SKU: CF.H84

ISBN 9781491165539. UPC: 680160924530.

Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) was one of the most important harpist/composers in the history of the harp. Over his long career, he added a significant catalogue of very beautiful works to the harp repertoire. Many of his solo works, almost one hundred, have been consistently in print since they were first published. But in recent years harpist Carl Swanson has discovered a treasure trove of pieces by Tournier heretofore unknown and unpublished. These include the Déchiffrages in this edition, as well as songs set for voice, harp, and string quartet, and ensemble arrangements of some of his most beloved works.All of the works that Carl Swanson found were in manuscript only. With the help of the great harpist Catherine Michel, he has put these pieces into playable form, and they are being published for the very first time. He and Catherine often had to re-notate passages to show clearly how they could be played, adding fingerings and musical nuances, tempos, pedals, and pedal diagrams.Tournier wrote these pieces when he was in his 20s, and before he became the impressionistic composer those familiar with his work know so well. They are written in the late nineteenth-century romantic style that was being taught at that time at the Paris Conservatory. They are beautiful short, intermediate level pieces by a first rate composer, and add much needed repertoire to that level of playing.
Marcel Tournier (1879–1951) was one of the most important harpist/composers in the history of the harp. He graduated from the Paris Conservatory with a first prize in harp in 1899. He also studied composition there and won a second prize in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition, as well as a first prize in the Rossini competition, another major composition competition of the day. From 1912 to 1948 he taught the harp class at the Paris Conservatory. But composition, and almost entirely, composition for the harp, was the main focus of his life. His published works, including many works for solo harp, a few for harp and other instruments, and several songs, number around one hundred pieces.In 2019, while researching Tournier for my edition MARCEL TOURNIER: 10 Pieces for Solo Harp, I discovered that there was a significant list of pieces by this composer that had never been published and were not included on any inventory of his music. Principal on this list were his déchiffrages (pronounced day-she-frahge, like the second syllable in the word garage).The word déchiffrage means sight-reading exercise, and that was their original purpose. Tournier numbered and dated these pieces, with dates ranging from 1900 to 1910, indicating that they were in all likelihood written for Alphonse Hasselmans’ class at the Paris Conservatory. Tournier was probably told how long to make each one, and how difficult. They range in length from two to four pages, with only one in the whole series extending to five, and from thirty to fifty-five measures, with only one extending to eight-five. The level of difficulty for the whole series is intermediate, with some at the easier end, and others at the middle or upper end.We don’t know if they were intended to test students trying to enter the harp class, or if they were used to test students in the class as they played their exams. The fact that they were never published means that students had to not only sight read them, but sight read them in manuscript form!I worked from digital images of the original manuscripts, which are in the private music library of a harpist in France. She had twenty-seven of these pieces, and this edition is the second in a series of three that will publish, for the first time, all of the ones that I have found thus far. The manuscripts themselves consist of little more than notes on the page: no pedals written in, no fingerings, few if any musical nuances and tempo markings, and no clear indication as to which hand plays which notes. These would have been difficult to sight read indeed! My collaborator Catherine Michel and I added musical nuances, fingerings, pedals and pedal diagrams, and tempo indications to put them into their current condition.At the time these were written, Tournier would have been in his twenties, having just graduated from the harp class himself (1899), and might still have been in the composition class. These are the earliest known pieces that he wrote, and they were written at the very beginning of a cultural revolution and upheaval in Paris that was to completely and profoundly alter musical composition. Tournier himself would eventually be caught up in this new way of composing. But not yet.All of the déchiffrages are written in the late romantic style that was being taught at that time at the Paris Conservatory. Each one is built on a clear musical idea, and the variety over the whole series makes them wonderful to listen to as well as to learn. They are also great technical lessons for intermediate level players.The obvious question is: Why didn’t Tournier publish these pieces, and why didn’t he list them on his own inventory of his music? Actually, four of them were published, with small changes, as his collection Four Preludes, Op. 16. These came from the ones that will be in volume three of this series from Carl Fischer. His first large piece, Theme and Variations, was published in 1908, and his two best known and frequently played pieces, Féerie and Au Matin, followed in 1912 and 1913 respectively. We can only speculate because there is so much still unknown about Tournier and about these unpublished pieces. He may have looked at them, fresh out of school as he was, as simply a way to make some quick money. The first several pieces that he did publish are much longer than any of the déchiffrages. So it could be that, because of their shorter length, as well as the earlier musical style that he was moving away from, he chose not to publish any more of them. We may never know the full story. But all these years later, more than a century after they were composed, we can listen to them for their own merits, and not measured against whatever else was going on at the time. The numbers on these pieces are the ones that Tournier assigned to them, and the gaps between some of the numbers suggest that there are perhaps thirty or more of these pieces still to be found, if they still exist. They will, in all likelihood, be found, as these were, in private collections of harp music, not in institutional libraries. We can only hope that more of them will be located in years to come.—Carl SwansonGlossary of French Musical TermsTournier was very precise about how he wanted his pieces played, and carefully communicated this with many musical indications. He used standard Italian words, but also used French words and phrases, and occasionally mixed both together. It is extremely important to observe and understand everything that he put on the page.Here is a list of the French words and phrases found in the pieces in this edition, with their translation.bien chanté well sung, melodiousdécidé firm, resolutediminu peu à peu becoming softer little by littleen diminuant becoming softeren riten. slowing downen se perdant dying awayGaiement gayly, lightlygracieusement gracefully, elegantlyLéger light, quickLent slowmarquez le chant emphasize the melodyModéré at a moderate tempopeu à peu animé more lively, little by littleplus lent slowerRetenu held backsans lenteur without slownesssans retinir without slowing downsec drily, abruptlysoutenu sustained, heldtrès arpegé very arpeggiatedTrès Modéré Very moderate tempoTrès peu retenu slightly held backTrès soutenu very sustainedun peu retenu slightly held back.

