SKU: PR.114422530

ISBN 9781491137307. UPC: 680160688036.

Chen Yi’s ELEGY was composed in 2020 both as her own response to the covid pandemic, and in conjunction with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s series of solo commissions for their performers offered through the SPCO’s website. Musically inspired by a common bond with oboist Cassie Pilgrim’s cultural heritage from southern China, Chen Yi drew from Cantonese folk music materials, whose Yifan mode is particularly sad and mournful.
Elegy was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for its principal oboist Cassie Pilgrim who premiered the work at Ordway Hallin St. Paul, MN on November 28, 2020.Since Cassie and I share the same cultural heritage from Southern China, ELEGY has a strong influence from Cantonese folk music material, including the folk tunes in Yifan Mode, which sound sad and sentimental. This solo piece expresses a deep nostalgia for our loved ones, as well as our painful mourning for thousands of people who lost their lives around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic.

SKU: PR.114405050

UPC: 680160008377. 11 x 14 inches.

Although structurally it subdivides into five movements, the entire quartet emerges as one vast continuum. There are no formal breaks between movements. However, certain musical signposts can be discerned, associated with each of the movements' terminations and new beginnings. The opening movement, The Nostalgia of Clanging Bell Sonorities, begins floating on recurrent Bbs whose soft rhythmic flow slowly puts into motion strong undercurrents suggestive of the latent power of water... After several suggestions of tolling bells, the movement gradually fades into hushed tones of veiled and very distant sonorities. It uses a unique efffect, for the first time in a musical context, conveyed through the use of extra heavy practice mutes. The second movement, The Spill of Water , disengages itself from the first through its distinct contrast in tempo. Water moves fast, and when it splashes, it tends to run wildly. In this case, it happens to be bubbly water that gushes forth bodly... smashing across rocky shorlines. So, too, the music attempts to conjure such moods. At the end of this movement, a cello cadenza emerges, introducing an introspective type of melodicism. The third movement, The Poignancy of Memory, contains many silences as it tries to convey memory through fragmented remembrances much like often occur in our dream state. Progressing through several slowly building images, it gradually works itself into juxtaposition of musical images. Towards the movement's end, high harmonics are sounding in all four instruments while left hand pizzicato notes in the cello pluch the last remembrances of this central core. Almost imperceptibly, the viola assumes leadership as it dissolves into: The fourth movement, The Fluidity of Motion, which has mostly the viola, but also the cello, articulating lyrical statements against the sheets of sound conjured up by the two violins playing a flood of swirling figures, evokes a kind of static motion in spae. Here, the virtually imperceptible manner in which this hushed whisper continues incessantly, can suggest the potential fluidity with which movement may inch forward... Later into the fourth movement , two fairly extended solos by the second and then the first violins, lead to a kind of spontaneous dialogue among the four instrumentalists. Eventually, this musical conversation gets caught up in: The fifth movement's The Rush of Time, which opens with a hushed flurry of speed, precipitates the Finale. It generates, at first slowly, but then very swiftly, whole shifts of rhythmic fields that initially seem to conflict with one another. Ultimately, this use of 'psycho-rhythmics contributes to an on-rush of motion and time. Rhythmic changes are, at times, abruptly precipitated with but little or no preparation creating a kind of inevitability in forward thrust, while the movement rushes forward with a feeling of gradual and continuous acceleration. It gathers density as more and more notes are piled progressively upon successive beats. The attempt is to spark tension and ignite excitement by means of frenetic confrontations of dissimilitudes. Ultimately - with the help of time - these polarities centrifically spin out their own destinies with their accompanying fall-out and own inevitable resolutions.

SKU: PR.11440505S

UPC: 680160008391. 11 x 14 inches.

