SKU: PR.114419980

UPC: 680160681723. 9 x 12 inches.

The ancient Egyptian empire began around 3100 B.C. and continued for over 3000 years until Alexander the Great conquered the country in 332 B.C. Over the centuries, the Egyptian empire grew and flourished into a highly developed society. They invented hieroglyphics, built towering pyramids (including the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the World), and the created many household items we still use today, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, eyeliner, black ink, and the forerunner of modern-day paper. Included among their achievements were a series of highly developed funerary practices and beliefs in the Afterlife. As the average lifespan of an Egyptian hovered around 30 years, living past the death of oneAs physical body was a legitimate concern. Egyptians believed that upon death, their souls would undertake a harrowing journey through the Netherworld. If they survived the horrific creatures and arduous trials that awaited them, then their souls would be reunified with their bodies (hence the need to preserve the body through mummification) and live forever in a perfect version of the life they had lived in Egypt. To achieve this, Egyptians devised around 200 magical spells and incantations to aid souls on the path to the Afterlife. These spells are collectively called The Book of the Dead. Particular spells would be chosen by the family of the deceased and inscribed on the tombAs walls and scrolls of papyrus, as well as on a stone scarab placed over the deceasedAs heart. Subsequent collections of spells and mortuary texts, such as The Book of Gates, assisted a soul in navigating the twelve stages of the Netherworld. Not only did these spells protect and guide the soul on this dangerous path, but they also served as a safeguard against any unbecoming behavior an Egyptian did while alive. For instance, if a person had robbed another while alive, there was a spell that would prevent the soulAs heart from revealing the truth when in the Hall of Judgment. Rites for the Afterlife follows the path of a soul to the Afterlife. In Inscriptions from the Book of the Dead (movement 1), the soul leaves the body and begins the journey, protected by spells and incantations written on the tombAs walls. In Passage though the Netherworld (movement 2), the soul is now on a funerary barque, being towed through the Netherworld by four of the regionAs inhabitants. We hear the soul slowly chanting incantations as the barque encounters demons, serpents, crocodiles, lakes of fire, and other terrors. The soul arrives at The Hall of Judgment in movement 3. Standing before forty-two divine judges, the soul addresses each by name and gives a A!negative confessionA(r) connected to each judge (i.e. A!I did not rob,A(r) A!I did not do violence,A(r) and so on). Afterwards, the soulAs heart is put on a scale to be weighed against a feather of MaAat, the goddess of truth. If the heart weighs more than the feather, it will be eaten by Ammut, a hideous creature that lies in wait below the scale, and the soul will die a second and permanent death (this was the worst fear of the Egyptians). But if the heart is in balance with the feather, the soul proceeds onward. The final stage of the journey is the arrival at The Field of Reeds (movement 4), which is a perfect mirror image of the soulAs life in ancient Egypt. The soul reunites with deceased family members, makes sacrifices to the Egyptian gods and goddess, harvests crops from plentiful fields of wheat under a brilliant blue sky, and lives forever next to the abundant and nourishing waters of the Nile. Rites for the Afterlife was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment on behalf of the Akropolis Reed Quintet, Calefax Reed Quintet, and the Brigham Young University Reed Quintet. -S.G.

SKU: HL.48183224

UPC: 888680876876. 9.0x12.0x0.125 inches.

Michel Cals (b. 1951) composed his Four Inventions for Percussion and Piano to be played in a competition at Paris Conservatoire. As an unusual, contemporary addition to the Percussion repertoire, this Cals piece is a must-play for percussionists wishing to broaden their style. The four pieces bear the name of their instrumentation; 1. Accessories and Vibraphone, 2. Xylo-Marimba, 3. Snare Drum and Drum Kit, and 4. Five Timpani. Exploiting Percussion to its full potential, Cals' Four Inventions is essential to the repertoire of advanced percussionists..

SKU: PR.465000130

ISBN 9781598064070. UPC: 680160600144. 9x12 inches.