SKU: BT.MUSM570366651

English.

Elisabeth Lutyens ' The Numbered : an opera in Prologue and Two Acts. For 13 singers, 2 trebles, 3 male speakers, mixed chorus and orchestra. Based on the play ‘Die Befristeten’ by Elias Canetti (trans. Carol Stewart). Music: Elisabeth Lutyens Libretto: Minos Volonakis. Composed 1965/67. Duration: 135'.

SKU: HL.50600439

UPC: 888680684150. 8.25x11.5 inches.

Between 1890 and 1916 Sergei Rachmaninoff composed a total of eighty-five art songs. Often referred to as “romances,” most are settings of romantic poems, usually by Russian poets. Seventy-one of them were published under various opus numbers, but fourteen did not appear in print during his lifetime at all and bear no opus number. This volume is the first to present these songs in a German adaptation, along with the original Russian text.

SKU: CA.5027300

ISBN 9790007298456.

As well as 20 organ sonatas and seven collections of stand-alone organ pieces with opus numbers, Rheinberger composed a whole range of smaller works for organ methods or organ collections for his favorite instrument, mainly at the request of colleagues and friends. They are ideally suited for mass and organ lessons.

This organ volume brings together twelve compositions Rheinberger wrote for different occasions and at various points during his career. Included in the collection are seven short pieces in different keys that date from the early 1860s. Rheinberger wrote these at the request of his teacher Herzog and others for several organ collections of “easy, performable” pieces – and they are rewarding pieces for liturgical use. The works without opus numbers (WoO 10, 37, 56, 70) can no longer be regarded as early works. The Fugue in F minor WoO 10 of 1867, with its tendency to translate counterpoint into expressive chordal writing, already displays many characteristics of the late Rheinberger, the Canzonetta WoO 77 is a late work from autumn 1899, whereas the Romanze WoO 70 is a second version of no. 1 of the Miscellaneen op. 174 in the easier to play key of C major.

Separate edition from Supplementary Volume 3 of the Rheinberger Complete Edition.

SKU: HL.232492

UPC: 888680701727. 6.75x10.0x0.053 inches. English.

This work was commissioned by Wigmore Hall, with the support of Andre Hoffmann, president of the Foundation Hoffman, a Swiss grant-making foundation. The premiere took place on the October 14, 2016 at Wigmore Hall, where it was performed by the Cardinall's Musick, conducted by Andrew Carwood.

SKU: BT.MUSM570365951

English.

James Weeks ' Softest Numbers for Violin and Piano. Composed and published 2014. Duration: 3'30 Written for the Ives Song transcription project at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London: Ives' Cradle Song (1919) is used as source material. First performed there on 23rd November 2014 by Amarins Wierdsma (Violin) and Aaron Burrows (Piano).