SKU: PR.164002950

ISBN 9781491114568. UPC: 680160633449. 9 x 12 inches.

Dan Welcher’s fascinating work for soprano sax is both a refraction of Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and his own incidental music to Shakespeare’s comedy. The work’s title, AS LIGHT AS BIRD FROM BRIER, quotes from Oberon (King of the Fairies) invoking revelry at the play’s climactic wedding scene. Welcher’s fantasy skips among the most beloved themes of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer – giving the saxophonist quite a workout, and the listener a midsummer delight.
AS LIGHT AS BIRD FROM BRIER is loosely based on Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which has haunted me since I was nine years old. My parents subscribed me to The Children’s Record Guild, and every month a new 78rpm vinyl record would arrive in the mail. They were mostly fairy tales and “kids lit,” but in this case it was a very condensed performance of the actual play, with Mendelssohn’s music. I loved it immediately, and still do – I saw a performance in 2014 at the Stratford Festival that literally stalks my dreams.When I was commissioned by saxophonist Stephen Page to compose a work for soprano saxophone and piano two years later, I channeled Mendelssohn as an inspiration: specifically, the Overture, the Scherzo, the Intermezzo, the fairy’s song “You spotted snakes with double tongue,” and the Rustics’ Dance. But it’s not a pastiche – most of the music is completely my own, though attentive listeners will detect snatches of Mendelssohn’s haunting score throughout.This piece joins MILL SONGS and FLORESTAN’S FALCON among works honoring my favorite 19th-century composers (in those cases, Schubert and Schumann) without ripping them off. As Stravinsky did in his ballet Pulcinella, I have borrowed fragments of melody from a much-loved composer, and made a fabric of harmonies and scales that are genetically related to Mendelssohn, but unmistakably Welcher.In this work, the saxophonist is Puck – skittish, dazzlingly fast, and brilliant in the outer parts, and a mischievous Cupid in the long, central Love Song. (Remember how Puck anoints Titania’s eyes with the juice from a magic flower, which causes her to fall in love with Bottom the weaver, who has been bewitched and wears a donkey’s head?) The music traces Puck’s magic flight, the finding of the flower, Titania’s love-scene with Bottom and her fairies, and the rustic players – whose rehearsal of the funniest play-within-the-play in literature is interrupted by Puck’s dirty tricks.I greatly enjoyed the process of writing this piece, and often found myself quite moved even as I was writing it... which rarely happens. Stephen Page, who commissioned the work, is a consummate artist (and a bit of a Puck himself). The title comes from Oberon’s final speech in the play:Through the house, give glimmering light,By the dead and drowsy fire.Every elf and fairy spriteHop as light as bird from brier,And this ditty, after me,Sing, and dance it trippingly.

SKU: BT.DHP-1084457-070

ISBN 9789043129046. 9x12 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.

The American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) wrote the energetic song I Got Rhythm, with lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin, in 1930 for the musical Girl Crazy. The story of Girl Crazy takes place in the theatre world of the 1930s. The Gaiety Theater in Deadrock, Nevada, is practically bankrupt, but the rich banker’s son Bobby Child turns things around. His passion for the theatre leads to the customary love vicissitudes and comical intricacies - and a new successful show.I Got Rhythm, now a jazz standard, has been performed over the years by numerous famous and not-so-famous artists. The chord scheme has become so well-known that it has been named rhythm changes, and is oftenused by jazz musicians.

Der Jazz-Standard, aus dem das oft zitierte Akkordschema Rhythm Changes stammt, in einer flotten Bearbeitung für vier Klarinette in B.

Questo arrangiamento vi permetter di chiudere in bellezza un vostro concerto con uno spumeggiante bis.

SKU: HL.4008651

UPC: 196288189763.

The procession of King Renaud Op. 19b is a suite in five parts and is based on tales that originated in southern European folk songs, dating back as far as the 16th century. A large portion of these songs are of the genre “Complaintes”, songs in which the text gives a detailed description of events of a generally criminal or macabre character. The first movement of the suite is based on the song La porcheronne (The Swineherd). It tells the story of a young woman forced by her mother-in-law to tend pigs while her husband is away fighting in the war. She is freed only when her husband returns, seven years later. The second movement tells the story of La marquise empoisonnée (The Poisoned Marquise). A marquise is coerced by her king to become his mistress. The jealous queen poisons her by means of a bouquet of deadly scented flowers. Despite having the character of a merry dance, the third movement, La maumariée vengée (The Avenged Bride) tells the touching story of Queen Clotilde, persecuted for her refusal to live according to Aryan beliefs.La belle engloutie (The Swallowed Beauty) relates the tale of the young wife of King Renaud. She cannot imagine a life without her husband, who was mortally wounded in the war, and begs the earth to open and swallow her up so that she may rejoin her love. The gruesome content of the final part, Le tueur de femmes (The Wife Killer), bears a strong resemblance to the tale of Bluebeard. The story is about a young wife in danger of being drowned in a pond by her husband, which is what happened to her 13 predecessors. Thanks to her cunning, she manages to turn the tables and contrive her husband's demise.