Following a celebrated series of wind ensemble tone poems about national parks in the American West, Dan Welcher’s Upriver celebrates the Lewis & Clark Expedition from the Missouri River to Oregon’s Columbia Gorge, following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Welcher’s imaginative textures and inventiveness are freshly modern, evoking our American heritage, including references to Shenandoah and other folk songs known to have been sung on the expedition. For advanced players. Duration: 14’.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Corps of Discovery to find a water route to the Pacific and explore the uncharted West. He believed woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes, and mountains of pure salt awaited them. What they found was no less mind-boggling: some 300 species unknown to science, nearly 50 Indian tribes, and the Rockies.Ihave been a student of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which Thomas Jefferson called the “Voyage of Discovery,” for as long as I can remember. This astonishing journey, lasting more than two-and-a-half years, began and ended in St. Louis, Missouri — and took the travelers up more than a few rivers in their quest to find the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. In an age without speedy communication, this was akin to space travel out of radio range in our own time: no one knew if, indeed, the party had even survived the voyage for more than a year. Most of them were soldiers. A few were French-Canadian voyageurs — hired trappers and explorers, who were fluent in French (spoken extensively in the region, due to earlier explorers from France) and in some of the Indian languages they might encounter. One of the voyageurs, a man named Pierre Cruzatte, also happened to be a better-than-average fiddle player. In many respects, the travelers were completely on their own for supplies and survival, yet, incredibly, only one of them died during the voyage. Jefferson had outfitted them with food, weapons, medicine, and clothing — and along with other trinkets, a box of 200 jaw harps to be used in trading with the Indians. Their trip was long, perilous to the point of near catastrophe, and arduous. The dream of a Northwest Passage proved ephemeral, but the northwestern quarter of the continent had finally been explored, mapped, and described to an anxious world. When the party returned to St. Louis in 1806, and with the Louisiana Purchase now part of the United States, they were greeted as national heroes.Ihave written a sizeable number of works for wind ensemble that draw their inspiration from the monumental spaces found in the American West. Four of them (Arches, The Yellowstone Fires, Glacier, and Zion) take their names, and in large part their being, from actual national parks in Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. But Upriver, although it found its voice (and its finale) in the magnificent Columbia Gorge in Oregon, is about a much larger region. This piece, like its brother works about the national parks, doesn’t try to tell a story. Instead, it captures the flavor of a certain time, and of a grand adventure. Cast in one continuous movement and lasting close to fourteen minutes, the piece falls into several subsections, each with its own heading: The Dream (in which Jefferson’s vision of a vast expanse of western land is opened); The Promise, a chorale that re-appears several times in the course of the piece and represents the seriousness of the presidential mission; The River; The Voyageurs; The River II ; Death and Disappointment; Return to the Voyage; and The River III .The music includes several quoted melodies, one of which is familiar to everyone as the ultimate “river song,” and which becomes the through-stream of the work. All of the quoted tunes were either sung by the men on the voyage, or played by Cruzatte’s fiddle. From various journals and diaries, we know the men found enjoyment and solace in music, and almost every night encampment had at least a bit of music in it. In addition to Cruzatte, there were two other members of the party who played the fiddle, and others made do with singing, or playing upon sticks, bones, the ever-present jaw harps, and boat horns. From Lewis’ journals, I found all the tunes used in Upriver: Shenandoah (still popular after more than 200 years), V’la bon vent, Soldier’s Joy, Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier, Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy (a hymn sung to the tune “Beech Spring”) and Fisher’s Hornpipe. The work follows an emotional journey: not necessarily step-by-step with the Voyage of Discovery heroes, but a kind of grand arch. Beginning in the mists of history and myth, traversing peaks and valleys both real and emotional (and a solemn funeral scene), finding help from native people, and recalling their zeal upon finding the one great river that will, in fact, take them to the Pacific. When the men finally roar through the Columbia Gorge in their boats (a feat that even the Indians had not attempted), the magnificent river combines its theme with the chorale of Jefferson’s Promise. The Dream is fulfilled: not quite the one Jefferson had imagined (there is no navigable water passage from the Missouri to the Pacific), but the dream of a continental destiny.

SKU: LM.28668D

ISBN 9790231701647.

