Complete Lyrics for Over 1000 Songs from Broadway to Rock. By Various. Lyric Lib...(+)
Complete Lyrics for Over
1000 Songs from Broadway
to Rock. By Various.
Lyric Library. Softcover.
Size 8.5x11 inches. 373
pages. Published by Hal
Leonard.
(16 Aria Excerpts from the Opera the Grapes of Wrath). By Ricky Ian Gordon. For ...(+)
(16 Aria Excerpts from
the Opera the Grapes of
Wrath). By Ricky Ian
Gordon. For Baritone
Voice and Piano, Tenor
Voice and Piano,
Mezzo-Soprano Voice and
Piano, Soprano Voice and
Piano, Bass-Baritone
Voice and Piano.
Published by Carl Fischer
Composed by Thomas Matthews. H.T. Fitzsimons Co. Anthem, Easter, Sacred. Oct...(+)
Composed by Thomas
Matthews.
H.T. Fitzsimons Co.
Anthem,
Easter, Sacred. Octavo.
12
pages. H.T. FitzSimons
Company #F2382. Published
by
H.T. FitzSimons Company
Music and Lyrics for 100 Standards from the Golden Age of American Song. Perform...(+)
Music and Lyrics for 100
Standards from the Golden
Age of American Song.
Performed by Various.
Piano/Vocal/Chords
Songbook (Arrangements
for piano and voice with
guitar chords).
Softcover. 398 pages.
Published by Hal Leonard.
Arranged by Mark Hayes. For Voice. Book; Duet or Duo; Vocal Collection. Mark Hay...(+)
Arranged by Mark Hayes.
For Voice. Book; Duet or
Duo; Vocal Collection.
Mark Hayes Series. Great
American Songbook. 80
pages. Published by
Alfred Music Publishing
Arranged by Mark Hayes. For Voice. Book; CD; Duet or Duo; Vocal Collection. Mark...(+)
Arranged by Mark Hayes.
For Voice. Book; CD; Duet
or Duo; Vocal Collection.
Mark Hayes Series. Great
American Songbook. 80
pages. Published by
Alfred Music Publishing
Arranged by Mark Hayes. For Voice. Book; CD; Solo; Vocal Collection. Mark Hayes ...(+)
Arranged by Mark Hayes.
For Voice. Book; CD;
Solo; Vocal Collection.
Mark Hayes Series. Great
American Songbook. 66
pages. Published by
Alfred Music Publishing
Arranged by Mark Hayes. For Voice. Book; Solo; Vocal Collection. Mark Hayes Seri...(+)
Arranged by Mark Hayes.
For Voice. Book; Solo;
Vocal Collection. Mark
Hayes Series. Great
American Songbook. 64
pages. Published by
Alfred Music Publishing
For
Orchestra. Composed
by Clint Needham. Study
Score. 54 pages. Duration
9 minutes. Theodore
Presser Company
#116-40342S. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.11640342S).
UPC:
680160687749.
The
Body Electric draws its
inspiration from great
American poet, Walt
Whitman's work I Sing the
Body Electric. Two years
earlier, while writing a
setting of Whitman's
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
for baritone and chamber
orchestra, I became
enamored with many of the
poems from his
collection, The Leaves of
Grass. I had not
revisited Whitman's
poetry since high school
and that distance
provided a fresh look at
Whitman's poetry. In the
spring of 2009, I came
back to this collection
and decided to write
another work inspired by
Whitman's poetry, this
time for chamber
orchestra alone. Writing
a work that attempted to
capture the mood of this
epic poem seemed
impossible. Because of
the inherent abstract
nature of text-less
music, writing a work
that was a musical
blow-by-blow of the poem
seemed equally
impossible. For me, the
solution was to take
three fragments of the
poem and focus on
conveying their
particular moods. In the
score, I have included
the following lines at
the beginning of each
section: the Body
electric, A divine nimbus
exhales, and the Body at
auction. the Body
Electric was written for
the 2009 Wellesley
College Composers
Conference and was
premiered on the final
concert of the conference
with Jim Baker
conducting. Clint
Needham. the Body
Electric draws its
inspiration from great
American poet, Walt
Whitman’s work I
Sing theBody Electric.