Although structurally it subdivides into five movements, the entire quartet emerges as one vast continuum. There are no formal breaks between movements. However, certain musical signposts can be discerned, associated with each of the movements' terminations and new beginnings. The opening movement, The Nostalgia of Clanging Bell Sonorities, begins floating on recurrent Bbs whose soft rhythmic flow slowly puts into motion strong undercurrents suggestive of the latent power of water... After several suggestions of tolling bells, the movement gradually fades into hushed tones of veiled and very distant sonorities. It uses a unique effect, for the first time in a musical context, conveyed through the use of extra heavy practice mutes. The second movement, The Spill of Water, disengages itself from the first through its distinct contrast in tempo. Water moves fast, and when it splashes, it tends to run wildly. In this case, it happens to be bubbly water that gushes forth bodly... smashing across rocky shorelines. So, too, the music attempts to conjure such moods. At the end of this movement, a cello cadenza emerges, introducing an introspective type of melodicism. The third movement, The Poignancy of Memory, contains many silences as it tries to convey memory through fragmented remembrances much like often occur in our dream state. Progressing through several slowly building images, it gradually works itself into juxtaposition of musical images. Towards the movement's end, high harmonics are sounding in all four instruments while left hand pizzicato notes in the cello pluck the last remembrances of this central core. Almost imperceptibly, the viola assumes leadership as it dissolves into: The fourth movement, The Fluidity of Motion, which has mostly the viola, but also the cello, articulating lyrical statements against sheets of sound conjured up by the two violins playing a flood of swirling figures, evokes a kind of static motion in space. Here , the virtually imperceptible manner in which this hushed whisper continues incessantly, can suggest the potential fluidity with which movement may inch forward... Later into the fourth movement, two fairly extended solos by the second and then the first violins, lead to a kind of spontaneous dialogue amont the four instrumentalists. Eventually, this musical conversation gets caught up in: The fifth movement's The Rush of Time, which opens with a hushed flurry of speed, precipitates the Finale. It generates, at first slowly, but then very swiftly, whole shifts of rhythmic fields that initially seem to conflict with one another. Ultimately, this use of psycho-rhythmics contributes to an on-rush seem of motion and time. Rhythmic changes are, at times, abruptly precipitated with but little or no preparation creating a kind of inevitability in forward thrust, while the movement rushes forward with a feeling of gradual and continuous acceleration. It gathers density as more and more notes are piled progressively upon successive beats. The attempt is to spark tension and ignite excitement by means of frenetic confrontations of dissimilitudes. Ultimately - with the help of time - these polarities centrifically spin out their own destinies with their accompanying fall-out and own inevitable resolutions.

SKU: ST.Y224

ISBN 9790220221552.

Scen es from Welsh life and landscape are a frequent source of inspiration for the music of Rhian Samuel, and, in Dovey Junction, the joyful atmosphere of families en route to the Welsh seaside via the little west-coast railway line is the cue for a crackling scherzo for brass quintet.

A snappy rondo theme insists on dressing up in a different texture each time it returns. In between, pithy staccato phrases for trumpets are the setting for more cantabile figures from horn and trombone, and a brief and bluesy episode for muted solo trumpet suggests lazy days on the beach, or grown-up nostalgia for holidays long past. But the energy and sense of expectation remain unstoppable from the first bar to the last, and all five instruments sweep the music into a furious coda that ends the work in riotous high spirits.

Dovey Junction was written for performance by Borealis Brass (Alaska) at the UNESCO World Forum on Music, Los Angeles, USA in October 20005, at the invitation of the Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica, (Rome).

SKU: LO.99-1678H

UPC: 000308081015.

Rock and Roll and the radio are recalled in this tribute to those golden oldies but goodies. The opening nostalgia (an optional solo) soon gives way to a driving beat that is fun to sing, easily learned, and allows your choir an opportunity to bring back some of the favorite characters and dances of the 50's.

SKU: SU.80101523

The title Ten Orphic Vignettes, which alludes to Orpheus, is a conceptual metaphor that represents the idea behind this set of pieces. Orpheus the legendary figure from Greek mythology was venerated for being endowed with superhuman musical skills. He was a poet and mystic whose poems set out many philosophical principles and dogmas of Ancient Greece. These pieces were written in 2021 and some of them are derived from compositional sketches from earlier years. The subject matter of these works are quite eclectic, encompassing Joy, death, aesthetic beauty, nostalgia, the mystical and the esoteric. They are designed to be played as solo pieces on their own or in groups chosen by the performer.Organ Duration: 32’ Composed: 2021 Published by: Zimbel Press.

SKU: HL.361950

ISBN 9781705127636. UPC: 840126951875. 9.0x12.0x0.057 inches.

SKU: ST.Y259

ISBN 9790220222559.

Far Across the Sea' (Ymhell dros y mor) is the latest instrumental work from a composer noted for her original and sensitive writing for harp and harp ensemble.

In this gentle solo, what sounds like a folksong - and a very fine one - is in fact a newly composed tune, crafted with artful simplicity. But as the music journeys further from its characteristically Welsh opening, teasing out new suggestions from the material, the sense of nostalgia becomes definitely more contemporary than traditional, though the uplifting conclusion restores the tone of bardic rhetoric.

This work would be a rewarding item for players of intermediate standard, and was recommended for the under 18 category of the 2009 Wales International Harp Festival.