0.289 inches.

This collection of 27 pieces, transcribed and edited by the Howells scholar Jonathan Clinch and published for the first time to coincide with Matthew Schellhorn's recording of the complete piano music by Howells for Naxos, reveals a previously neglected aspect of this celebrated English composer. The pieces chart the musical development of Howells, from his earliest known work “The Arab's Song,” written when he as 16, to the “Petrus Suite,” completed in his 80s, as well as demonstrating his fascination with French music (“Phantasy,” “Harlequin Dreaming”) and the Tudor period (“Pavane” and “Galliard.”) The volume also includes the moving tribute to his friend and fellow composer Finzi. Comprising a wide array of pieces from characterful miniatures to more substantial suites, the collection will appeal to Howells devotees and lovers of 20th century English music, as well as to anyone seeking fresh and distinctive piano repertoire. Includes: The Arab's Song • To a Wild Flower • Romance • Melody • Legend • Summer Idyls: I. Meadow-Rest • II. Summer-Song • III. June-Haze • IV. Down the Hills • V. Quiet Woods • VI. Near Midnight • VII. In the Morning • Phantasy • Harlequin Dreaming • Minuet for Ursula • My Lord Harewood's Galliard • Finzi: His Rest • Siciliana • “Comme le cerf soupire...” • Pavane and Galliard • Petrus Suite: Finnicle's Scherzo • Gavotte • Vagrant Flute • Minuet • 'Sine Nomine' • Bassoonic's Dance • Odd's Minuet • Toccatina.

SKU: FJ.W9452

UPC: 241444385128. English.

This tribute to friendship features a charming, lyrical melody in waltz time and easy-to-learn positional changes. The piece is in C major with easy legato pedaling. Kevin Costley at his most engaging.

About FJH Written For You Piano Solos

Sparkling and lyrical pieces which promote musical expression.

SKU: PR.140401330

ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.

Nathaniel Dett was among America’s leading composers in the early 20th century, and MAGNOLIA SUITE is a beautiful example of his rich, hybrid style. Deeply inspired by the music and mission of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dett’s piano music springs from the late Romantic traditions of florid texture and embellishment, along with programmatic titles and raw emotion. It is notable for melody writing inspired by and paraphrasing African-American song. The 18-minute MAGNOLIA SUITE contains five movements, any of which may also be performed separately. This edition by Lara Downes provides a clean, new engraving that corrects the many errors and unclear indications appearing in the historical printing.
Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in a place that was built on freedom. The little village of Drummondville, Ontario was founded by enslaved Africans – Dett’s ancestors among them – who traveled the Underground Railroad out of the American South into Canada. Their journey brought them to a safe haven, a place where fortunes and futures could be transformed in the span of one generation, to lives full of new possibilities. You could call it “the place where the rainbow ends,” which is the title of the last movement of Dett’s Magnolia Suite.When Dett wrote these pieces, he was a young teacher at Lane College in Tennessee, a historically Black college that had been founded in 1882, the year of his birth. A place built on freedom, with the purpose of educating newly-emancipated slaves – a place designed to nurture the blossoming of ideas, the vibrant flowering of minds set free. This music is inspired by the gorgeous splendor of the magnolia blooms on that college campus, and also by the shared histories, experiences, and aspirations of the community that Dett found there.These five pieces pay affectionate tribute to lineage and legacy. They express gratitude for the bittersweet beauties of the present; nostalgia for the past (a bit romanticized, as the past always is); and an effervescent optimism for the future that awaits us in the place where the rainbow ends.

SKU: PR.110418160

ISBN 9781491114049. UPC: 680160640393. 9 x 12 inches.

Stacy Garrop began hiking in northern Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park in her early 20s. From the start, she was drawn to a jagged stretch of rock formations linking Longs Peak to Pagoda Mountain, at over 13,000 feet. These formations are called the “Keyboard of the Winds,” as their thin, spindly peaks suggest splintered keys of an old, broken piano. Inspired by one particular journey the composer took through the Keyboard of the Winds en route to Pagoda’s summit, this work is a tribute to the Keyboard of the Winds. Its fast, whirling gestures depict swirling clouds above, and the musical high points represent a hiker reaching the peak of Pagoda Mountain. These sections are set in contrast with quiet, introspective material embodying the hiker quietly surveying the grandeur and beauty of the valley below, as well as the soaring pinnacle of Longs Peak overhead.
I began hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado when I was in my early twenties. RMNP is home to some of the most gorgeous mountains in North America, encompassing 265,000 acres of wilderness, flora, and fauna. Among the park’s numerous summits is Longs Peak, a mountain that is 14,259 feet high (the highest in the region). From my earliest days of hiking, I was drawn to Longs Peak, as well as to a jagged stretch of rock formations that link Longs Peak to Pagoda Mountain (which stands at 13,497 feet). These formations are called the Keyboard of the Winds, as their thin, spindly peaks loosely suggest the splintered keys of an old, broken piano.One summer, I made the ascent to Pagoda Mountain using a route that took me along the right side of the Keyboard of the Winds. My hiking partner and I started up the trail in the pre-dawn hours, and the weather was stormy. Dawn had broken by the time we reached the base of the Keyboard, but its peaks were still surrounded by clouds. As we climbed higher and higher, the Keyboard’s thin spires became visible, along with the top of Pagoda Mountain. We reached the summit of Pagoda, admired the view (what we could see through the clouds), and made our descent.My piece is a tribute to the Keyboard of the Winds. The fast, whirling gestures depict swirling clouds, and the musical high points represent a hiker reaching the peaks of the Keyboard. I have contrasted these sections with quiet, introspective material; these embody the hiker quietly surveying the grandeur and beauty of the valley below (on a cloudless day), as well as the soaring pinnacles of Longs Peak and Pagoda Mountain overhead.

SKU: PR.701185010

UPC: 888680101275.

“The idea of writing the Danzón No.2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez, both of whom are experts in salon dances with a special passion for the danzón, which they were able to transmit to me from the beginning, and also during later trips to Veracruz and visits to the Colonia Salon in Mexico City. From these experiences onward, I started to learn the danzón’s rhythms, its form, its melodic outline, and to listen to the old recordings by Acerina and his Danzonera Orchestra. I was fascinated and I started to understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only like a visiting card for a type of music full of sensuality and qualitative seriousness, a genre which old Mexican people continue to dance with a touch of nostalgia and a jubilant escape towards their own emotional world; we can fortunately still see this in the embrace between music and dance that occurs in the State of Veracruz and in the dance parlors of Mexico City. The Danzón No.2 is a tribute to the environment that nourishes the genre. It endeavors to get as close as possible to the dance, to its nostalgic melodies, to its wild rhythms, and although it violates its intimacy, its form and its harmonic language, it is a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music. Danzón No.2 was written on a commission by the Department of Musical Activities at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and is dedicated to my daughter Lily.” -- Arturo Marquez About the danzon genre, Lidice Valenzuela writes in Cubanow: The history of the danzon goes back to the arrival in Cuba of the European contradance. It came in three different ways: directly from Spain, the colonial metropolis; with the British, who occupied Havana in 1762; and the French colonizers and their slaves who landed in Cuba's Eastern shores after fleeing from the Haitian Revolution. From all of that trans-cultural process the Danzon was born. This new Cuban dance, naturalized by the Creoles, had much more expressive freedom: the couple danced in each other's arms, and the dancing time was extended. People began calling it Danzon and it was in Matanzas, in the 1870s that figure dancing also began to be called Danzon. Thus, Failde, an outstanding musician, named his composition with the generic name of Danzon..