Two years earlier, while
writing a setting of
Whitman’s Crossing
Brooklyn Ferry
forbaritone and chamber
orchestra, I became
enamored with many of the
poems from his
collection,The Leaves of
Grass. I had not
revisited
Whitman’s poetry
since high school and
that distanceprovided a
fresh look at
Whitman’s poetry.
In the spring of 2009, I
came back to this
collectionand decided to
write another work
inspired by
Whitman’s poetry,
this time for chamber
orchestraalone.Writing a
work that attempted to
capture the mood of this
epic poem seemed
impossible. Becauseof the
inherent abstract nature
of text-less music,
writing a work that was a
musical blow-by-blowof
the poem seemed equally
impossible. For me, the
solution was to take
three fragments of
thepoem and focus on
conveying their
particular moods. In the
score, I have included
the followinglines at the
beginning of each
section: the Body
electric, A divine nimbus
exhales, and the Bodyat
auction.the Body Electric
was written for the 2009
Wellesley College
Composers Conference and
waspremiered on the final
concert of the conference
with Jim Baker
conducting.Clint
Needham.
For
Orchestra. Composed
by Clint Needham. Large
Score. 54 pages. Duration
9 minutes. Theodore
Presser Company
#116-40342L. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.11640342L).
UPC:
680160687756.
The
Body Electric draws its
inspiration from great
American poet, Walt
Whitman's work I Sing the
Body Electric. Two years
earlier, while writing a
setting of Whitman's
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
for baritone and chamber
orchestra, I became
enamored with many of the
poems from his
collection, The Leaves of
Grass. I had not
revisited Whitman's
poetry since high school
and that distance
provided a fresh look at
Whitman's poetry. In the
spring of 2009, I came
back to this collection
and decided to write
another work inspired by
Whitman's poetry, this
time for chamber
orchestra alone. Writing
a work that attempted to
capture the mood of this
epic poem seemed
impossible. Because of
the inherent abstract
nature of text-less
music, writing a work
that was a musical
blow-by-blow of the poem
seemed equally
impossible. For me, the
solution was to take
three fragments of the
poem and focus on
conveying their
particular moods. In the
score, I have included
the following lines at
the beginning of each
section: the Body
electric, A divine nimbus
exhales, and the Body at
auction. the Body
Electric was written for
the 2009 Wellesley
College Composers
Conference and was
premiered on the final
concert of the conference
with Jim Baker
conducting. Clint
Needham. the Body
Electric draws its
inspiration from great
American poet, Walt
Whitman’s work I
Sing theBody Electric.
Two years earlier, while
writing a setting of
Whitman’s Crossing
Brooklyn Ferry
forbaritone and chamber
orchestra, I became
enamored with many of the
poems from his
collection,The Leaves of
Grass. I had not
revisited
Whitman’s poetry
since high school and
that distanceprovided a
fresh look at
Whitman’s poetry.
In the spring of 2009, I
came back to this
collectionand decided to
write another work
inspired by
Whitman’s poetry,
this time for chamber
orchestraalone.Writing a
work that attempted to
capture the mood of this
epic poem seemed
impossible. Becauseof the
inherent abstract nature
of text-less music,
writing a work that was a
musical blow-by-blowof
the poem seemed equally
impossible. For me, the
solution was to take
three fragments of
thepoem and focus on
conveying their
particular moods. In the
score, I have included
the followinglines at the
beginning of each
section: the Body
electric, A divine nimbus
exhales, and the Bodyat
auction.the Body Electric
was written for the 2009
Wellesley College
Composers Conference and
waspremiered on the final
concert of the conference
with Jim Baker
conducting.Clint
Needham.
By American Folk Song. Arranged by Mack Wilberg. Text: American Folk Song. For F...(+)
By American Folk Song.
Arranged by Mack Wilberg.
Text: American Folk Song.
For Fiddle, String Bass,
Woodblock and Tambourine;
Piano (Four Hands)
accompaniment. (SATB).
