SKU: PR.16400261S

UPC: 680160038411.

Since the bassoon is my own instrument, many people have asked me why I've written so little for the instrument. Beyond my early Concerto Da Camera for bassoon and small orchestra, written for Leonard Sharrow in 1975, I've not written a single piece that features the bassoon as a solo vehicle (though I have written three woodwind quintets). When I first began composing seriously, critics were quick to point out that my orchestral writing revealed nothing of my roots as a woodwind player--and bassoonists asked why my pieces didn't have more bassoon solos. Perhaps I was so aware that people were looking at me as a bassoonist/composer that I was determined to remove that stigma. Now that my transformation from performer to composer is complete, however, it's time to re-address my instrument. I wanted this new piece to be serious rather than whimsical. The Wind Won't Listen represents my return to the bassoon as the highly expressive, poetic soul that it is.   As such, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the piece is based on a poem, and that the title of the piece as well as both its movement titles come from lines in that poem. I first read Beth Gylys' poem Split at the MacDowell Colony in the summer of 2001, and it made a big impression on me. My personal life had been ruptured by divorce in the preceding year. This poem, with its dry insistence on observation rather than feeling, expressed the wrung-out state of my emotions at the time better than any I had seen. I set it to music, as a song, immediately. In this format, for voice and piano, I was able to put a musical note to every word of the poem. The first lines of the poem, Everyone I know is crying, or should be crying, became a melody that haunted me even without the words.   The work for bassoon and string quartet is an outgrowth of the song. The first movement is labeled Romanza, and has a loose formal arch structure of A-B-C-B-A, with B and C being fast sections framed by the lamenting A music. In addition to hearing the bassoon's first notes attached to the lines Everyone I know is crying, there's a sense of agitation, of loss, of longing, and at times of desperation in the music. At one point, the opening theme from Tristan even appears in the strings.   The second movement follows, without a real pause--the pizzicato final chords of the first movement becoming the increasingly aggressive opening chords of the second. The recitative is actually a foreshadowing of the basic theme that will be varied, again to the words of the song: Life makes itself without us. Don't let me tell you how it is. Go out. Look. The recitative begins in an anguished state, but subsides into more gentle singing by the end, when it simply falls into an ostinato 5/8-3/4 pattern to begin the variations. Marked Very steady tempo; Dancing, this set of variations consists of three dances, each faster than the previous. The first, in the aforementioned 5/8-3/4 meter, gives way to a 3/8 scherzo, which in turn takes on a furious 2/4 scurrying motion. The music becomes breathless, almost pulse-less, and an ethereal theme appears in the violins while the rushing music continues, sotto voce in the bassoon. This new theme is also from the song: Why do I do this? The wind won't listen. The bassoon re-states its Everyone I know is crying melody from the first movement, and at length the 5/8-3/4 music returns, more subdued this time. The piece ends on a major-minor chord, suspended.   The Wind Won't Listen is dedicated to the man who commissioned it, bassoonist Steven Dibner--who shares my passion for poetry and language. --Dan Welcher.

SKU: FG.55011-906-2

ISBN 9790550119062.

Harri Wessman's Summer Variations for viola and piano (1998) exploites the rich and romantic sound of the viola and enjoys the many shades of summer days. It is dedicated to violist Yuri Gandelsman, who premiered the suite with Risto Lauriala 15th June 1998.

Duration: c. 11'

Movements:
1. Summer theme
2. What is this?
3. Pizzicato
4. Con sordino
5. Stile concitato ostinato
6. Tango
7. Finale

Harri Wessman (b. 1949) is interested in all aspects of music that may be expressive, without in any way ignoring the possibilities of melody. He himself describes his harmonic method as a kind of contrapuntally treated jazz harmony. Wessman is particularly preoccupied with the ability of music to express emotions, an interest which has led him to study the so-called doctrine of the affections and the musical rhetoric of the baroque era. His Eine kleine Figurenlehre for wind quartet and piano is a playful application of a set of baroque musical figures.

His output is dominated by chamber and vocal music as well as a number of concertos for various instruments such as the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and the Serenade for Piano and String Orchestra. During recent years pedagogic music has become a more and more central area in his output with an emphasis on creating repertoire for budding musicians, from beginners to young professionals. He has even tailored some solo and chamber works for young musicians that he personally knows: e.g. Five Trombone Pieces for Minna Kajander (1992), Five Horn Pieces for Jenni Kuronen (1993), Five Piano Etudes for Tiina Karakorpi, Five Trumpet Pieces for Alevtina Parland and Five Double Bass Pieces for Amanda Thieme. Other chamber and solo pieces include Pan and the Nymph Pitys (1979) for flute and guitar, Three Caprices for Konstantin Weitz (1994) for solo violin and Capriccio for wind ensemble (1989).

SKU: SU.00220171

The complete Clarinet (including Eb and Bass Clarinet) parts [CD-ROM] for the 46 orchestral works included in The Orchestra Musician's CD-ROM Library™, Volume 7: Ravel, Elgar and more. If these parts were purchased separately, this collection could cost several hundred dollars. Parts are easily viewable and printable on either PC or Mac using embedded Adobe® Reader technology. Contents: CHADWICK Symphonic Sketches; DELIUS Brigg Fair, In a Summer Garden, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Summer Night on the River; D'INDY Symphony on a French Mountain Air; DUKAS Symphony in C, La Péri, Sorcerer's Apprentice; ELGAR Cockaigne Overture, Enigma Variations, Falstaff, Froissart, In the South, Introduction and Allegro, Pomp and Circumstance Marches 1-4, Serenade for Strings, Cello Concerto, Violin Concerto, Symphonies 1 & 2; GRIFFES Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, Poem for Flute, White Peackock; HOLST The Planets; NIELSEN Symphonies 1-5, Violin Concerto, Helios Overture, Maskarade Overture and Dance; RAVEL Alborada del gracioso, Daphnis et Chloé Suites 1 & 2, Mother Goose Suite, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Rhapsodie Espagnole, Le Tombeau de Couperin, La Valse, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales Visit for more information

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