SKU: FJ.B1836

UPC: 241444429846. English.

Using just six notes, this intense work evokes the power and ferocity of an active Indonesian volcano! After an epic opening, bold melodic lines intertwine with moments of clapping and stomping while an array of percussion colors paint a vivid picture of the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption and the tragic aftermath. Simply stunning!

SKU: PR.111403170

ISBN 9781491135761. UPC: 680160687831. Walt Whitman.

An enticing rarity in the vocal literature, 1861 is a 5-minute work for unaccompanied voice – a miniature monodrama, sung a cappella. Okoye’s music and dramatic pacing are in tune with Whitman’s words about the Civil War erupting soon after Lincoln’s inauguration. Whitman’s opening lines, “Arm’d year! Year of the struggle! No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you,” describe both the real world and Whitman’s self-referential poetry, and they are the starting blocks for Okoye’s powerful setting. 1861 was originally composed for solo Tenor (published separately), and later transposed for solo Contralto.

SKU: HL.49033276

ISBN 9790001137096. 9.25x12.0x0.094 inches.

This is one of the early works by which the clarinettest Jorg Widmann also made himself a name as a composer. The form develops from the - at first only tentative - interaction of the three instruments. Sound-sensitive and eruptive moments alternate unexpectedly. Between 'jazzy-secco' and the 'Spieluhr' solo, the piano announces the passage of time: '12 Glockenschlage Mitternacht'.

SKU: KU.GM-1911

ISBN 9790206202384. 9 x 12 inches.

Monumentum, Music for String Sextet, was written in 2014 to a commission from the Moritzburg Festival, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center New York and the Kathe Kollwitz House in Moritzburg. It is dedicated to the cellist Jan Vogler. The world premiere took place on 19 August 2014 at the Moritzburg Festival, performed by Timothy Chooi & Mira Wang (violins), Roberto Diaz & Hartmut Rohde (violas), Jan Vogler & Harriet Krijgh (cellos). The American premiere took place on 7 May 2015 in the Lincoln Center with the Amphion String Quartet, the violist Yura Lee and the cellist Jan Vogler.

The String Sextet Momentum commemorates the outbreak of the First World War, the death of Peter Kollwitz – who died as a volunteer, aged just 18, in the early weeks of the war – and the manner in which his mother, the artist Kathe Kollwitz, mourned the loss of her son. The artist worked through her pain by creating her most famous sculpture, The Mourning Parents. It stands today at the German soldiers’ cemetery at Vladslo in western Flanders, where her son Peter also lies buried. During the 18 years that she worked on the Parents, Kathe Kollwitz attended several concerts at the Volksbuhne in Berlin, where from January to February 1927 she heard Arthur Schnabel’s cycle of all the Beethoven piano sonatas. Schnabel performed the Sonata op. 111 in c minor on 26 February 1927, and this work touched her in particular, as we can read in her diary: “The strange flickering notes turned into flames – a moment of rapture, taking one into a different sphere, and the heavens opened almost as in the Ninth (Symphony). Then one found one’s way back – but it was a return after having been assured that there is a heaven. These notes are serene – confident – and good. Thank you, Schnabel!” This encounter with Beethoven’s last sonata inspired the artist to take up work again on her sculpture after a long interruption and to consider different possibilities for arranging the two figures. For this reason, the first minutes ofMomentum are derived from this sonata by Beethoven – though without it being quoted in an audible manner – and they leave their mark on the form of the Sextet. The number 18 and the date of Peter Kollwitz’s death (23 October 1914) also have a direct impact on the work’s dramaturgy. This music is mostly calm in nature, but is time and again interrupted unexpectedly, being disturbed by unruly sounds and vehement eruptions until time itself seems to dissolve in an aleatoric passage. The work ends with an extended lament on “seed corn should not be ground”, a line from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years. Kathe Kollwitz often quoted this phrase to argue for peace, and also took it as the title for a lithograph that she made in 1942. - David Philip Hefti

SKU: CA.1040013

ISBN 9790007303006. Key: D minor. German/English. Text: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang.

The Three Fates, or Parcae, were the goddesses of fate in Greek-Roman mythology, and sang on themes of curse and fate. The Parzenlied in Goethe’s verse drama “Iphigenie auf Tauris” is concerned with these themes and became the model for Johannes Brahms’s setting. His Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) op. 89 describes in thrilling, eruptive sounds the fight to overcome the mythical curse through the purity of truthful, noble actions and the power of hope.

With a duration of around 12 minutes, the work can be combined with Brahms’s “German Requiem” in concert.

