SKU: CF.YPS217F

ISBN 9781491156551. UPC: 680160915095. 9 x 12 inches.

Hope Remains Within was commissioned by and composed for the Mount Nittany Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Concert Bands. Having heard the students of Mount Nittany perform another work of mine, I was very excited when their director, Johanna Steinbacher, approached me about writing a piece specifically for them. I knew right away that I wanted to write something that would tie in with their non-music curriculum in some way, but I wasn't exactly sure how, or what. Johanna talked to some of her students and learned that, in 7th grade, the students spend a good deal of time studying mythology in their English class. In particular, two clarinet students mentioned how much they enjoyed the story of Pandora. As such, I decided to use that story as the basis of this composition. Hope Remains Within doesn't attempt to re-tell the story, event by event, in musical terms. Instead, my goal was to address what seems to be one of the central issues of the Pandora myth. Though there are some variations, we probably all know the basics as told by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Zeus decides to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to humans. He and the other gods create Pandora, a beautiful and deceitful woman, and they give her to Prometheus's brother Epimetheus as a bride. Pandora is herself given a jar (according to many sources, jar seems to be a more accurate translation for what we commonly call Pandora's box) which contained numerous evils, diseases, and other pains. Out of curiosity, Pandora opens the jar and releases all of these evils into the world. But one thing remains in the jar: hope. The issue of hope seems to be one of the big interpretive questions of the Pandora myth. Why does hope remain within the jar? Why doesn't it come out of the jar to help humanity? Is hope being held on a pedestal of some sort? Is hope deliberately withheld from humanity? Why was hope in the jar with all those evils in the first place? I'm not enough of a mythological scholar to claim to have definitive answers to those questions, but these are the questions that I've tried to engage from a musical perspective in Hope Remains Within. I encourage the students and listeners to consider their own ideas of what hope is, and where you can find your own hope when needed. Musically, Hope Remains Within draws one of its main themes from the Prometheus Symphony by Alexander Skryabin (Scriabin). The note sequence F-D-Gb -F, heard near Hope's beginning played by alto saxophones and chimes, comes from the opening measures of Skyrabin's work. Given the important role that Prometheus plays in the Pandora myth, this seemed like an appropriate musical gesture to quote. This Prometheus motive is varied throughout the course of the piece, and even provides closure at the end, recast in a major key. Additionally, I have tried to involve a manageable amount of chromaticism in this piece. I have worked from the key of Bb major, no doubt familiar to every student who has ever played an instrument in a band. But I have added three extra notes: Db, Gb, and Ab, which are drawn from the key of Bb minor. During the piece's slow opening, I have allowed these minor key pitches to mingle freely within the Bb major tonality, adding extra color and (I hope!) beauty. As the piece progresses, though, the tempo increases, and we lose sense of the Bb major key entirely, and these extra notes play a more important role. But finally, Bb major returns triumphantly and all the extra notes are gone, except for a brief memory near the very end. (Ok, there are a couple of E-naturals that sneak in there along the way. I couldn't resist.).
Hope Remains Within was commissioned by and composed for the Mount Nittany Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Concert Bands. Having heard the students of Mount Nittany perform another work of mine, I was very excited when their director, Johanna Steinbacher, approached me about writing a piece specifically for them. I knew right away that I wanted to write something that would tie in with their non-music curriculum in some way, but I wasn’t exactly sure how, or what. Johanna talked to some of her students and learned that, in 7th grade, the students spend a good deal of time studying mythology in their English class. In particular, two clarinet students mentioned how much they enjoyed the story of Pandora.As such, I decided to use that story as the basis of this composition. Hope Remains Within doesn’t attempt to re-tell the story, event by event, in musical terms. Instead, my goal was to address what seems to be one of the central issues of the Pandora myth. Though there are some variations, we probably all know the basics as told by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Zeus decides to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from heaven and giving it to humans. He and the other gods create Pandora, a beautiful and deceitful woman, and they give her to Prometheus’s brother Epimetheus as a bride. Pandora is herself given a jar (according to many sources, “jar” seems to be a more accurate translation for what we commonly call “Pandora’s box”) which contained numerous evils, diseases, and other pains. Out of curiosity, Pandora opens the jar and releases all of these evils into the world. But one thing remains in the jar: hope.The issue of hope seems to be one of the big interpretive questions of the Pandora myth. Why does hope remain within the jar? Why doesn’t it come out of the jar to help humanity? Is hope being held on a pedestal of some sort? Is hope deliberately withheld from humanity? Why was hope in the jar with all those evils in the first place?I’m not enough of a mythological scholar to claim to have definitive answers to those questions, but these are the questions that I’ve tried to engage from a musical perspective in Hope Remains Within. I encourage the students and listeners to consider their own ideas of what hope is, and where you can find your own hope when needed.Musically, Hope Remains Within draws one of its main themes from the Prometheus Symphony by Alexander Skryabin (Scriabin). The note sequence F-D-Gb -F, heard near Hope’s beginning played by alto saxophones and chimes, comes from the opening measures of Skyrabin’s work. Given the important role that Prometheus plays in the Pandora myth, this seemed like an appropriate musical gesture to quote. This Prometheus motive is varied throughout the course of the piece, and even provides closure at the end, recast in a major key.Additionally, I have tried to involve a manageable amount of chromaticism in this piece. I have worked from the key of Bb major, no doubt familiar to every student who has ever played an instrument in a band. But I have added three extra notes: Db, Gb, and Ab, which are drawn from the key of Bb minor. During the piece’s slow opening, I have allowed these minor key pitches to mingle freely within the Bb major tonality, adding extra color and (I hope!) beauty. As the piece progresses, though, the tempo increases, and we lose sense of the Bb major key entirely, and these extra notes play a more important role. But finally, Bb major returns triumphantly and all the extra notes are gone, except for a brief memory near the very end. (Ok, there are a couple of E-naturals that sneak in there along the way. I couldn’t resist.).

