SKU: PR.114422230

ISBN 9781491133910. UPC: 680160683383. 9 x 12 inches.

HALL OF GHOSTS was composed in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown period; it was inspired by piccoloist Gudrun Hinze’s video for Harberg’s Prayer Project filmed in the hauntingly empty Gewandhaus Chamber Music Hall. Evocative of imagined spirits in the empty hall, the music pitsdramatic silences, amid searching and plaintive phrases of the piccolo, against a lively middle section – a dialogue between the ticking of time and an instrument striving to make itself heard.
HALL OF GHOSTS was composed in April 2020 as a “thank you” giftdedicated to the wonderful community of flutists who participated inmy Prayer Project – a virtual flute orchestra project that I producedduring the Covid-19 lockdown period.HALL OF GHOSTS was inspired by piccoloist Gudrun Hinze, whorecorded her part for the Prayer Project in the empty GewandhausChamber Music Hall. This hall would normally be full of musiciansrehearsing and performing, but now, due to Covid-19, the hall layempty and filled only with echoes and memories. The image of Gudrun’ssolitary piccolo inspired in me a musical invocation, imploring thespirits to let the music return.In the first section, the silence of rests and pauses creates an expressivebackground for the searching and plaintive phrases of the solo piccolo.The lively middle section is a contrapuntal dialogue between theticking of time and an instrument striving to make itself heard. Thesematerials trade off throughout the piece. You can decide through yourinterpretation on who wins. The music? Or the ghosts?— Amanda Harberg.

SKU: MH.1-59913-064-5

ISBN 9781599130644.

I wrote Galloping Ghosts (A Ragtime March) to conclude a concert of my chamber music in New York City on October 28, 1986. It is the final part of a work called Rags for Divers Players. This work was written to show the variety possible within the standard rag form. I used all the players available for the finale -- two violins, viola, cello, bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano. Since this is a rather unusual instrumental combination and not easy to reassemble, I decided to rescore the work for concert band. Galloping Ghosts is written in a standard march form but incorporates many of the syncopations found in ragtime. The uniquely American music called ragtime traces its history to African rhythms brought over by slaves. Over the years this music became welded to European musical forms such as the quadrille and the march. Drums and banjos and the minstrel tradition lent a special flavor, and from all these elements ragtime slowly evolved within the largely unknown black subculture of the late 19th century. In the late 1890's it emerged as a fully developed form in the classic piano solos of Scott Joplin (1869-1917). Joplin's 1899 hit, Maple Leaf Rag, was an overnight sensation and brought ragtime worldwide fame. Ensemble instrumentation: 1 Piccolo, 8 Flute 1 and 2, 2 Oboe, 1 Eb Clarinet, 4 Bb Clarinet 1, 4 Bb Clarinet 2, 4 Bb Clarinet 3, 2 Eb Alto Clarinet, 3 Bb Bass and Bb Contrabass Clarinet, 2 Bassoon 1 and 2, 2 Eb Alto Saxophone 1, 2 Eb Alto Saxophone 2, 2 Bb Tenor Saxophone, 1 Eb Baritone Saxophone, 3 Bb Cornet 1, 3 Bb Cornet 2, 3 Bb Cornet 3, 2 Horn 1 and 2 in F, 2 Horn 3 and 4 in F, 4 Trombone 1 and 2, 4 Bass Trombone, 2 Baritone (B.C.), 2 Baritone (T.C.), 4 Tuba, 1 String Bass, 1 Timpani, 1 Xylophone, 3 Percussion 1, 3 Percussion 2.

SKU: AY.CM3655PM

ISBN 9790803752435.

Composed in 2012, Musikphantome for string quartet was awarded first prize in the 2015 Malta International Composition Competition (Valletta, Malta). From the composer: Musikphantome is a term used by Christoph Ruths and can be translated as phantoms of music or musical ghosts. The germinal idea of the piece was to transfigure from psychic imagery to a musical language a recollection of memories which involuntarily kept appearing in my mind. These ghosts manifested themselves in groups conformed by individual abstract figures, each group with distinct characteristics, forms, colors, textures, and essences. Somehow, I managed to explore and ultimately externalize these ghosts by making way for them through a very intuitive compositional process..

SKU: HL.14020975

UPC: 884088860066. 8.75x8.25 inches.

Chamber opera in a prologue and one act. A ghost story telling of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in the Hebrides. This is a mystery story in the form of a chamber opera. The prologue is set as a court of enquiry into the unexplained disappearance of the three keepers from a lighthouse. Questions are posed by a solo horn, which may sound from among the audience, and three officers give answer. Gradually, they move from straight testimony into fantastical imaginings of evil during a 'flashback' to the lighthouse; but then we snap back to the courtroom. In the main act the three singers become the vanished keepers. They have been together for months, long enough to be fully aware of each other's weaknesses; petty bickerings suggest a relationship which is stable, but liable to become highly unstable at any moment. They sing songs to reduce the tension, Blazes beginning with a rough ballad of street violence, accompanied by violin and banjo. Sandy's song, with cello and out-of-tune upright piano, is a thinly disguised description of sexual bliss, and Arthur's with brass and clarinet, is a tub-thumping hymn. But the songs serve only to resurrect in their minds ghosts from the past, and as the fog descends each of the keepers becomes convinced that he is being claimed by the Beast. They prepare to meet its dazzling eyes, which become the lights of the relief vessel, and the three men reappear as officers, met at the lighthouse only by an infestation of rats. They leave, and at the end the last hours of Blazes, Sandy and Arthur begin to play over again. Libretto only. Duration c. 1h 25mins.