Composed by Bobby Hart and Tommy Boyce. Arranged by Larry Moore. Pops For String Quartet. TV, Sixties. Published by Hal Leonard

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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String Quartet - Grade 2

SKU: AP.36-52703030

Composed by Sheila Sandys-Wunsch. Performance Music Ensemble; String Quartet. Latham Music. Score. LudwigMasters Publications #36-52703030. Published by LudwigMasters Publications (AP.36-52703030).

ISBN 9781682962428. UPC: 660355173073. English.

Volume 3 explores major and minor keys up to 2 flats, violin 1 will play to 3rd position and the cello part also has minimal shifting. The nine tunes are very accessible rhythmically and these are quite appropriate for an accomplished middle school group. Contents: Linstead Market, I Love My Love, Still, Still, Still, Danny Boy, Down By the Salley Gardens, Jack Was Every Bit a Sailor, Bourree (Stoltzer), and Minuet and Gigue (Handel).

These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.

Arranged by Deborah Greenblatt. String Quartet. For 2 violins, viola, and cello. Set of parts. Standard Notation. 19 (violin 1), 21 (violin 2), 21 (viola), 19 (cello) pages. Published by Greenblatt & Seay

Arranged by Steven L. Rosenhaus. String Quartet. Classic String Quartets. Full Score & Parts. 52 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.