Composed by Muzio
Clementi. Arranged by
Douglas Townsend. Carl
Fischer Young String
Orchestra Series.
Classical. Full score.
With Standard notation.
12 pages. Carl Fischer
Music #YAS13F. Published
by Carl Fischer Music
(CF.YAS13F).
ISBN
9780825848339. UPC:
798408048334. 8.5 X 11
inches. Key: G
major.
IApart from
some of his Sonatinas,
Opus 36, Clementi's life
and music are hardly
known to the piano
teachers and students of
today. For example, in
addition to the above
mentioned Sonatinas,
Clementi wrote sixty
sonatas for the piano,
many of them unjustly
neglected, although his
friend Beethoven regarded
some of them very highly.
Clementi also wrote
symphonies (some of which
he arranged as piano
sonatas), a substantial
number of waltzes and
other dances for the
piano as well as sonatas
and sonatinas for piano
four-hands.In addition to
composing, Clementi was a
much sought after piano
teacher, and included
among his students John
Field (Father of the
'Nocturne'), and
Meyerbeer.In his later
years, Clementi became a
very successful music
publisher, publishing
among other works the
first English edition of
Beethoven's Violin
Concerto, in the great
composer's own
arrangement for the
piano, as well as some of
his string quartets.
Clementi was also one of
the first English piano
manufacturers to make
pianos with a metal frame
and string them with
wire.The Sonatina in C,
Opus 36, No. 1 was one of
six such works Clementi
wrote in 1797. He must
have been partial to
these little pieces (for
which he also provided
the fingerings), since
they were reissued
(without the fingering)
by the composer shortly
after 1801. About 1820,
he issued ''the sixth
edition, with
considerable improvements
by the author;· with
fingerings added and
several minor changes,
among which were that
many of them were written
an octave higher.IIIt has
often been said,
generally by those
unhampered by the facts,
that composers of the
past (and, dare we add,
the present?), usually
handled their financial
affairs with their public
and publishers with a
poor sense of business
acumen or common sense.
As a result they
frequently found
themselves in financial
straits.Contrary to
popular opinion, this was
the exception rather than
the rule. With the
exception of Mozart and
perhaps a few other
composers, the majority
of composers then, as
now, were quite
successful in their
dealings with the public
and their publishers, as
the following examples
will show.It was not
unusual for 18th- and
19th-century composers to
arrange some of their
more popular compositions
for different
combinations of
instruments in order to
increase their
availability to a larger
music-playing public.
Telemann, in the
introduction to his
seventy-two cantatas for
solo voice and one melody
instrument (flute, oboe
or violin, with the usual
continua) Der Harmonische
Gottesdienst, tor
example, suggests that if
a singer is not available
to perform a cantata the
voice part could be
played by another
instrument. And in the
introduction to his Six
Concertos and Six Suites
for flute, violin and
continua, he named four
different instrumental
combinations that could
perform these pieces, and
actually wrote out the
notes for the different
possibilities. Bach
arranged his violin
concertos for keyboard,
and Beethoven not only
arranged his Piano Sonata
in E Major, Opus 14, No.
1 for string quartet, he
also transposed it to the
key of F. Brahm's
well-known Quintet in F
Minor for piano and
strings was his own
arrangement of his
earlier sonata for two
pianos, also in F
Minor.IIIWe come now to
Clementi. It is well
known that some of his
sixty piano sonatas were
his own arrangements of
some of his lost
symphonies, and that some
of his rondos for piano
four-hands were
originally the last
movements of his solo
sonatas or piano trios.In
order to make the first
movement of his
delightful Sonatina in C,
Opus 36, No. 1 accessible
to young string players,
I have followed the
example established by
the composer himself by
arranging and transposing
one of his piano
compositions from one
medium (the piano) to
another. (string
instruments). In order to
simplify the work for
young string players, in
the process of adapting
it to the new medium it
was necessary to
transpose it from the
original key of C to G,
thereby doing away with
some of the difficulties
they would have
encountered in the
original key. The first
violin and cello parts
are similar to the right-
and left-hand parts of
the original piano
version. The few changes
I have made in these
parts have been for the
convenience of the string
players, but in no way do
they change the nature of
the music.Since the
original implied a
harmonic framework in
many places, I have added
a second violin and viola
part in such a way that
they not only have
interesting music to
play, but also fill in
some of the implied
harmony without in any
way detracting from the
composition's musical
value. Occasionally, it
has been necessary to
raise or lower a few
passages an octave or to
modify others slightly to
make them more accessible
for young players.It is
hoped that the musical
value of the composition
has not been too
compromised, and that
students and teachers
will come to enjoy this
little piece in its new
setting as much as
pianists have in the
original one. This
arrangement may also be
performed by a solo
string quartet. When
performed by a string
orchestra, the double
bass part may be
omitted.- Douglas
TownsendString editing by
Amy Rosen.
About Carl
Fischer Young String
Orchestra
Series
Thi
s series of Grade 2/Grade
2.5 pieces is designed
for second and third year
ensembles. The pieces in
this series are
characterized
by: --Occasionally
extending to third
position --Keys
carefully considered for
appropriate
difficulty --Addition
of separate 2nd violin
and viola
parts --Viola T.C.
part
included --Increase
in independence of parts
over beginning levels
Arranged by Sandra Dackow. Performance Music Ensemble; Single Titles; String Orc...(+)
Arranged by Sandra
Dackow. Performance Music
Ensemble; Single Titles;
String Orchestra.
Orchestra Expressions.
Folk. Score. 12 pages.
Duration 1:30. Alfred
Music #00-45825S.
Published by Alfred Music
(AP.45825S).