Mack Wilberg. Folk,
Secular. Level: Medium
Advanced Adult. 20 pages.
Duration 7 min. Published
by Hinshaw Music Inc.
Audio Sampler. (Audsampler). Choral. Recorded Promo - Stockable. Children's Mus...(+)
Audio Sampler.
(Audsampler). Choral.
Recorded Promo -
Stockable. Children's
Musical. BOOK W/CD. Size
9.5x12.5 inches.
Published by Music
Theatre International.
Band Concert Band SKU: PR.465000130 For Large Wind Ensemble. Compo...(+)
Band Concert Band
SKU:
PR.465000130
For
Large Wind Ensemble.
Composed by Dan Welcher.
Sws. Contemporary. Full
score. With Standard
notation. Composed 2010.
Duration 14 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#465-00013. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.465000130).
ISBN
9781598064070. UPC:
680160600144. 9x12
inches.
Following a
celebrated series of wind
ensemble tone poems about
national parks in the
American West, Dan
Welcher’s Upriver
celebrates the Lewis &
Clark Expedition from the
Missouri River to
Oregon’s Columbia
Gorge, following the
Louisiana Purchase of
1803. Welcher’s
imaginative textures and
inventiveness are freshly
modern, evoking our
American heritage,
including references to
Shenandoah and other folk
songs known to have been
sung on the expedition.
For advanced players.
Duration:
14’. In 1803,
President Thomas
Jefferson sent Meriwether
Lewis and William
Clark’s Corps of
Discovery to find a water
route to the Pacific and
explore the uncharted
West. He believed woolly
mammoths, erupting
volcanoes, and mountains
of pure salt awaited
them. What they found was
no less mind-boggling:
some 300 species unknown
to science, nearly 50
Indian tribes, and the
Rockies.Ihave been a
student of the Lewis and
Clark expedition, which
Thomas Jefferson called
the “Voyage of
Discovery,†for as
long as I can remember.
This astonishing journey,
lasting more than
two-and-a-half years,
began and ended in St.
Louis, Missouri —
and took the travelers up
more than a few rivers in
their quest to find the
Northwest Passage to the
Pacific Ocean. In an age
without speedy
communication, this was
akin to space travel out
of radio range in our own
time: no one knew if,
indeed, the party had
even survived the voyage
for more than a year.
Most of them were
soldiers. A few were
French-Canadian voyageurs
— hired trappers
and explorers, who were
fluent in French (spoken
extensively in the
region, due to earlier
explorers from France)
and in some of the Indian
languages they might
encounter. One of the
voyageurs, a man named
Pierre Cruzatte, also
happened to be a
better-than-average
fiddle player. In many
respects, the travelers
were completely on their
own for supplies and
survival, yet,
incredibly, only one of
them died during the
voyage. Jefferson had
outfitted them with food,
weapons, medicine, and
clothing — and
along with other
trinkets, a box of 200
jaw harps to be used in
trading with the Indians.
Their trip was long,
perilous to the point of
near catastrophe, and
arduous. The dream of a
Northwest Passage proved
ephemeral, but the
northwestern quarter of
the continent had finally
been explored, mapped,
and described to an
anxious world. When the
party returned to St.
Louis in 1806, and with
the Louisiana Purchase
now part of the United
States, they were greeted
as national heroes.Ihave
written a sizeable number
of works for wind
ensemble that draw their
inspiration from the
monumental spaces found
in the American West.
Four of them (Arches, The
Yellowstone Fires,
Glacier, and Zion) take
their names, and in large
part their being, from
actual national parks in
Utah, Wyoming, and
Montana. But Upriver,
although it found its
voice (and its finale) in
the magnificent Columbia
Gorge in Oregon, is about
a much larger region.
