Choral (SAB Choir)

SKU: HL.424959

Arranged by John Leavitt. Shawnee Sacred. Christmas. Octavo. 12 pages. Duration 160 seconds. Published by Shawnee Press (HL.424959).

ISBN 9781705162194. UPC: 196288061953. 6.75x10.5x0.029 inches. Isaiah 7:14, Luke 2:1-20.

A Christmas classic in a glittering new arrangement! Like twinkling lights on a cloudless night, this octavo captures the spirit of the season with dazzling writing that is both engaging and technically approachable. Score and Parts (3 oct. hndbls, db) available as a digital download.

Voice & String Quartet

SKU: ST.Y296

Composed by Rhian Samuel. Chamber music. For High Voice, String Quartet and Piano. Score (2 copies supplied) and parts. Score and parts. Stainer & Bell Ltd. #Y296. Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (ST.Y296).

ISBN 9790220223525.

Nature and landscape have been the dominant themes of much of Rhian Samuel's vocal music of the last ten years, projected chiefly through the poetry of Anne Stevenson, and in her most recent song-settings, the writings of the Pakistan-born Texas-based poet Zulfikar Ghose. His poem 'Conspiracy of the Clouds' describes how, the clouds having chosen to become invisible, 'Even the astronauts on the space shuttle / looked down on a cloudless America' as hurricanes ravage Louisiana and storms engulf Nebraska. An intriguing conceit in the tradition of magic realism, the text is presented as a scena lasting around 16 minutes, with interpolations from 'Haze' by the nineteenth-century New England transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. Thus modern fable and romantic nature-description are juxtaposed, and their interaction becomes the source of musical contrasts too. Thoreau's words are assigned predominantly to the vocalist's highest register, those of Ghose to her lower tessitura; and the suggestive and dramatic accompaniment builds tension steadily to the final ironic response of an incredulous American public: not one of awe and wonder, but the question 'Why weren't we told about it?

Piano Duet (1 Piano, 4 Hands)

SKU: HL.285230

Piano Duet. Composed by Reynaldo Hahn. Music Sales America. Classical. Softcover. 100 pages. Alphonse Leduc #AL30769. Published by Alphonse Leduc (HL.285230).

UPC: 888680908737. 9.0x12.0x0.264 inches.

'Flee the storms.' Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) put this motto of classical artists at the heart of his music for piano four hands, preferring the balance of proportions to the roar of passions, the eclecticism of good taste, charm and delicacy. Berceuses falls within the French tradition of children's music such as illustrated by Faure's Dolly and Ravel's Ma mere lOye. These seven pieces evoke with refinement the happiness of a cloudless day, the effervescence that reigns on Christmas Eve, or the gentle syncopated rocking of a young Creole, Selfiana. The Variations pueriles sur une melodie de Carl Reinecke manifest a free, whimsical vein, whereas the Trois preludes sur des airs irlandais drink at the pure sources of folk music, borrowing their thematic material from the famous collection Songs of Old Ireland which Stanford had brought out in 1882. Published for the first time from ahandwritten score, the Variations sur un theme de Charles Levade end with a wild quadrille that takes the heroes of the celebration to the nearest inn. The Piece en forme daria et Bergerie from 1896, finely polished, takes up with the ambiance of the pastorale, popular in the 17th century.