SKU: HL.49047045

UPC: 196288111047.

Translating music into moving images? Six teaching projects for secondary level I and II deal with this topic and introduce a wide variety of film genres and techniques: stop motion, live painting clips, ambient video, black and white silent films or lyric video.Various musical styles are addressed: classical, world music, pop, jazz, new music, cartoon music or songs the students have composed themselves. Numerous sample videos encourage videographic re-creation. The school subject music expects an innovative and interdisciplinary workbook that promotes aesthetic experience through audiovisual and digital learning - suitable for face-to-face and distance teaching. Book with Online Material in German.

SKU: AP.36-A134748

ISBN 9798888529850. UPC: 659359935244. English.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, in 1878. He composed the work for his longtime friend, famed violinist Joseph Joachim, who premiered it in Leipzig with the Gewandhaussaal on January 1, 1879, Brahms himself conducting. The program also included, at Joachim's insistence, Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, on which Brahms modeled his own concerto. While the critical reception of the time was mixed, the audiences at the various early performances received the work well. Most complaints directed at the concerto addressed the role of the solo violin, noting that the soloist does not offer much of the melodic material or include much in the way virtuosic passages, a consequence of looking more towards Beethoven's serious aesthetic rather than Paganini's flashy one. Joachim himself, before a falling out with the composer over personal reasons, included Brahms' concerto among the best German offered, saying: The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 4.2.0.0: Timp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set): Solo Violin in set.

These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.

SKU: ST.C320

ISBN 9790570813209.

Composer’s Note:

I composed The Planets to be performed during my tenure as Composer in Residence at Chetham’s International Piano Summer School, Manchester, in August 2018. Drawing inspiration from Holst’s Suite of the same name – a work of unstoppable importance – my composition nevertheless contrasts conspicuously, both in its overall scheme (nine movements instead of seven) and orientation (my work takes the Sun as its point of orientation, whereas Holst places the Earth at the centre point and hence leaves it out of the musical scheme). There is, as a consequence, a sense of increasing serenity to my music following the effervescence of Jupiter, though there are reverberations of earlier themes and moods in the concluding movement, Pluto, which nevertheless ends enigmatically as befits its distant, ‘cold’ designation. Pluto was left out of Holst’s work for good reason – it had yet to be discovered – though Colin Matthews redressed the situation admirably in 2000. Whether one chooses to go along with Pluto’s unresolved status, or indeed to promote it to the position of ‘full’ planet (amusingly, Pluto became demoted to dwarf- planet in 1992) is perhaps less important than its potential to evince a musical spirit entirely to itself.

Performance Note:

Movements may be performed separately as desired, though the connections between musical characters will of course be lost in doing so. In Neptune and Pluto (which are best performed attacca) I include infrequent use of a bell, pitched at B4. This denotes the intangibility of time; it adds a welcome new colour, as well as an additional element for the audience to ponder on. A standard hotel receptionist’s bell was used in the inaugural performance – surprisingly resonant, even in a sizeable auditorium – though if this is unavailable the cellist can play the same note (or harmonic, if preferred).

World Premiere given at Stoller Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, August 2018: Gillian Poznansky (flute), Sebastian Poznansky (cello) and Mark Tanner (piano).

Duration: 30 minutes
Grade 8(+)
Former Spartan Press Cat. No.: SP1419.

SKU: BT.EMBZ14493

9x12 inches. English-Hungarian.

This work was written in 2005, prompted by the composer's determination that young members of junior, music school and conservatoire wind ensembles should not be limited to transcriptions for lack of original compositions, especially contemporary ones. The new devices used in the Little Suite are suitable for student players to try out. Indeed, they enjoy them - for instance, purring or whistling into the instrument. Each of the three-or-four-minute movements of this four-movement work can also be performed separately. The titles of the movements are the following: 1. In cheerful mood, 2. Song, 3. Joke, 4. March. This music in modern idiom, full ofinteresting new effects, offers young players an opportunity for enjoyable music-making together, and at the same time prepares them for playing more difficult contemporary works.

Dieses Werk schrieb der Komponist 2005, für Jugendblasorchester. Jeder der vier Sätze dieser Komposition lässt sich auch einzeln vortragen. Die Titel der Sätze sind: 1. Gutgelaunt, 2. Lied, 3. Spass, 4. Marsch. Die in moderner Sprache gehaltene, mit vielen interessanten neuen Effekten bereicherte Musik bietet den jungen Instrumentalisten Möglichkeiten zum heiteren, gutgelaunten Musizieren in der Gemeinschaft und bereitet sie auch auf das Spielen schwierigerer zeitgenössischer Musik vor.

Little Suite (In Cheerful Mood, Song, Joke, March) pour musiciens décomplexés s’adresse aux Orchestres Juniors de niveau avancé, ainsi qu’aux formations la recherche de nouvelles expériences musicales. Il va falloir, siffl er, souffl er, ronronner, etc. Chacun des quatre mouvements (durée individuelle : 3-4 min.) peut être interprété séparément.

Little Suite si presta per essere eseguito da banda di livello avanzato come anche per tutte le formazioni desiderose di suonare un brano originale moderno con effetti sorprendenti. I quattro movimenti di questa piccola suite, In Cheerful Mood, Song, Joke e March, possono essere eseguiti separatamente.