This piece, like its
brother works about the
national parks,
doesn’t try to
tell a story. Instead, it
captures the flavor of a
certain time, and of a
grand adventure. Cast in
one continuous movement
and lasting close to
fourteen minutes, the
piece falls into several
subsections, each with
its own heading: The
Dream (in which
Jefferson’s vision
of a vast expanse of
western land is opened);
The Promise, a chorale
that re-appears several
times in the course of
the piece and represents
the seriousness of the
presidential mission; The
River; The Voyageurs; The
River II ; Death and
Disappointment; Return to
the Voyage; and The River
III .The music includes
several quoted melodies,
one of which is familiar
to everyone as the
ultimate “river
song,†and which
becomes the
through-stream of the
work. All of the quoted
tunes were either sung by
the men on the voyage, or
played by
Cruzatte’s fiddle.
From various journals and
diaries, we know the men
found enjoyment and
solace in music, and
almost every night
encampment had at least a
bit of music in it. In
addition to Cruzatte,
there were two other
members of the party who
played the fiddle, and
others made do with
singing, or playing upon
sticks, bones, the
ever-present jaw harps,
and boat horns. From
Lewis’ journals, I
found all the tunes used
in Upriver: Shenandoah
(still popular after more
than 200 years),
V’la bon vent,
Soldier’s Joy,
Johnny Has Gone for a
Soldier, Come Ye Sinners
Poor and Needy (a hymn
sung to the tune
“Beech
Springâ€) and
Fisher’s Hornpipe.
The work follows an
emotional journey: not
necessarily step-by-step
with the Voyage of
Discovery heroes, but a
kind of grand arch.
Beginning in the mists of
history and myth,
traversing peaks and
valleys both real and
emotional (and a solemn
funeral scene), finding
help from native people,
and recalling their zeal
upon finding the one
great river that will, in
fact, take them to the
Pacific. When the men
finally roar through the
Columbia Gorge in their
boats (a feat that even
the Indians had not
attempted), the
magnificent river
combines its theme with
the chorale of
Jefferson’s
Promise. The Dream is
fulfilled: not quite the
one Jefferson had
imagined (there is no
navigable water passage
from the Missouri to the
Pacific), but the dream
of a continental
destiny.
Intermediate SKU: WD.080689631177 Composed by Cliff Duren. Book. Word Mus...(+)
Intermediate
SKU:
WD.080689631177
Composed by Cliff Duren.
Book. Word Music
#080689631177. Published
by Word Music
(WD.080689631177).
UPC:
080689631177.
Take
a trip down memory
laneââ¬Â¦Letâ
â¬â¢s go back in
time to a place of warm
summer mornings, church
bells ringing, friends
and family dressed in
their Sunday best, and
the sound of voices
singing out those sweet,
spirited Gospel songs and
hymns that always stirred
the soul within. Songs of
yearning for the day when
we all fly home to the
Saviorââ¬Â¦to a
place of joy that never
ends. Hymns of gladness,
redemption, hope, and
promiseââ¬Â¦
Can you hear
them? Blessed
Assurance; I Saw the
Light;
Iââ¬â¢ll Fly
Away; ââ¬ËTil
the Storm Passes By; The
King Is Coming; I Believe
in a Hill Called Mount
Calvary; Turn Your Eyes
upon Jesus; Precious
Lord, Take My
Handââ¬Â¦The
se are just a few of the
favorites that Word
Music and Church
Resources is excited
to present in Cliff
Durenââ¬â¢s new collection,
THE GREAT AMERICAN
CHURCH SONGBOOK.
Giving new life
to these classic songs,
while keeping that
forever timeless feel,
this collection is a
must-have for any choir.
With songs that everyone
in your congregation will
know and love, THE
GREAT AMERICAN CHURCH
SONGBOOK is filled
with a variety of upbeat,
harmonious Southern
Gospel songs of
celebration, and
beautiful, gentle ballads
that plead for the Lord
to come near. Your choir
and congregation will be
moved by these
songsââ¬ânot
only as songs of
testimony and worship and
praise, but as reminders
of the
Lordââ¬â¢s
faithfulness, goodness,
and everlasting love for
His children.
Prepare your heart and
mind for reminiscing on
the Lordââ¬â¢s
great love while singing
these exciting, timeless
songs with your church
familyââ¬Â¦This
is THE GREAT AMERICAN
CHURCH SONGBOOK!