BACH C.P.E. : Andante - BACH J.C. : Andante (Sonate Op.5 n. 2) - BACH W.F. : Menuet - BACH J.S. : Gavotte (Suite anglaise en Sol mineur) - Menuet (Suite francaise en Si mineur) - BADINGS : Scherzo Pastorale - BARTOK : For Children Vol.1 n. 29 - For Children Vol.2 n. 27 - For Children Vol.2 n. 33 - Lied (Mikrokosmos n. 116) - Nocturne (Mikrokosmos n. 97) - BEETHOVEN : Bagatelle Op.33 n. 3 - Tempo di menuetto (Sonate n. 20) - BURGMULLER : Berceuse - CHOPIN : Polonaise en Sol mineur - CONSTANTINESCU : Le Renard et le corbeau - FRANCK : Canon - GRIEG : Arietta - HAENDEL : Courante - HAYDN : Sonate en Sol majeur (Hob XVI :G1) - HELLER : Etude Op.47 n. 9 - HUMMEL : Scherzo - IBERT : Premier bal - KULLAK : Tanzchen im freien - LIGETI : Musica ricercata (n. IV Tempo di valse) - MENDELSOHN : Romance (Kinderstuck Op.72 n. 2) - MOZART : Rondo (Sonatine viennoise en Re majeur) - PROKOFIEFF : Cortege de sauterelles - Sur les pres la lune se promene - REGER : A toutes jambes - REGNER : Dans la caverne - ROSSI : Andantino - SCHUBERT : Allegretto en Ut mineur - SCHULHOFF : Invention Op.36 n. 10 - SCHUMANN : Theme et variations (1re sonatine) - STOLZEL : Menuet - TCHAIKOVSKI : La Sorciere dans la foret - TURINA : L'Enfant s'endort - Boite a musique.

SKU: BU.EBR-A036

ISBN 9790560151076. 8.58 x 12.48 inches.

La collection ANACROUSE offre aux pianistes novices et confirmés un large choix d’œuvres classiques, allant de la Renaissance à l’époque moderne.

Proposer tout à la fois des « incontournables » du répertoire classique et des pièces de compositeurs parfois oubliés, toutes d’une valeur pédagogique indéniable, tels sont les objectifs que nous nous sommes fixés. Chaque pièce, vendue à l’unité, a fait l’objet d’un travail éditorial attentif, tant sur le plan de l’établissement du texte musical que de sa gravure, afin de garantir aux musiciens les conditions indispensables aux plaisirs tirés du commerce fréquent de ces œuvres.

Les partitions sont proposées sous la forme d’ouvrages traditionnels (feuillets papier), et disponibles également par téléchargement.



Jean Sebastien Bach a écrit 15 Inventions à deux voix (BWV 772-786) et 15 Inventions à trois voix (BWV 787-801) qu'il a nommées Sinfonias. Il les publie en 1723 à Cöthen. Ce sont des ouvrages didactiques. Avec ces trente inventions Bach vise surtout à instruire et à mettre en place une méthode pour les enfants. Il exprime sa pensée en préface dans un des manuscrits autographes des Inventions : « Méthode sincère destinée aux amateurs, aux apprentis pour leur apprendre à jouer correctement à deux parties, à procéder ultérieurement juste et bien avec deux ou trois parties obligées, à avoir de bonnes inventions, acquérir une manière chantante de jouer, ainsi qu'un avant goût de la composition ».
Ainsi les morceaux sont groupés suivant l'ordre des demi-tons de la gamme et non pas selon la complication croissante des tonalités. Chaque invention a un seul motif thématique. Ce motif peut être agrandi en thème et par la suite, mené en contrepoint avec d'autres petits motifs et la recherche d'un équilibre rigoureux dans chaque invention est une grande difficulté qui peut dépasser la compréhension d'un pianiste novice. Bach intègre dans ces morceaux toute une panoplie de procédés techniques comme le canon, le contrepoint, la complexité de la composition nécessitant l'utilisation de la pédale harmonique et la façon d'ornementer un motif thématique.
On peut entrevoir dans ces Inventions une manière de synthétiser sa méthode de travail et une initiation à l'écriture musicale.
Constitué d'une mesure binaire à quatre temps, le thème initial de l'Invention n°1 est présenté d'abord à la main droite et se conclut par une réponse immédiate à la main gauche. Puis les deux mains contribuent à son enrichissement en se développant jusqu'à sa réexposition à la neuvième mesure où il se révèle à nouveau dans son inverse sur le ton de la dominante. Composé de vingt-deux mesures, ce thème et son inverse obnubilent toute cette première invention et expriment de manière chantante des pensées délicates.
La sensation fugitive du sentiment mélangée au contrepoint de Bach demande aux pianistes une dextérité pour la recherche de l'absolu.

SKU: HL.49047432

UPC: 842819120728.

CONTENT I Intermezzo II Passacaglia III Invention IV Choralvorspiel “Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten” V Intermezzo VI Choralvorspiel “Befiehl du deine Wege” VII Invention VIII.