SKU: HL.49045179

ISBN 9790220136801. UPC: 841886027442. 9.0x12.0x0.115 inches.

Stolen Airs takes as its starting point an episode from Sylvie and the Songman, an opera I am writing in collaboration with the novelist Tim Binding. The Songman has developed the technique of stealing the voices and songs of birds and animals, and eventually humans. Slowly stealing Sylvie's voice, the Songman offers to give back her song if she will tell him the secret of a group of instruments invented by her father that have produced an all-powerful single sonority. Using this scenario, the music of Stolen Airsmoves from a dark place towards three simple airs, with a distant, different air as a quiet coda. -John Casken.

SKU: HL.49019910

ISBN 9790220134395. UPC: 888680089528. 8.25x11.75x0.25 inches.

My Concerto for Orchestra (2007) is a twenty-minute work in which different sections of the orchestra, as well as individual solos and duos from within the orchestra, are highlighted as the music unfolds. The work continues my interest in two-movement forms that began with my Cello Concerto (1991), and was later developed in Sortilege (1996) and Symphony (Broken Consort) (2004). In these works, and in the Concerto for Orchestra, each movement is given equal weight and importance with the second developing earlier material and taking it in new directions.The two-movement form of the Concerto for Orchestra derives from a symphonic sonata structure, reshaping the traditional four-movement form and combining this with aspects of sonata form, a tradition that goes back to Liszt, Schoenberg and Sibelius:1st movement (i) exposition of ideas - dramatic and sudden (ii) scherzo and development 1 - resolute2nd movement (iii) adagio - calm and unhurried (iv) development 2 with recapitulation - intense and energeticThe Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by the Musikalische Akademie des Nationaltheatre-Orchesters Mannheim with the support of Die Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg for its first two performances on 31st March and 1st April 2008 conducted by Friedemann Layer. The score is dedicated in friendship and admiration to Ronald Zollman.John Casken

3(3.pic).2.ca.2(2.Ebcl).bcl.3(3.cbsn)-4.3(1.Dtpt).2.btbn.1-timp.3perc(crot, vib, tub bells, sizz cym, Chinese cym, h.h, Swiss cow-bell, gong, horizontal gong, 2tam-t, tamb, bng, s.d, 5tom-t, b.d, clav, casts, marac, 5tempbl, wdbl, cabaca, vibraslap)-hp-str.

SKU: HL.49019330

ISBN 9790220133725. 8.25x11.75x0.242 inches.

The work explores something of how we might experience winter. The title is a play on words and the normal meaning of reels as dances infects both the first movement, with its lilting triplet rhythms, and the last movement which incorporates a vigorous reel-like unison melody that unfolds as part of a series of energetic episodes. The song of the second movement is a long singing line given to the cello, and the ensemble here, as elsewhere, is coloured in the percussion by the use of a steel pan.John Casken.

SKU: HL.49044382

ISBN 9790220135286. 8.25x11.75x0.063 inches. English.

This Easter anthem by British composer John Casken is an expert example of contemporary choral writing and would be ideal for amateur choirs looking for exciting new repertoire.

SKU: HL.49046269

ISBN 9781540064660. UPC: 842819104353. 0.139 inches.

In spite of having written many works including piano, before composing my new suite of pieces there were only two for solo piano: The Haunting Bough and Pleasure Ground. I decided to incorporate these in a new set of pieces extending the theme of trees and wood (I cut The Haunting Bough into two pieces which frame the suite as the first and last movements; Pleasure Ground is renamed SwingingBough), and further developing my interest in the poetry, history and appearance of landscape and its features as extra-musical sources. John Casken Difficult.

SKU: FP.FTJ04

ISBN 9790570503902.

Three Salutes was written for the seventieth birthday of the composer Nicholas Marshall. The first performance in Great Britain was given on 29th September 2012, by the composer and the dedicatee, at the Temple Church, Budleigh Salterton, Devon, and the first overseas performance was given on 27th October 2012 at Kuwana City Hall, Mie Prefecture, Japan, by Hidehiro Nakamura and Yuka Sasaki.

A Whirl received its first performance at Wakefield Cathedral on 15th February 1992 by the composer and Jonathan Bielby, in celebration of the marriage of Jonathan Bielby and Jayne Hall.

John Turner was born in Stockport in 1943, and is one of the leading recorder players of today. He was Senior Scholar in Law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and as a practising solicitor acted for many leading musicians and musical organisations. He has premièred over 500 works for his instrument, including concertos written for him by Kenneth Leighton, Anthony Gilbert, Gordon Crosse, John Casken, Stephen Dodgson, Elis Pehkonen, John Gardner, Peter Hope and many others. His discoveries include recorder works by Handel, John Parry (The Nightingale Rondo, being the only known British nineteenth century
concert work for a fipple flute), Alan Rawsthorne and Antony Hopkins. His own recorder compositions, notably Four Diversions and Six Bagatelles (both in the Forsyth catalogue), are standard repertoire and examination pieces for the instrument worldwide. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of usic in 2002 for his services to British music and is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Manchester University.

SKU: FP.FTJ06

ISBN 9780951479537.

Composing for the recorder can be intimidating for those with limited or no experience playing the instrument. John Turner's new book is the ideal primer, taking the would be recorder composer on a journey through the history of recorder composition, and onwards to explore player techniques and the musicality offered by this versatile instrument. Each section is extensively referenced to exisiting compositions, providing a fantastic platform for further research by the reader.

About the Author:

JOHN TURNER is one of the leading recorder players of today. Born in Stockport, he was Senior Scholar in Law at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge before pursuing a legal career, acting for many distinguished musicians and musical organisations alongside his many musical activities. These included numerous appearances and recordings with David Munrow's Early Music Consort of London, the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the English Baroque Soloists. He now devotes his time to playing, writing, reviewing, publishing, composing and generally energising.

He has played as recorder soloist with the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Manchester Camerata, the English Baroque Soloists, the English Chamber Orchestra, and many other leading orchestras and ensembles. Concertos and works with orchestra have been written for him by Gordon Crosse, Anthony Gilbert, Peter Hope, Kenneth Leighton, Elis Pehkonen, Alan Bullard, John Casken, and many other distinguished composers. His recordings include no less than five sets of the Brandenburg Concertos, as well as the F Major version of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with Menuhin and George Malcolm, but lately he has madenumerous acclaimed recordings of the recorder’s contemporary concerto and chamber music repertoire, including several concerto discs, all of which have received critical acclaim. In all, he has given the first performances of over 600 works for the recorder, with works by many non-British composers, including Leonard Bernstein, Ned Rorem, Peter Sculthorpe, Douglas Lilburn and Petr Eben.

Many of the works he has premiered have now entered the instrument’s standard repertoire, and these and his own recorder compositions are regularly set for festivals and examinations. He edits series of recorder publications for both Forsyths and Peacock Press, and founded the periodical Manchester Sounds, in response to the perceived threat to music libraries in Great Britain. In addition he was responsible for the rediscovery of several works for his instrument, including the Rawsthorne Recorder Suite, Antony Hopkins' Pastiche Suite, Herbert Murrill’s Sarabande, the Handel F Major Trio Sonata and John Parry's Nightingale Rondo (the only substantial known British nineteenth century work for a fipple flute). He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Northern College of Music in 2002 for his services to British music, and is a Visiting Distinguished Scholar of Manchester University.

SKU: HL.49019557

ISBN 9790220133275. English.

Choral score also available (item 49019556).