The Olympian Piano seul - Facile Dunvagen Music Publishers
Piano or Keyboard Piano - Grade 3 SKU: HL.295014 Lighting of the Torch...(+)
Piano or Keyboard Piano -
Grade 3
SKU:
HL.295014
Lighting
of the Torch Piano or
Keyboard. Composed by
Philip Glass. Piano.
Classical. Softcover.
Dunvagen Music Publishers
#DU10846. Published by
Dunvagen Music Publishers
(HL.295014).
ISBN
9781540055026. UPC:
888680944766.
English.
Along with
many other great American
composers drawn from all
musical genres, Philip
Glass was commissioned by
the 1984 Olympic
Committee to write a work
for performance at the
spectacular opening
ceremony of the Games in
Los Angeles that summer.
Originally scored for
orchestra and voices, The
Olympian - Lighting of
the Torch was among the
more memorable and
original contributions.
It is now available for
the first time in the
composer s own
arrangement for Piano or
Keyboard.
Chamber Music Trombone, Piano SKU: PR.114414450 Man vs. Machine. C...(+)
Chamber Music Trombone,
Piano
SKU:
PR.114414450
Man
vs. Machine. Composed
by Adolphus Hailstork.
Sws. Folk. Set of Score
and Parts. With Standard
notation. Composed 2009.
24+8 pages. Duration 12
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #114-41445.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.114414450).
ISBN
9781598064087. UPC:
680160597635. 9x12
inches.
Inspired by
the tale of a legendary
folk hero, Adolphus
Hailstork’s
tour-de-force for
trombone and piano is a
riveting portrayal of the
steely strength and
stamina of John Henry, a
former slave who helped
build the American
railroads and ultimately
outperformed a steam
engine. This composition
uses quotes from the
spiritual Every Time I
Feel the Spirit and the
folk song The Ballad of
John Henry. For advanced
players. Duration:
13’_______________
_________________________
__Text on the scanned
back cover:JOHN HENRY'S
BIG(MAN vs. MACHINE)FOR
TROMBONE AND
PIANOInspired by the tale
of the legendary hero,
Adolphus
Hailstork’s
tour-de-force for
trombone and piano is a
riveting portrayal of the
steely strength and
stamina of John Henry, a
former slave who helped
build the American
railroads and ultimately
outperformed a steam
engine. PROGRAM NOTES
by the ComposerJohn Henry
was born a slave in the
1840’s or
1850’s. It is
important to remember
that no one knows for
sure if John Henry
existed or is a tall tale
created by writers. That
is one of the things that
makes the legend so
intriguing.According to
the legend, he grew to
stand 6 feet tall, 200
pounds – a giant
in that day.Though the
story of John Henry
sounds like the
quintessential tall tale,
it is certainly based, at
least in part, on
historical circumstance.
There are disputes as to
where the legend
originates. Some place
John Henry in West
Virginia, while recent
research suggests
Alabama. Still, all share
a similar back-story.In
order to construct the
railroads, companies
hired thousands of men to
smooth out terrain and
cut through obstacles
that stood in the way of
the proposed tracks. One
such chore that figures
heavily into some of the
earliest John Henry
ballads is the blasting
of the Big Bend Tunnel,
more than a mile straight
through a mountain in
West
Virginia.Steel-drivinâ
™ men like John Henry
used large hammers and
stakes to pound holes
into the rock, which were
were then filled with
explosives that would
blast a cavity deeper and
deeper into the mountain.
In the folk ballads, the
central event took place
under such conditions.
Eager to reduce costs and
speed up progress, some
tunnel engineers were
using steam drills to
power their way into the
rock. According to the
great American tall
tales, on hearing of the
machine, John Henry
challenged the steam
drill to a contest. He
won, but died of
exhaustion, his life cut
short by his own
superhuman effort.This
composition uses quotes
from the spiritual Every
Time I Feel the Spirit
and the folk song The
Ballad of John Henry.JOHN
HENRY’S BIG was
composed for trombonist
David Jackson.