Lux et Umbra Orchestre à Cordes Editorial de Musica Boileau
String orchestra SKU: BO.B.3292 Composed by Jordi Cervello. Instrumental ...(+)
String orchestra
SKU:
BO.B.3292
Composed by
Jordi Cervello.
Instrumental Sets.
Duration 17:35. Published
by Editorial de Musica
Boileau (BO.B.3292).
English
comments: This is
the definitive version of
Biogenesis, a piece that
Cervello had written in
1976, together with his
friend Jorge Wagensberg,
and which was awarded the
First Prize at the
Spanish Ministry for
Education and Science's
Permanent Composition and
Musical Research
Competition. The new
version was made at
1984-85 Lux et umbra is
written for a string
group consisting of four
first and four second
violins, three violas,
three cellos and a double
bass. The conceptual
battle between darkness
and light is represented
by the instability
between the notes B and
C, and by the
compartmentation of the
group of fifteen strings
into divisi that provide
an independent
arrangement for each
instrument, thus
bestowing great substance
upon the texture of the
music. A cello cadence
emerges from a slow and
straightforward
beginning. A process of
contrasts then begins,
culminating in a molto
vivace passage of a
scherzando nature, which
alludes to the Baroque
concerti grossi. The
music once again plays
with chiaroscuro until
reaching its climax, from
which point the
conclusion slowly begins,
establishing itself in
the high register until
fading away. The work was
first performed at
Barcelona's Palau de la
Musica by the English
Chamber Orchestra,
directed by Enrique
Garcia Asensio, in 1987.
That same year, in the
newspaper El Pais, the
observations of the
composer and critic
Francesc Taverna-Bech
paid tribute to the
work's intelligence as
regards the use of and
search for instrumental
resources (in this case,
string instruments, about
which Cervello knows a
great deal), the skill
involved in endowing the
lyrical line with
tension, and a singular
touch that confers formal
essence upon the musical
discourse. In La
Vanguardia, Jordi Llovet
wrote that this is a work
in which, as is the case
with most of Cervello's
compositions, the
listener finds something
covertly religious, a
mysterious secret, a
transcendence linked to
the origins of
communication requiring
more than a single being,
which provides
excitement. In 1990, when
the Orquesta de Granada
(Orchestra of Granada)
performed the work at
Barcelona's Grec
festival, the critic
Cesar Calmell opined, in
the same newspaper, that
inch by inch, surely and
imperturbably, Cervello
built up a perfect world
that reflects the image
of the craftsman who, so
astonished at the
delights of his trade, is
unable to do anything but
turn the very backdrop of
tragedy into something
pleasant. Lux et umbra
was recorded by the
Orchestra Estatal of the
Hermitage, conducted by
Alexis Soriano (CD
SA01210 Fundacion Autor).
--Xavier Casanoves Danes
Music
critic
Comentari
os del Espanol: Se
trata de la version
definitiva de Biogenesis,
obra que habia escrito en
1976 en colaboracion con
su amigo Jorge Wagensberg
y que obtuvo el Primer
Premio, en el ano de su
creacion, en el Concurso
Permanente de Composicion
e Investigacion Musical
del Ministerio de
Educacion y Ciencia. La
nueva version fue
realizada en 1984-85. Lux
et umbra esta escrita
para un grupo de cuerda
integrado por cuatro
primeros violines, cuatro
segundos, tres violas,
tres violoncelos y un
contrabajo. El combate
filosofico entre la
oscuridad y la luz lo
lleva a cabo la
inestabilidad entre las
notas si y do y la
compartimentacion del
grupo de quince cuerdas
en unos divisi que llegan
a una escritura
independiente para cada
instrumento, otorgando
una gran importancia a la
textura sonora. De un
principio lento y
descarnado emerge una
cadencia del violonchelo.
A continuacion da
comienzo un proceso de
contrastes que culmina en
un pasaje molto vivace de
caracter scherzando que
alude a los concerti
grossi del barroco. La
musica juega de nuevo con
el claroscuro hasta
llegar a la cumbre sonora
iniciando el final
lentamente que se instala
en el registro agudo
hasta desvanecerse. La
estreno en el Palau de la
Musica de Barcelona la
English Chamber Orchestra
en el ano 1987 bajo la
direccion de Enrique
Garcia Asensio. Ese mismo
ano, en el periodico El
Pais, el compositor y
critico Francesc
Taverna-Bech reconocia en
sus comentarios la
inteligencia en el uso y
la busqueda de los
recursos instrumentales
-en este caso la cuerda,
de la que Cervello es
profundo conocedor-, la
destreza para revestir de
tension la linea lirica y
un tacto particular para
conferir entidad formal
al discurso sonoro. Jordi
Llovet, en La Vanguardia,
escribia que en esta
obra, se encuentra, como
en la mayor parte de la
produccion de Cervello,
algo secretamente
religioso, un arcano
misterioso, una
trascendencia vinculada a
los origenes de la
comunicacion
impracticable con el ser
unico que resulta
apasionante. En el ano
1990, cuando la Orquesta
de Granada la toco en el
Grec de Barcelona, era el
critico Cesar Calmell
quien, en el mismo
periodico consideraba que
Cervello construyo palmo
a palmo, segura e
imperturbablemente, un
mundo perfecto que
refleja la imagen del
artesano que, de tan
admirado con las delicias
de su oficio, no puede
hacer otra cosa que
convertir en agradable el
fondo mismo de la
tragedia. Lux et umbra
esta grabada por la
Orquesta Estatal del
Hermitage, dirigida por
Alexis Soriano (CD
SA01210 Fundacion Autor).
--Xavier Casanoves Danes
Critico musical.