Violin and Piano

SKU: AY.VLP3237PM

Composed by Herbert Rothgarber. Strings - Violin. Score & Parts. Duration 17'. Periferia Publishing #VLP3237PM. Published by Periferia Publishing (AY.VLP3237PM).

ISBN 9790543574014.

It may be said to represent an attempt, by the composer, to reconcile the yearnings of soul with the restricting and conflicting tensions of earthly existence.

Movt. 1 (Adrift)
We find ourselves adrift in the ocean of life, flung about mercilessly by the tempestuous waves. We try to find meaning.

Movt. 2 (In The Stillness)
We glimpse the shadow of another possibility, - an otherness.

Movt. 3 (Whirling)
Everything, from the tiniest atom to the heavenly bodies, is in a perpetual state of whirling. Our lives are spent whirling to the Waltz Of Existence.

Movt. 4 (Another Place, Another Time)
So much of our inner lives is spent in the movement of memories. We are forever seeking relief from the anxieties of the present, in the nostalgia of the past.

Movt. 5 (Earth Song)
We celebrate our earthly existence.

Violin and Piano. By Hilary Hahn. By Various. Boosey and Hawkes Chamber Music. Classical, Contemporary. Softcover. 340 pages. Boosey and Hawkes #M051107933. Published by Boosey and Hawkes (HL.48023059).

Chamber Music Clarinet, Piano, Violin

SKU: PR.164002390

Composed by Dan Welcher. Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. Composed 1995. 26+14+14 pages. Duration 14 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #164-00239. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.164002390).

UPC: 680160038091.

I became interested in the work of Plato through my friend and collaborator, the writer and philosopher Paul Woodruff. Paul's new translation, with Alexander Nehamas, of the Symposium gave me insights into ancient Greek ways of thinking about Love, Beauty, and Wisdom -- and managed to keep the earthy, and often bawdy side of it all in full view. But their new translation of Plato's later dialogue Phaedrus went even further: the beauty of the speeches is breathtaking, and the discourse itself is enough to keep one awake at night. Basically the Great Speech of Socrates in the Phaedrus dialogue has to do with the place of Eros in the world, and with the conflict in the soul between fleshly pleasure and philosophic discovery. I will not attempt to encapsulate this brilliant discourse in a program note: suffice it to say that reading it gave rise to my two-sided work for clarinet, violin, and piano, Phaedrus. The first movement represents the Philosophic life, and is thus subtitled Apollo's Lyre (Invocation and Hymn). It begins with an unaccompanied melody for the clarinet, which (after a pair of harp-like flourishes for the piano, expands into an accompanied canon. The voices in the dialogue (clarinet and violin) follow each other by a prescribed number of beats, but the music is totally devoid of any meter at all. The piano, representing the lyre, accompanies this lyric love-feast with repeated strummed chords. The canon has three large sections, and ends with violin echoing the unaccompanied clarinet invocation as the sound of the lyre fades. The second movement, called Dionysus' Dream-Orgy (Ritual Dance) presents, after a brief introduction, another kind of unmetered music. Rather than long lyric flights of philosophic song, however, this time we hear a unison dance of unbridled energy and sensual transport. The piece soon forms itself into a loose arch form, with contrasting metered dance sections divided by the unison unmetered orgy tune. Midway through the movement, Apollo's melody returns from the first movement, but it is a temporary reminiscence. The orgiastic dance returns, reaches a climax, and ends with a stomping of feet. While Plato asserts that a proper balance between lust and reason is necessary in all men, he (naturally) gives the nod to Philosophy as the better choice in which to live. Not so in my music: the two sides are meant to coexist and to complement each other. No sides are taken. Phaedrus was commissioned of the Verdehr Trio by Michigan State University. It is dedicated to the Vedehr Trio with great affection and admiration.

(29 Pieces by 18 Composers). By Various. For violin solo and piano accompaniment. BH Chamber Music. Softcover. 200 pages

By Conrad Kocher. Arranged by Amber White. For Violin Solo, Piano. Medium. Duration 3:00. Published by Jackman Music Corporation

Playing score. Hope Publishing Company #9124. Published by Hope Publishing Company