Band Concert Band SKU: PR.46500013L For Wind Ensemble. Composed by...(+)
Band Concert Band
SKU:
PR.46500013L
For
Wind Ensemble.
Composed by Dan Welcher.
Contemporary. Large
Score. With Standard
notation. Composed 2010.
Duration 14 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#465-00013L. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.46500013L).
UPC:
680160600151. 11 x 14
inches.
I n 1803,
President Thomas
Jefferson sent Meriwether
Lewis and William Clarks
Corps of Discovery to
find a water route to the
Pacific and explore the
uncharted West. He
believed woolly mammoths,
erupting volcanoes, and
mountains of pure salt
awaited them. What they
found was no less
mind-boggling: some 300
species unknown to
science, nearly 50 Indian
tribes, and the Rockies.
I have been a student of
the Lewis and Clark
expedition, which Thomas
Jefferson called the
Voyage of Discovery, for
as long as I can
remember. This
astonishing journey,
lasting more than
two-and-a-half years,
began and ended in St.
Louis, Missouri and took
the travelers up more
than a few rivers in
their quest to find the
Northwest Passage to the
Pacific Ocean. In an age
without speedy
communication, this was
akin to space travel out
of radio range in our own
time: no one knew if,
indeed, the party had
even survived the voyage
for more than a year.
Most of them were
soldiers. A few were
French-Canadian voyageurs
hired trappers and
explorers, who were
fluent in French (spoken
extensively in the
region, due to earlier
explorers from France)
and in some of the Indian
languages they might
encounter. One of the
voyageurs, a man named
Pierre Cruzatte, also
happened to be a
better-than-average
fiddle player. In many
respects, the travelers
were completely on their
own for supplies and
survival, yet,
incredibly, only one of
them died during the
voyage. Jefferson had
outfitted them with food,
weapons, medicine, and
clothing and along with
other trinkets, a box of
200 jaw harps to be used
in trading with the
Indians. Their trip was
long, perilous to the
point of near
catastrophe, and arduous.
The dream of a Northwest
Passage proved ephemeral,
but the northwestern
quarter of the continent
had finally been
explored, mapped, and
described to an anxious
world. When the party
returned to St. Louis in
1806, and with the
Louisiana Purchase now
part of the United
States, they were greeted
as national heroes. I
have written a sizeable
number of works for wind
ensemble that draw their
inspiration from the
monumental spaces found
in the American West.
Four of them (Arches, The
Yellowstone Fires,
Glacier, and Zion) take
their names, and in large
part their being, from
actual national parks in
Utah, Wyoming, and
Montana. But Upriver,
although it found its
voice (and its finale) in
the magnificent Columbia
Gorge in Oregon, is about
a much larger region.
This piece, like its
brother works about the
national parks, doesnt
try to tell a story.
Instead, it captures the
flavor of a certain time,
and of a grand adventure.
Cast in one continuous
movement and lasting
close to fourteen
minutes, the piece falls
into several subsections,
each with its own
heading: The Dream (in
which Jeffersons vision
of a vast expanse of
western land is opened);
The Promise, a chorale
that re-appears several
times in the course of
the piece and represents
the seriousness of the
presidential mission; The
River; The Voyageurs; The
River II ; Death and
Disappointment; Return to
the Voyage; and The River
III . The music includes
several quoted melodies,
one of which is familiar
to everyone as the
ultimate river song, and
which becomes the
through-stream of the
work. All of the quoted
tunes were either sung by
the men on the voyage, or
played by Cruzattes
fiddle. From various
journals and diaries, we
know the men found
enjoyment and solace in
music, and almost every
night encampment had at
least a bit of music in
it. In addition to
Cruzatte, there were two
other members of the
party who played the
fiddle, and others made
do with singing, or
playing upon sticks,
bones, the ever-present
jaw harps, and boat
horns. From Lewis
journals, I found all the
tunes used in Upriver:
Shenandoah (still popular
after more than 200
years), Vla bon vent,
Soldiers Joy, Johnny Has
Gone for a Soldier, Come
Ye Sinners Poor and Needy
(a hymn sung to the tune
Beech Spring) and Fishers
Hornpipe. The work
follows an emotional
journey: not necessarily
step-by-step with the
Voyage of Discovery
heroes, but a kind of
grand arch. Beginning in
the mists of history and
myth, traversing peaks
and valleys both real and
emotional (and a solemn
funeral scene), finding
help from native people,
and recalling their zeal
upon finding the one
great river that will, in
fact, take them to the
Pacific. When the men
finally roar through the
Columbia Gorge in their
boats (a feat that even
the Indians had not
attempted), the
magnificent river
combines its theme with
the chorale of Jeffersons
Promise. The Dream is
fulfilled: not quite the
one Jefferson had
imagined (there is no
navigable water passage
from the Missouri to the
Pacific), but the dream
of a continental
destiny.