SKU: CA.1040003

ISBN 9790007262389. Key: D minor. German/English. Text: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang.

The Three Fates, or Parcae, were the goddesses of fate in Greek-Roman mythology, and sang on themes of curse and fate. The Parzenlied in Goethe’s verse drama “Iphigenie auf Tauris” is concerned with these themes and became the model for Johannes Brahms’s setting. His Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) op. 89 describes in thrilling, eruptive sounds the fight to overcome the mythical curse through the purity of truthful, noble actions and the power of hope.

With a duration of around 12 minutes, the work can be combined with Brahms’s “German Requiem” in concert.

SKU: BT.GOB-000449-030

The word ‘tsunami’ is of Japanese origin. When you look it up in a dictionary, you will find that it means ‘a great sea wave produced by submarine earth movement or volcanic eruption’.
A megatsunami is the superlative of this awesome expressionof power that nature can create, and has catastrophic consequences.

When Carl Wittrock completed this composition not many such big earth movements had occurred, but since then we have become all too familiar with the disastrousconsequences which a tsunami may have.
On the 26th of December 2004 a heavy seaquake took place near the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Tidal waves 10 meters in height ravaged the coastal regions of many countries for miles around. The tsunamitook the lives of thousands of people and destroyed many villages and towns.

There are more areas which run the risk of being struck by a tsunami, such as the island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. This island is based on oceaniccrust at a fracture zone and as such is one of nature’s time bombs. The consequences of a natural calamity like a megatsunami are immense.
In the case of La Palma, the tidal wave will move in the direction of South America, where it may reach 50km inland, destroying everything on its way.

In his composition Wittrock describes an ordinary day which will have an unexpected ending.
Right from the beginning there seems to be something in the air, the music creating an oppressiveatmosphere of impending disaster.
Themes are interrupted, broken off suddenly, followed by silence, suggesting the calm before the storm.
Suddenly a short climax (glissandi in the trombone part) indicates the seaquake, and the megatsunami isa fact. Hereafter follows a turbulent passage symbolising the huge rolling waves.
After nature’s force has spent itself, resignation sets in and the composition ends with a majestic ode to nature.

Het woord tsunami is afkomstig uit het Japans. Het woordenboek geeft als betekenis: een vloedgolf als gevolg van een onderzeese aardbeving. Een megatsunami is de overtreffende trap van deze vorm van natuurgeweld en heeft catastrofale gevolgen.

Toen Carl Wittrock deze compositie voltooide waren er nog niet veel voorbeelden van dergelijke grote bevingen, maar inmiddels weten we maar al te goed welke desastreuze gevolgen een tsunami kan veroorzaken.
Op 26 december 2004 vond ereen zware beving plaats in de zee nabij het Indonesische eiland Sumatra. Vloedgolven van wel 10 meter hoog teisterden de kuststreken van menig land in de verre omtrek. De tsunami eiste duizenden mensenlevens en verwoestte vele dorpen ensteden.

Er zijn meer gebieden waar sprake is van een directe dreiging, zoals op het eiland La Palma, één van de Canarische eilanden. Dit eiland ligt op een breukvlak en is daarmee een tijdbom van de natuur. Bij een calamiteit als eenmegatsunami zijn de gevolgen niet te overzien.
In het geval van La Palma begeeft de vloedgolf van enkele honderden meters zich richting Zuid Amerika met alle gevolgen van dien. Tot ongeveer 50 kilometer landinwaarts heeft de megatsunami eenallesverwoestende werking.

In de compositie schetst Wittrock een gewone dag die ongewoon zal aflopen. Al vanaf het begin hangt er iets in de lucht en is er sprake van een dreigende, beklemmende sfeer.
Themas worden onderbroken doorplotselinge afbrekingen en stiltes. Opeens is daar de korte climax (glissandi in trombones) die de beving symboliseert en de megatsunami is een feit.
Een onrustig gedeelte vangt aan, daarmee de rollende, voortstuwende golven symboliserend. Na hetnatuurgeweld is er berusting en The Power of the Megatsunami wordt afgesloten met een majestueuze ode aan de natuur.

Gobelin Music Publications.

SKU: AP.48110S

ISBN 9781470661373. UPC: 038081557175. English.

The tropical island volcano, Thunder Mountain, has lain dormant for years. As a party of adventurous researchers work atop the legendary mountain, it begins to shake with pre-eruption tremors! Correlated to Sound Innovations, Book 1, Level 6. (4:30) This title available in MakeMusic Cloud.