Octotunes est le tout nouveau projet de Sheila Nelson auteur de l' Essential String Method. Idéale pour l'enseignement individuel ou de groupe cette sélection de courtes pièces pour ensemble variable peut être jouée par un violon solo deux violons trois violons et violoncelle ou même un quatuor à cordes avec ou sans accompagnement de piano. Convient également à l'exécution en concert.Octotunes permet d'expérimenter tôt le jeu d'ensemble. Le recueil convient aux élèves venant d'achever le 1er volume de l'Essential String Method mais il peut s'employer indépendamment de la méthode pour chaque type d'enseignement instrumental. Les pièces écrites dans des tonalitésfaciles des rythmes simples et une métrique courante sont suffisamment abordables pour permettre aux élèves de se consacrer au jeu d'ensemble.Octotunes entraîne également à la lecture à vue. Dans une première étape les élèves chantent la mélodie afin de l'apprendre puis ils jouent celle-ci dans la tonalité notée et en respectant les indications de dynamique et de conduite d'archet.

This symphonic treatment of three Canadian folk songs has exciting parts for all instruments. A hauntingly beautiful setting of She’s Like the Swallow is contrasted with the driving energy of the outer tunes Old Sod Shanty and Saint-Malo beau port de mer. Toward the end an easy fugue sets up a powerful ostinato in the upper strings before the piece drives to an exciting conclusion.

Randy Newman and Sarah McLachlan's memorable ballad from Disney's Toy Story 2 has been beautifully arranged for string ensemble by John Moss. Beautiful songwriting and well-crafted arranging make this a winner for any group.

The music of Disney's Mary Poppins lives on and on and has recently has made headlines with its new adaptation for the stage by legendary producer Cameron Mackintosh. Here's the gentle memorable ballad in an accessible version for developing groups by Robert Longfield.

The poem and original hymn-like music of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' by James and J. Rosamond Johnson, reverberate through the decades of the civil rights movement. Originally performed for Booker T. Washington in 1900, it is sometimes called the 'African-American National Anthem.' This setting, by Bob Phillips, teaches 6/8 and uses chromatic alterations in first position. A vocal lead sheet is included in the reproducible educational packets. The cross-curricular programming possibilities are vast. (2:40) / Orchestre A Cordes

Christmas Tunes For My String Orchestra written and edited by the world's leading string teacher Sheila Nelson. Ideal for getting even the youngest beginners involved in ensemble music. Each set is for 4.4.2/2.4.1 catering for an orchestra of approximately 30 players.

Robert Saxton's The Resurrection Of The Soldiers for String Orchestra.Composed and published 2016.Duration: c. 12 minutes.The Resurrection Of The Soldiers for String Orchestra was commissioned by George Vass to whom it is dedicated and the English Symphony Orchestra for the 2016 Presteigne Festival with funds generously provided by the John S. Cohen Foundation and the Arts Council of England. The title derives from the final panel of Stanley Spencer’s Sandham Chapel visionary series of paintings which were the result of Spencer’s experiencesin the British army in World War One and depicts soldiers emerging from their graves on the last day. The music is in three continuous sections: a slow sustained introduction which is in essence a descent from the note E by means of a prolation canon but which ascends to a rather intense climactic point before finally falling and giving way to an active fugue which after arriving at an anguished sustained climax is succeeded by a closing slow movement consisting of a rising melodic line which permeates the entire texture heterophonically leading to the closing E major triad. The work thus traces a cyclical pitch path which while tracing a cyclical path also develops expressively towards a sense of hope and resurrection. - Robert Saxton April 2016

Bryce Dessner's Réponse Lutos awski was c o-commissioned by the National Audiovisual Institute of Poland and the Mexico National Orchestraand first performed by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra at Teatr Wielki-Polish National Opera in Warsaw Poland on November 29 2014. Composer's Note: Réponse Lutos awski was written as an homage to Witold Lutos awski’s amazing composition for string orchestra Musique funèbre. I spent months studying the score and recordings of the work as well as many of his other pieces. This was an amazingprocess of discovering one of the 20th-centuries great musical minds and allowing his adventurous spirit to influence my own musical decisions. My Réponse Lutos awski is written in five movements each of which isinspired either directly or indirectly by the Lutos awski score. I like to think that his music opened a window in a certain direction for me or pushed open a door through which I could then pass and take my journey with themusic. Duration: Approximately 20 minutes

Walt Whitman's unabashed optimism exuberance and unwavering confidence in our deeper humanity is beautifully portrayed through music in Gjeilo's setting of excerpts of the ?Song of the Universal? poem. For string orchestra piano and choir this work will be a grand addition to your women's choir repertoire. Duration: ca. 11:30.

String Quartet no. 2 op. 15-Alexander Zemlinsky?s music was long unjustly overshadowed by what was regarded as the more progressive? Second Viennese School. Although Zemlinsky was close friends with its protagonist Arnold Schönberg he never did take the latter?s radical step into dodecaphony. At the same time he composed works that were no less original or fully fledged. Composed between 1913 and 1915 his Second String Quartet in particular pushed the contemporaneous understanding of form and tonality to its limits. With just one movement but spanning over 1 200 measures this multi-faceted work numbers among the most significant contributions to the genre of the time and has long merited acritical new edition. The Urtext edition by G. Henle Publishers corrects many errors and inaccuracies in the first edition that came to light after careful comparison with the autograph sources in Vienna and Washington. For the first time too the metronome markings that survive only in one of Zemlinsky?s letters have been incorporated. Editorial work was kindly supported by the Alexander Zemlinsky Endowment Fund in Vienna.