Chamber Music Flute(s) SKU: PR.144407290 Composed by Ali Ryerson. Perform...(+)
Chamber Music Flute(s)
SKU: PR.144407290
Composed by Ali Ryerson.
Performance Score. 4
pages. Duration 4
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #144-40729.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.144407290).
ISBN
9781491135150. UPC:
680160687008.
Jazz
luminary Ali Ryerson
traces a unique and
personal artistic path in
this solo work. With an
engaging form reminiscent
of jazz charts (a dreamy
introduction, a catchy,
swinging head, and
improvisatory-feeling
12-bar choruses),
Ryerson’s music
pays deeply-felt homage
to Charlie Parker and
other jazz greats, while
maintaining an organic
connection to the lineage
of unaccompanied woodwind
music in the classical
tradition. Classical
players will gain insight
into jazz harmony,
rhythm, and expression as
they learn this knockout
recital piece, while
Ryerson fans in the jazz
world gain an image of
her musical mind in this
fully-notated
composition. Jazz
Dream, a jazz-inspired
solo flute piece, was
commissioned by Claudia
Anderson for her Glass
Ceilings project. Claudia
once told me that playing
jazz flute has been one
of her musical ambitions.
I daresay her performance
of JD could very well
break a glass ceiling of
her own!Moved by the
events of 2020, composing
Jazz Dream became my way
of honoring my musical
heroes from the Black
community, namely the
jazz musicians who
created this music and
truly broke glass
ceilings. As jazz shares
its origins with the
blues, both genres having
originated in the
African-American
community, I decided on a
12-bar blues form as the
framework for the
piece.The opening theme
gently draws us into a
dream-like state, with a
melody in slow motion and
lines that linger. When
the REM cycle kicks into
gear, there’s an
abrupt rhythmic shift
that leads straight into
a swingin’ blues.
Idiomatic jazz rhythms
abound, with blue notes
galore – the
tension notes that
virtually define the
sound of both the blues
and jazz (i.e. the
flatted third, fifth, and
seventh notes of a scale
in place of the expected
major intervals).After
several groovin’
choruses of a 12-bar
blues in B(, often played
as if the soloist is
improvising, the blues
modulates to the key of
E(, and as a tribute to
the great Charlie Parker
(AKA Bird), I
harmonically suggest the
more complex set of bebop
changes that Parker
introduced in his
composition, Blues for
Alice. Often referred to
as Bird Changes or Bird
Blues, instead of the
basic I - IV – V
chord progression
commonly used in the
blues, Parker used a
series of sequential ii-V
progressions (and
secondary ii-V
progressions). With the
addition of some tritone
substitutions, a
chromatically descending
bass line deftly replaces
the original I-IV-V root
movement. This is the
harmonic background I was
hearing as I wrote this
particular chorus.After
my 12-bar nod to
Bird’s changes,
the introductory dream
theme returns, now in
tempo and with a
straight-ahead swing
feel. Variations on this
theme follow, again to be
played as if improvising,
with the soloist once
again bringing their own
personality into the
performance. This section
builds to a climax, the
music pauses, then
modulates to C, with a
return to the original
blues theme. The energy
and groove increase
through the final
flourish, where a blues
line ends on the
idiomatic flatted
fifth.