Composed by Christian Mason. World premiere: Paris, Cite de la musique, Januar...(+)
Composed by Christian
Mason.
World premiere: Paris,
Cite
de la musique, January
14,
2020. Breitkopf and
Haertel
#EB 9377. Published by
Breitkopf and Haertel
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.14440265S Composed by Sydney F. Hodk...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.14440265S
Composed
by Sydney F. Hodkinson.
Large Score. With
Standard notation.
Duration 25 minutes.
Merion Music #144-40265S.
Published by Merion Music
(PR.14440265S).
UPC:
680160027910.
The
Second and Third Quartets
were conceived at the
same time; indeed, their
composition intermingled,
over half of No. 3 being
sketched before No. 2 was
completed. Accordingly,
they share similar
material but, like the
intertwining blood of
cousins, their natures
differ: No. 2 being
somewhat acerbic and
declamatory, No. 3 more
lyric and gentler. An
annunicatory 'leaping
motive' (derived from a
motto generated by my
name) opens Quartet No. 2
and inhabits the course
of the piece as a
cyclical binding-force. A
five-note motive, usually
very deliberate, also
keeps recurring like an
insistent caller. All
three movements are based
on tonal centers (I on B
and E, II on D, III on C)
and the harmonic
'grammar' spoken tends to
recall the jazz world of
my youth. To hopefully
achieve a certain
classical ambience was
one of the goals of this
piece, and all three
movements have
traditional forms. The
first movement is a
modified Sonata-Allegro
design, with a
severely-truncated
recapitulation balanced
by a lengthy, and
decaying Coda. The second
movement is a set of
strophic variants and an
epilogue interspersed
with both solo ritornelli
and first-movement
material (the motto and
the five-note motive) in
the nature of a
fantasia-like
'call-and-response.' It
is dedicated to the
memory of the American
mezzo-soprano Jan
DeGaetani. The third
movement is a modified
Rondo (ABACBA) which
evolves out of the
opening motto. All three
movements make much use
of canonic stretti,
similar gestures, and
repetition. For example,
the climax of movement
III's Rondo throws the
first movement back at us
again, as if the players
were reluctant to let it
go, so that the entire
piece could perhaps be
viewed as a single large,
extended, Sonata
movement, with
introduction and
Coda. The Second and
Third Quartets were
conceived at the same
time; indeed, their
composition intermingled,
over half of No. 3 being
sketched before No. 2 was
completed.ÂÂ
Accordingly, they share
similar material but,
like the intertwining
blood of cousins, their
natures differ: No. 2
being somewhat acerbic
and declamatory, No. 3
more lyric and gentler.An
annunicatory
‘leaping
motive’ (derived
from a motto generated by
my name) opens Quartet
No. 2 and inhabits the
course of the piece as a
cyclical
binding-force. A
five-note motive, usually
very deliberate, also
keeps recurring like an
insistent caller. All
three movements are based
on tonal centers (I on B
and E, II on D, III on C)
and the harmonic
‘grammar’
spoken tends to recall
the jazz world of my
youth.To hopefully
achieve a certain
classical ambience was
one of the goals of this
piece, and all three
movements have
traditional forms.ÂÂ
The first movement is a
modified Sonata-Allegro
design, with a
severely-truncated
recapitulation balanced
by a lengthy, and
decaying Coda. The
second movement is a set
of strophic variants and
an epilogue interspersed
with both solo ritornelli
and first-movement
material (the motto and
the five-note motive) in
the nature of a
fantasia-like
‘call-and-response.
’ It is
dedicated to the memory
of the American
mezzo-soprano Jan
DeGaetani. The third
movement is a modified
Rondo (ABACBA) which
evolves out of the
opening motto.All three
movements make much use
of canonic stretti,
similar gestures, and
repetition. For
example, the climax of
movement III’s
Rondo throws the first
movement back at us
again, as if the players
were reluctant to let it
go, so that the entire
piece could perhaps be
viewed as a single large,
extended, Sonata
movement, with
introduction and
Coda.
2 violins, viola, violoncello SKU: FG.55011-875-1 Composed by Lotta WennÃ...(+)
2 violins, viola,
violoncello
SKU:
FG.55011-875-1
Composed by Lotta
Wennäkoski. Classical,
contemporary. Score &
parts. Fennica Gehrman
#55011-875-1. Published
by Fennica Gehrman
(FG.55011-875-1).
