SKU: 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.
SKU: PR.144407050
UPC: 680160655519. 9 x 12 inches.
Celebrating 30 years, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society commissioned a work of 20-25 minutes for violin and piano from James Primosch, University of Pennsylvania professor of music. Primosch had originally thought to create a new sonata, but what developed is more appropriately a set of five character pieces, two of which were directly inspired by poems. Five Poems was premiered in May, 2016, and Primosch's thoughts are recorded at his website: https://jamesprimosch.com/2016/05/10/five-poems-premiere/.Upon receiving a commission from the Philadelphia Chamber MusicSociety for a violin and piano piece in honor of its 30th anniversary, myplan was to write a sonata, a term suggesting a relatively abstractdiscourse. But as the piece developed, the movements struck me ascharacter pieces rather than music employing a more “symphonicâ€approach. When specific poems started to attach themselves in my mindwith two of the movements, the overall title Five Poems became clear.The title of the second movement is a line from Susan Stewart’s“Descentâ€, which deals with Aeneas’s visit to the underworld. The musicis alternately fiercely driving and quite still, though tense. RobertFrost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay summons fleet scale passages framinglyrical counterpoint. The remaining movements do not refer to specificpoems, but have titles reflecting their expressive tone. Dreamscape ismusing with an improvisatory violin line over shifting pairs of pianochords. Nightsong is a bluesy lullaby that turns highly dramatic.Vision begins with a closely argued struggle but breaks through tosomething spacious and clear.
SKU: AP.36-60710011
ISBN 9798888521892. UPC: 676737626686. English.
Austrian-born American violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) is considered among the best virtuosic violinists in history. While he did write some operettas, vocal works, and a smattering of pieces for other instruments, it is unsurprising that most of his output was for the violin. In the earlier part of his career, he wrote a number of pastiches in the style of other well-known composers, going so far as to ascribe the work to them rather than to himself. In 1935, Kreisler revealed that he had composed these select works, answering his critics by pointing out that they had deemed to music worthy under the other composers' names, and that the name changes, the value remains. Among these such works is his Concerto in C, IFK 42, which Kreisler falsely attributed to Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi. In three movements, the work exists with both string orchestra accompaniment and this Master reprint edition for violin and piano.
These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.
SKU: BR.EB-8327
ISBN 9790004176351. 9 x 12 inches.
Tommaso Giordani wrote sonatas - here for violin or flute - that are typical examples of early Classical chamber music: their scoring is flexible, they are fun to play, and their technical demands are moderate. The Sonatas Op. IVa show that Giordani is a Haydn contemporary who can really hold his own. Giordani's chamber-music works with obbligato piano were actually very important for the development of chamber music. Too bad Giordani did not contend himself with writing more of these enchanting ensemble sonatas rather than investing in dubious opera projects and going bankrupt. That was no way to become a serious Classical composer!Tommaso Giordani wrote sonatas - here for violin or flute - that are typical examples of early Classical chamber music: their scoring is flexible, they are fun to play, and their technical demands are moderate.
SKU: PR.414411630
ISBN 9781491114551. UPC: 680160089956. 9.5 x 13 inches.
EXCURSIONS is a one-movement work exploring two “characters.†A rhapsodic, descending passage is introduced by the cello, followed by a static, chorale-like phrase for the violin and cello. Their individual developments are separated by a slow, contrasting middle section. The composer has written: “This is analogous to situations in life: we stand by a crossroad, choosing one option and forfeiting the other. But in art, the realm of the imagination, we can perhaps afford to pursue more than one route to its ultimate destination… or can we? It is symbolic that in this work both roads eventually lead to the same place.â€.Excursions for violin, cello and piano, is a one-movement work of tripartite structure in which materials explored in the first of three large sections are brought back in the last section. The traditional statement-contrast-restatement form, which is readily suggested by such a description, is, however, not at all in the mold in which the work is cast. Rather, my aim was to subject the essential materials of the piece (two “characters†–the rhapsodic, descending passage played by the cello in the very opening and, later, a static, slow moving, chorale-like phrase for the violin and cello) to two entirely different developments separated by a slow, contrasting middle section. This is analogous to an exploration of the ramifications that two divergent choices made by the same person might lead to. In life, as we stand by a crossroad, choosing one option usually means having to forfeit the other. But in art, the realm of the imagination, we can perhaps afford to pursue more than one route to its ultimate destination…or can we? It is, I believe, symbolic that in this work both roads eventually lead to the same place: in composing Excursions, it seemed absolutely inescapable that at the end the slow, contrasting middle sections – both more resigned and peaceful than the battling spirits of the outer parts – should return briefly to end the work. The piano trio combination (once highly favored, but to this composer still as challenging today) is approached here as a collaborative effort of three equal soloists – partners. Of the available pairings, the two strings find themselves occasionally approached as a team pitted against the piano. The cello-piano combination is also not uncommon here, and there is an extended violin cadenza toward the end of the piece. The writing for the three instruments is closely and at times interlinked, but the players are all instructed to play from scores. Excursions was first performed at Brandeis University in 1982.
SKU: BR.EB-9168
World premiere: Halle, February 16, 2002
ISBN 9790004184806. 9 x 12 inches.
Waldschrats Nachtlied is a concert piece that is practically guaranteed to make a major impact. In the dark of night, a hobgoblin and his companion are whisking about the forest. The tempo is brisk, and the permanent change of meter ensures productive turbulence. At the beginning, the roles of the two instruments are distributed rather traditionally; then the violins and the pianos upper part are briefly led in genuine parallel motion in the monolithic section. Afterwards, the virtuoso chase through the woods continues as before.World premiere: Halle, February 16, 2002.
SKU: PR.11440561S
UPC: 680160009039.
The three movements examine the same materials from different points of view; in the first, the ideas are chronologically separated, but they alternate and develop through the instruments in an intensifying way that generates a rather imposing and grandiose rhetoric. The second, with its hypnoti, incessant reiterations at maximum volume of a simultaneous combination of motives of different l lengths and shapes, ends just short of becoming unbearable... In the last movement the flute, clarinet and violin slowly unfold a continuous texture that combines several of the earlier elements, while the piano softly interjects the echo of its first movement triplets.
SKU: HL.49044898
ISBN 9790001192163. UPC: 841886019898. 9.25x12.0x0.058 inches.
The famous Golliwogg's Cakewalk is the final piece from Debussy's cycle Children's Corner which consists of 6 miniatures for piano, written for his daughter in the years 1906-1908.The style corresponds to that of ragtime, a dance which was in vogue around the turn of the century. In the middle section, he parodies several times the beginning of the opera Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner with whom Debussy had a rather ambiguous relationship.The present arrangement now allows musicians to play the popular movement in a version for melodic instrument with accompaniment.
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