SKU: HL.14008374

ISBN 9781846096150. UPC: 884088435202. 8.25x11.75x0.105 inches.

The Full Score for Peter Maxwell Davies' fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company, first performed by the Maggini Quartet on 20th August 2004 at the Chapel of the Royal Palace, Oslo, Norway, as part of the Olso Chamber Music Festival. Composer Note: The fourth Naxos quartet was written in January and February of 2004, with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than its predecessor, an unpremeditated and spontaneous reaction to the illegal invasion of Iraq. I returned to the well-known Brueghel picture of children's games (1560, now in Vienna), which had been the inspiration for my sixth Strathclyde Concerto, for flute and orchestra. These illustrations liberated my musical imagination, but I feel it would limit the listener's perception to be too specific about which game relates to exactly which section of the work. Suffice it to say that there is vigorous play - leap-frog, bind the devil with a cord, truss, wrestling - alongside quieter pastimes - masks, guess whom I shall choose, courting, odds and evens. The single movement juxtaposes these activities as abruptly and intimately as they occur in Brueghel. Rather as the eye is taken into different perspectives and proportions of scale within the picture, taking liberties which would never be present in, for instance, Brunelleschi architectural drawings, so here, with a constant sequence of transformation processes, I have distorted the neat, precise implications of modal progression, expressed in the unison opening phrase (from F to B through A sharp/B flat), so that the ear is led, en route, into the sound equivalents of strange passageways and closed rooms: sicut exposition ludus. As work on the quartet progressed I became aware that I was reading into, and behind the games, adult motives and implications, concerning aggression and war, with their consequences. It was impossible to escape into innocent childhood fantasy. The nature of the F to B progression underlying the whole construction derives from a passage in the development of the first movement of Mahler's Third Symphony, and the opening of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet. However, unlike in these models, here a real - if temporary - sense of resolution occurs at the close of the quartet: as when the curtain falls on the reconciled Count and Countess in 'Figaro' one wonders how long the F/B truce will hold, and games break out again. The quartet is dedicated to Giuseppe Rebecchini, Roman architect, and friend since the nineteen-fifties.

SKU: HL.14023669

ISBN 9780711977570. 9.0x12.0x0.155 inches.

There are two primary ideas behind this composition, the first being to create and almost orchestral chamber music, the idea for this coming from a performance of the Grosse Fuge performed by the Arditti Quartet. The second idea was to excercise the impressive and oppresive history of the string quartet by making the work a compendium of quotations from quartet repertoire. Influence from Schoenberg can be heard in chromatic, harmonic sequences and modal/diatonic varioations are also actively displayed within the piece. The quartet is written with amplification in mind and it is the composer's preference that it is performed in this way. String Quartet No.1 is dedicated to the memory of Thurston Dart. It was commissioned by the Arditti Quartet and first performed by them on 23 September 1985, Warsaw. Duration 26 minutes. Instrumental parts are available on sale.

SKU: ST.Y279

ISBN 9790220223068.

Such is the character of the accordion that any work featuring its distinctive voice within an ensemble is likely to be a piece d'occasion. Written for the prizewinning young soloist Milos Milivojevic and performed with the Juritz String Quartet at the 2011 Machynlleth Festival in Wales, Rhian Samuel's Mist on the Hills is no exception. The composer has used the rare opportunity of writing for the instrument in combination with solo strings to exploit its illustrative powers and create a fourteen-minute score inspired by the changing weather over the hills around her Welsh home on the Dyfi Estuary.

In particular, its three movements are suggestive of the appearance of mist in the landscape, 'settling', 'lingering' and 'swirling'. In the first movement, which is a gentle prelude, brief accordion motifs break through the timbre of strings like glints of sunshine through mist. The second movement, more song-like, presents three verses of a lament; in the first half of each verse the accordion sings as if from afar, while in the second half (led by the viola) the music intensifies greatly. In the dance-like and virtuosic last movement a short, constantly changing refrain alternates with two types of material: 'swirling' music and lighter, more rhythmical ideas. Finally, scale passages invade the texture, ceasing only as the accordion ascends to the top of its range in the closing bars.

SKU: HL.268903

9.25x12.0x0.587 inches.

String Quartet No.12 is a work by Kevin Volans, commissioned by the Signum Quartet, who gave the world premiere in Birmingham on 11th November 2016. The piece lasts around 36 minutes, and this is the Full Score.

Priority Direct Import titles are specialty titles that are not generally offered for sale by US based retailers. These items must be obtained from our overseas suppliers. When you order a Priority Direct Import title, our overseas warehouse will ship it to you directly at the time of order, typically within one business day. However, the shipment time will be slower than items shipped from our US warehouse. It may take up to 2-3 weeks to get to you.

SKU: HL.263105

Set of parts for Hans Abrahamsen's Ud og hjem for String Quartet (1989). Dyrecollage over danske bornesange / An 'animal collage' based on Danish children songs. Manuscript copy.

Priority Direct Import titles are specialty titles that are not generally offered for sale by US based retailers. These items must be obtained from our overseas suppliers. When you order a Priority Direct Import title, our overseas warehouse will ship it to you directly at the time of order, typically within one business day. However, the shipment time will be slower than items shipped from our US warehouse. It may take up to 2-3 weeks to get to you.

SKU: HL.263113

Hans Abrahamsen's Ud og hjem for String Quartet (1989). Dyrecollage over danske bornesange / An 'animal collage' based on Danish children songs. Manuscript copy. Parts available: WH33031A.

Priority Direct Import titles are specialty titles that are not generally offered for sale by US based retailers. These items must be obtained from our overseas suppliers. When you order a Priority Direct Import title, our overseas warehouse will ship it to you directly at the time of order, typically within one business day. However, the shipment time will be slower than items shipped from our US warehouse. It may take up to 2-3 weeks to get to you.