SKU: PR.312419280
ISBN 9781491137925. UPC: 680160692613.
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: WD.080689709234
UPC: 080689709234.
Energetic and encouraging, this anthem will be a reminder to your congregation that our chains were broken and we no longer walk in darkness—The child born on that night will forever have us singing Gloria!
SKU: PR.11140180S
UPC: 680160601691. Text: Nelly Sachs. Nelly Sachs. Text: Five Poems of Nelly Sachs, Translation from German of Nos. I, III and IV by Ruth and Matthew Mead, of No. II by Michael Roloff and No. V by Michael Hamburger.
O The Chimneys is a setting of five poems by Nelly Sachs, the great German-Jewish 1966 Nobel Prize co-winner in literature, whose writing concerned itself almost entirely with the subject of the holocaust. Composed in 1969, the work was my own personal way of saying, through my own art, do not forget. Shockingly, these words have as much relevance today as they did when the work was written. Today we find ourselves having to say do not forget, do not distort, do not deny it ever happened. I selected the five poems from Sachs' O The Chimneys collection, retaining its grimly evocative title even though I did not include the actual poem by that name. In scoring the work for female voice, flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, piano and percussion, I aimed to give myself the broadest possible palette of instrumental colors while using the smallest number of participants. Yet as I was planning the final moments of my cycle, I felt that instrumental sound alone would not suffice to express the horror. An electronic tape segment was added to the work's final climax. The first two poems (A Dead Child Speaks and Already Embraced by the Arm of Heavenly Solace), both depicting the tearing of a child away from his mother, are treated essentially as one unit, with the first acting as an introduction to the second. These two, and the cycle's apocalyptic fifth poem (Hell is Naked from Glowing Enigmas II), act as the two weighty pillar points, so to speak, surrounding the more introspective two middle poems (Fleeing and Someone Comes). To maximize dramatic differentiation within the constraints of a relentlessly tragic subject matter, I used range as a means to delineate contrast, by dividing the sounds available to me into low and dark (mvt. III) vs. high and, at times, eerily bright (mvt. IV) colors. Thus the two middle poems are intended to balance the frenzied madness of which the work's outer parts are made. The work received its first performance in New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Auditorium on January 19, 1970. --Shulamit Ran.
SKU: PR.111401800
UPC: 680160618132. 8.5 x 11 inches. Text: Nelly Sachs. Nelly Sachs. Text: Five Poems of Nelly Sachs, Translation from German of Nos. I, III and IV by Ruth and Matthew Mead, of No. II by Michael Roloff and No. V by Michael Hamburger.
SKU: HL.14015640
ISBN 9780853606314. UPC: 884088433413. 9.0x12.0x0.194 inches. English.
A superb collection of standard repertoire for the classical singer. Titles range from Baroque to late 19th century and titles often appear on the ABRSM singing syllabus.
SKU: FP.FBS03
ISBN 9790570500192.
Sarah Baker is Vocal Composer in Residence at Education Music Services, an ABRSM examiner and a well known composer of songs and musicals for primary schools and massed-choral events.All this experience has come together in the creation of this album of piano pieces, inspired by growing up in the Chiltern Hills. Suitable for players of around grade 4-5 standard, her evocative sound pieces describe a crash-landing hot air balloon, garden invading cows and a even a snake in a pond!Air Balloon!: One vivid memory I have as a child is of the day that a hot air balloon passed over our house and made an emergency landing on the road in front! The sound of the gas being blown into the balloon to try to keep it high enough to pass the house sounded so loud and intimidating, and then there was the bustle of the neighbours as we all went out into the street to watch. It was both terrifying and exhilarating to watch the balloon float past and then land so near by.Buzzards Circling: There is something so calming and restful about watching birds of prey circling in the thermal currents of a summer sky. Growing up in the Chilterns gave me plenty of opportunity to watch buzzards and red kites. This piano solo captures the beauty of their flight as they glide so effortlessly through the air.There’s A Cow In The Garden Eating The Flowers: Inspired by the memory of seeing an unexpected cow in the garden! This surreal image is captured in a quirky waltz, as I portray both the absurdity of the moment and the sense of wonder I felt as a child, looking out of the window and seeing the cow walking round and eating the flowers. The final phrase articulates my longing: ‘I wish it would come again’.Watching The World Go By: A short, reflective piece, remembering what it was like to have time to just sit and watch the world go by from my bedroom window.Autumn Skies: A miniature about the beauty of Autumn skies and the poignant sense of loss for a summer gone. Friends I was fortunate to have several children of my own age living close by. We seemed to be forever making dens, playing out in the street and generally enjoying each other’s company. This piece reflects that sense of well-being.Snake In The Pond: One hot summer I was astonished and scared to see a grass snake cooling off in our garden pond! I watched, both horrified and fascinated, as it rose up from the depths and then disappeared again. Here I portray the sense of the hazy summer afternoon as I peacefully watched the tiny movements of fish in the pond, contrasted with the fear and excitement of seeing the snake appear.Morning Commute: I recollect many mornings stuck in traffic as my Dad took me to school on his way to work. There is one main road out of the village where I grew up, and that got more and more congested the closer we got to the town. We may not have chatted a lot, but it was always good to be together with my Dad, lost in our own thoughts.The Witch’s Cottage: My siblings and I had a fascination with a small cottage nearby. It was set back from the road in a dark part of the woods and we called it 'the witch's cottage’. Every time we passed, I imagined I heard the distant cackle of the witch and wished I could catch a glimpse of her.These pieces are written to complement my other collection, Night Time Impressions, which also draw on childhood recollections, particularly of the woods behind the house where I grew up. - Sarah Baker 2023.
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