SKU: HL.14037560

ISBN 9788759808542. 10.5x14.5x0.432 inches. English.

For flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, piano, harp, violin, viola and cello. Score.

SKU: CF.CY2207F

ISBN 9780825875526. UPC: 798408075521. 11 x 14 inches.

SKU: PR.31241902S

UPC: 680160690589. English.

Commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, Terra Nostra is a 70-minute oratorio on the relationship between our planet and humankind, how this relationship has shifted over time, and how we can re-establish a harmonious balance. Part I: Creation of the World explores various creation myths from different cultures, culminating in a joyous celebration of the beauty of our planet. Part II: The Rise of Humanity examines human achievements, particularly since the dawn of our Industrial Age, and how these achievements have impacted the planet. Part III: Searching for Balance questions how to create more awareness for our planet’s plight, re-establish a deeper connection to it, and find a balance for living within our planet’s resources. In addition to the complete oratorio, stand-alone movements for mixed chorus, and for solo voice with piano, are also available separately.
Terra Nostra focuses on the relationship between our planet and mankind, how this relationship has shifted over time, and how we can re-establish a harmonious balance. The oratorio is divided into three parts:Part I: Creation of the World celebrates the birth and beauty of our planet. The oratorio begins with creation myths from India, North America, and Egypt that are integrated into the opening lines of Genesis from the Old Testament. The music surges forth from these creation stories into “God’s World” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which describes the world in exuberant and vivid detail. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “On thine own child” praises Mother Earth for her role bringing forth all life, while Walt Whitman sings a love song to the planet in “Smile O voluptuous cool-breathed earth!” Part I ends with “A Blade of Grass” in which Whitman muses how our planet has been spinning in the heavens for a very long time.Part II: The Rise of Humanity examines the achievements of mankind, particularly since the dawn of the Industrial Age. Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” sets an auspicious tone that mankind is on the verge of great discoveries. This is followed in short order by Charles Mackay’s “Railways 1846,” William Ernest Henley’s “A Song of Speed,” and John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s “High Flight,” each of which celebrates a new milestone in technological achievement. In “Binsey Poplars,” Gerard Manley Hopkins takes note of the effect that these advances are having on the planet, with trees being brought down and landscapes forever changed. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “A Dirge” concludes Part II with a warning that the planet is beginning to sound a grave alarm.Part III: Searching for Balance questions how we can create more awareness for our planet’s plight, re-establish a deeper connection to it, and find a balance for living within our planet’s resources. Three texts continue the earth’s plea that ended the previous section: Lord Byron’s “Darkness” speaks of a natural disaster (a volcano) that has blotted out the sun from humanity and the panic that ensues; contemporary poet Esther Iverem’s “Earth Screaming” gives voice to the modern issues of our changing climate; and William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” warns us that we are almost out of time to change our course. Contemporary/agrarian poet Wendell Berry’s “The Want of Peace” speaks to us at the climax of the oratorio, reminding us that we can find harmony with the planet if we choose to live more simply, and to recall that we ourselves came from the earth. Two Walt Whitman texts (“A Child said, What is the grass?” and “There was a child went forth every day”) echo Berry’s thoughts, reminding us that we are of the earth, as is everything that we see on our planet. The oratorio concludes with a reprise of Whitman’s “A Blade of Grass” from Part I, this time interspersed with an additional Whitman text that sublimely states, “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love…”My hope in writing this oratorio is to invite audience members to consider how we interact with our planet, and what we can each personally do to keep the planet going for future generations. We are the only stewards Earth has; what can we each do to leave her in better shape than we found her?

SKU: SU.90810110

Instrumentation: 3fl(picc), 2ob, 2cl, 2bn; 4hn, 3tpt, 3tbn(bs), tba; timp, 3perc, hrp, pno; strings Duration: 20' Full Score & Parts: available on rental Composed in 2002. Published by: Subito Music Publishing Composer's Note: De profundis ad lucem (out of the depths towards light) opens with an atmosphere of stillness, out of which two main sections emerge, one reflecting hope and the other struggle. Hope is expressed with a recurring theme that gradually layers upon itself, imparting a feeling of birth. This section suddenly gives way to struggle, represented with loud brass, biting accents, and thundering timpani figures. Following an extended musical landscape, these two sections return, only in reverse, with struggle resolving into hope. The work ends in tranquillity as it began. --N.G.

SKU: FT.FM557

ISBN 9790570484560.

The Wounded Angel (2013) is written for piccolo, two flutes, alto flute and bass flute, and is dedicated to Christine Turellier, a professor of flute at the Lille Conservatory of Music (France) where the work was premiered. These pieces were inspired by a painting entitled The Wounded Angel (1967) by the visionary British artist Cecil Collins (1908-1990). His works have been the basis for a number of D'Angelo's compositions. For example, one of his latest pieces for orchestra takes its inspiration from Collins' painting The Angel of the Flowing Light (1968). In his extensive output the artist often used angels and fools as symbols of purity and wisdom. In the painting, the earthbound, winged, wounded angel is lying on its side with its eyes closed. Its colours blend in with the purplish colours of the earth. In the distance is a mountain shaped like a pyramid while the sky is filled with shades of orange. Just at the point where the mountain meets the bleak landscape we see the sun just rising. This angel has been injured and fallen to Earth and in its distress has to find a way of healing itself and ascending to its spiritual home. In this highly impressionistic piece the piccolo stands for the wounded angel. It has a three note motif and its wound is suggested by the semitone difference of the second note each time the motif is repeated. The piece is a voyage through all the states of mind the angel experiences. For example, there are moments of contemplation and peace where the alto and bass flutes play rocking rhythms in open fifths. The final bars of The Wounded Angel portray the gentle power of the angel to heal itself and return to the heavens. Here, following the motif of the gently rocking rhythms the piccolo plays two ascending fourths leading to a G sharp which has its resolution in the angels keynote A.