Lotta
Wennäkoski's Pige
(2021-2022) for string
quartet was commissioned
to be paired with the
Death and the Maiden
quartet by Franz Schubert
(pige is Danish for
girl). The composer
tells:
Tenor & String Quartet SKU: PE.EP72822 Composed by Jonathan Dove. Voice(s...(+)
Tenor & String Quartet
SKU: PE.EP72822
Composed by Jonathan
Dove. Voice(s) & Various
Instruments. Edition
Peters. Living Composer.
Score and Part(s). 164
pages. Duration 00:30:00.
Edition Peters
#98-EP72822. Published by
Edition Peters
(PE.EP72822).
ISBN
9790577011769. 232 x
303mm inches.
English.
I have
only visited Damascus
once, twenty years ago,
on the way to
Palmyra. I had a
purpose (I was writing
music for a play about
Palmyra’s Queen
Zenobia) but essentially
I was a tourist.
Like any visitor, I was
thrilled to step out of
the noisy modern city
into the magical ancient
world of the walled Old
City, its vibrant souk
leading to the
magnificent mosque, and a
labyrinth of winding,
narrow streets filled
with the smell of
unleavened
bread.
In Palmyra,
I was met with
extraordinary kindness
everywhere. On one
occasion, a little
Bedouin boy noticed that
I was risking sunstroke
wandering bare-headed
among the spectacular
ruins: he showed me how
to tie a turban, then
took me to have tea with
his family in their
tent.
Since then, I
have watched helplessly
as these places of wonder
have been devastated and
their inhabitants
scattered and
killed. When the
Sacconi Quartet suggested
that I might choose a
Syrian poet for our
collaboration, I welcomed
the idea.
I
searched for a long time
to find a contemporary
poet whose work might
gain from any music I
could imagine. I
felt it was important to
find first-hand accounts
of the Syrian experience
– but, of course, I
was always reading them
in translation. In
an anthology
called Syria
Speaks, I was
astonished to read
something that looked
like prose, but was full
of poetry. It was
Anne-Marie
McManus’s fine
translation of Ali
Safar’s A
Black Cloud in a Leaden
White Sky
– an
eloquent, thoughtful,
contained yet vivid
account of life in a
war-torn country, all the
more moving for its
restraint.
In
setting these words, I
have not attempted to
imitate Syrian
music. However,
there is what might be
called a linguistic
accommodation in my
choice of scale, or
mode. Several
movements are in a mode
that I first discovered
while writing a cantata
commemorating the First
World War: it has a
tuning that I associate
with war, its violence
and desolation.
This eight-note
mode is similar to scales
found in Syrian
music. I did not
choose it in the
abstract: it emerged from
the harmonies I was
exploring in the earlier
work, and emerged again
as I was looking for the
right musical colours to
set Ali Safar’s
words. In this
work, its Arabic aspect
is more prominent. -
Jonathan
Dove
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favorite retailer.
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.11441345S Prelude to Contrapunctu...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.11441345S
Prelude to
Contrapunctus X from the
Art of the Fugue.
Composed by Shulamit Ran.
Full score. With Standard
notation. Duration 4
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #114-41345S.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.11441345S).
UPC:
680160608829. 8.5 x 11
inches.
BACH-SHARDS
was commissioned by the
Brentano String Quartet
as part of their Art of
the Fugue companion-piece
project. Ran deliberately
stays within the realm of
Bach-like vocabulary,
altering syntax in ways
that add up to something
slightly different from
the anticipated sum of
the parts. The work
builds up to a climax
that makes the entry
point into Bach’s
Contrapunctus X seem
thoroughly
natural. While
composing Bach-Shards I
found myself gravitating,
intuitively and
gradually, toward a dual
goal. First, though
the tension and
dissonance inherent in
certain moments of
Bach’s own
maze-likeÂÂ
contrapuntal structures
could quite easily and
naturally lead one into a
pungent contemporary
terrain, I opted not to
stray outside the realm
of Bach-like materials
and harmonic
language. Instead, it
was my hope to alter
their relationships and
context in ways that add
up to a something
that’s slightly
different than the
anticipated sum of the
parts. A mildly
deconstructed Bach, if
you will. The other
important challenge I set
for myself was building
up the latter,
toccata-like portion of
Bach-Shards in a way that
would make the entry
point of the fugue which
it precedes,
Contrapunctus X, seem
thoroughly natural.ÂÂ
It was my intent to have
the first fugal entrance
feel like a huge and much
welcome release of the
energy created by my
Prelude’s
penultimate stretch, with
its bravura figurations
elaborating on an
insistent dominant pedal
point.