SKU: AP.50999S

ISBN 9781470665210. UPC: 038081583440. English.

Circles is a timeless, impressionistic work portraying a dark void with various colored circles aimlessly spinning around and gently colliding with each other. Brian Balmages uses wildly vivid colors throughout the work, which are incredibly unique for this level. Combine that with an extraordinary ending, and your audience is in for an amazing experience! (4:00).

SKU: FG.55011-372-5

ISBN 9790550113725.

Images of the sea figure prominently throughout my life and memories: from holidays on the Atlantic coast during my Canadian childhood to my current Baltic home, and the imagined, only later experienced Mediterranean of my ancestral heritage. As an immigrant (son of an immigrant) bound to two northern countries, the sea is emblematic of my twin homelands, from the expanses of water surrounding them to those separating them. A Mari usque ad Mare. The sea is also an enduring image of the unknown, of expanses unexplored, of the raw power of nature and, for too many currently, of terror holding a hope of refuge - or the pain of loss.
Such disparate ideas were captured for me in the seascapes of the New York painter MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom I met in 2008 during a residency on the Gulf of Mexico. Her vast, abstract, nearly monochromatic depictions of imaginary seas in wildly varying moods were the catalyst for a concerto where the piano is frequently far from a hero battling a collective, but rather acts as a channel for elemental forces surging up from the orchestra, floating - sometimes barely so - on its constantly shifting surface. There are few themes to speak of, beyond a handful of iconic ideas that periodically cycle upward. Rather, the piano's material is largely an ornamentation of the more primal rhythmic and harmonic impulses from the orchestra below - a poetic interpretation, if you will, of the more immediate experience of facing the vastness of some unknown body of water.
The title Nameless Seas is borrowed from one of Thielhelm's exhibitions, as are those of the four movements, which are bridged together into two halves of roughly equal weight - one rhapsodic and free, the other more single-minded and direct, separated only by a short breath. The opening movement, Nocturne, is predominantly calm, if brooding, darkness and light alternating throughout. Lyrical arabesques sparkle over gently lapping cross-currents in the strings and mirrored timpani, the piano's full power only rarely deployed. The waves gradually build, drawing in the full orchestra for a meeting of forces in Land and Sea, a brighter, more warmly lyrical scene that unfolds in series of dreamlike, sometimes even nostalgic visions, which for me carry strong memories of sitting on rocks above surging Atlantic waves. The third movement, Wake, is a fast, perpetual-motion texture of glinting, darting rhythms and sudden shafts of light, with a prominent part for the steel drums, limning the piano's quicksilver figurations. An ecstatic climax crashes into a solo cadenza that grows progressively calmer and more introspective rather than virtuosic. Much of the tension finally releases into Unclaimed Waters, a drifting, meditative seascape in which the piano is progressively engulfed by a series of ever-taller waves, ultimately dissolving into a tolling, rippling continuum of sound.
It has been a great privilege to realize such a long-held dream as this piece, and to write it for not one, but two great pianists. Risto-Matti Marin and Angela Hewitt, both of whose friendship and support have been unfailing and humbling, share the dedication. Nameless Seas was commissioned by the PianoEspoo festival and Canada's National Arts Centre, with the premieres in Ottawa and Helsinki led by Hannu Lintu and Olari Elts. Thanks are due also to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, whose generous grant provided me with much-needed time, and Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida, the source to which I returned to do a large part of the work.

SKU: FG.55011-389-3

ISBN 9790550113893.

Scherzo from Op. 4 is a charming presto for string orchestra. It is based on the third movement of Sibelius's String Quartet B-flat major, on which the composer added a double bass part. The premiere of the string orchestra version took place on 17 February 1894 in Turku, composer conducting. Reviews were enthusiastic: Sibelius's music appeared in its most beautiful splendor and
instrumental brilliance in the Presto movement, where the singing motive was carried out with charm and beauty - -, cascades of diligently and brilliantly composed scherzo-figures and melodies [give a] thoroughly delightful and frisky, lively character..

SKU: IG.PMW142

9 x 12 in inches.

The pieces in this group comprising Notebook for Piano were composed over many years, and were selected from a collection of approximately fifty works at this level . They are accessible to most students who have studied piano diligently for at least three to four years. Contained in these pieces are challenging techniques in rhythm, harmony, articulation, dynamics, notation, and even a challenge to hear and understand music that is not exclusively key based. However, more so than any other compositional facet, melody is always a primary concern in these pieces.


Many of the pieces in Notebook for Piano have been performed by intermediate level students and by college music majors. I hope you find this collection satisfying.

SKU: AP.44903S

UPC: 038081516141. English.

Composed in 1917, the official march of the United States Army is one of Sousa's most frequently performed titles. It's unique in that it uses a familiar tune for the trio theme---in this case, The Army Song. The original thematic material has been diligently preserved while scored to be accessible to the developing band. (2:30).