SKU: HL.49046544

ISBN 9781705122655. UPC: 842819108726. 9.0x12.0x0.224 inches.

I composed the Piano Concerto in two stages: the first three movements during the years 1985-86, the next two in 1987, the final autograph of the last movement was ready by January, 1988. The concerto is dedicated to the American conductor Mario di Bonaventura. The markings of the movements are the following: 1. Vivace molto ritmico e preciso 2. Lento e deserto 3. Vivace cantabile 4. Allegro risoluto 5. Presto luminoso.The first performance of the three-movement Concerto was on October 23rd, 1986 in Graz. Mario di Bonaventura conducted while his brother, Anthony di Bonaventura, was the soloist. Two days later the performance was repeated in the Vienna Konzerthaus. After hearing the work twice, I came to the conclusion that the third movement is not an adequate finale; my feeling of form demanded continuation, a supplement. That led to the composing of the next two movements. The premiere of the whole cycle took place on February 29th, 1988, in the Vienna Konzerthaus with the same conductor and the same pianist. The orchestra consisted of the following: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, tenor trombone, percussion and strings. The flautist also plays the piccoIo, the clarinetist, the alto ocarina. The percussion is made up of diverse instruments, which one musician-virtuoso can play. It is more practical, however, if two or three musicians share the instruments. Besides traditional instruments the percussion part calls also for two simple wind instruments: the swanee whistle and the harmonica. The string instrument parts (two violins, viola, cello and doubles bass) can be performed soloistic since they do not contain divisi. For balance, however, the ensemble playing is recommended, for example 6-8 first violins, 6-8 second, 4-6 violas, 4-6 cellos, 3-4 double basses. In the Piano Concerto I realized new concepts of harmony and rhythm. The first movement is entirely written in bimetry: simultaneously 12/8 and 4/4 (8/8). This relates to the known triplet on a doule relation and in itself is nothing new. Because, however, I articulate 12 triola and 8 duola pulses, an entangled, up till now unheard kind of polymetry is created. The rhythm is additionally complicated because of asymmetric groupings inside two speed layers, which means accents are asymmetrically distributed. These groups, as in the talea technique, have a fixed, continuously repeating rhythmic structures of varying lengths in speed layers of 12/8 and 4/4. This means that the repeating pattern in the 12/8 level and the pattern in the 4/4 level do not coincide and continuously give a kaleidoscope of renewing combinations. In our perception we quickly resign from following particular rhythmical successions and that what is going on in time appears for us as something static, resting. This music, if it is played properly, in the right tempo and with the right accents inside particular layers, after a certain time 'rises, as it were, as a plane after taking off: the rhythmic action, too complex to be able to follow in detail, begins flying. This diffusion of individual structures into a different global structure is one of my basic compositional concepts: from the end of the fifties, from the orchestral works Apparitions and Atmospheres I continuously have been looking for new ways of resolving this basic question. The harmony of the first movement is based on mixtures, hence on the parallel leading of voices. This technique is used here in a rather simple form; later in the fourth movement it will be considerably developed. The second movement (the only slow one amongst five movements) also has a talea type of structure, it is however much simpler rhythmically, because it contains only one speed layer. The melody is consisted in the development of a rigorous interval mode in which two minor seconds and one major second alternate therefore nine notes inside an octave. This mode is transposed into different degrees and it also determines the harmony of the movement; however, in closing episode in the piano part there is a combination of diatonics (white keys) and pentatonics (black keys) led in brilliant, sparkling quasimixtures, while the orchestra continues to play in the nine tone mode. In this movement I used isolated sounds and extreme registers (piccolo in a very low register, bassoon in a very high register, canons played by the swanee whistle, the alto ocarina and brass with a harmon-mute' damper, cutting sound combinations of the piccolo, clarinet and oboe in an extremely high register, also alternating of a whistle-siren and xylophone). The third movement also has one speed layer and because of this it appears as simpler than the first, but actually the rhythm is very complicated in a different way here. Above the uninterrupted, fast and regular basic pulse, thanks to the asymmetric distribution of accents, different types of hemiolas and inherent melodical patterns appear (the term was coined by Gerhard Kubik in relation to central African music). If this movement is played with the adequate speed and with very clear accentuation, illusory rhythmic-melodical figures appear. These figures are not played directly; they do not appear in the score, but exist only in our perception as a result of co-operation of different voices. Already earlier I had experimented with illusory rhythmics, namely in Poeme symphonique for 100 metronomes (1962), in Continuum for harpsichord (1968), in Monument for two pianos (1976), and especially in the first and sixth piano etude Desordre and Automne a Varsovie (1985). The third movement of the Piano Concerto is up to now the clearest example of illusory rhythmics and illusory melody. In intervallic and chordal structure this movement is based on alternation, and also inter-relation of various modal and quasi-equidistant harmony spaces. The tempered twelve-part division of the octave allows for diatonical and other modal interval successions, which are not equidistant, but are based on the alternation of major and minor seconds in different groups. The tempered system also allows for the use of the anhemitonic pentatonic scale (the black keys of the piano). From equidistant scales, therefore interval formations which are based on the division of an octave in equal distances, the twelve-tone tempered system allows only chromatics (only minor seconds) and the six-tone scale (the whole-tone: only major seconds). Moreover, the division of the octave into four parts only minor thirds) and three parts (three major thirds) is possible. In several music cultures different equidistant divisions of an octave are accepted, for example, in the Javanese slendro into five parts, in Melanesia into seven parts, popular also in southeastern Asia, and apart from this, in southern Africa. This does not mean an exact equidistance: there is a certain tolerance for the inaccurateness of the interval tuning. These exotic for us, Europeans, harmony and melody have attracted me for several years. However I did not want to re-tune the piano (microtone deviations appear in the concerto only in a few places in the horn and trombone parts led in natural tones). After the period of experimenting, I got to pseudo- or quasiequidistant intervals, which is neither whole-tone nor chromatic: in the twelve-tone system, two whole-tone scales are possible, shifted a minor second apart from each other. Therefore, I connect these two scales (or sound resources), and for example, places occur where the melodies and figurations in the piano part are created from both whole tone scales; in one band one six-tone sound resource is utilized, and in the other hand, the complementary. In this way whole-tonality and chromaticism mutually reduce themselves: a type of deformed equidistancism is formed, strangely brilliant and at the same time slanting; illusory harmony, indeed being created inside the tempered twelve-tone system, but in sound quality not belonging to it anymore. The appearance of such slantedequidistant harmony fields alternating with modal fields and based on chords built on fifths (mainly in the piano part), complemented with mixtures built on fifths in the orchestra, gives this movement an individual, soft-metallic colour (a metallic sound resulting from harmonics). The fourth movement was meant to be the central movement of the Concerto. Its melodc-rhythmic elements (embryos or fragments of motives) in themselves are simple. The movement also begins simply, with a succession of overlapping of these elements in the mixture type structures. Also here a kaleidoscope is created, due to a limited number of these elements - of these pebbles in the kaleidoscope - which continuously return in augmentations and diminutions. Step by step, however, so that in the beginning we cannot hear it, a compiled rhythmic organization of the talea type gradually comes into daylight, based on the simultaneity of two mutually shifted to each other speed layers (also triplet and duoles, however, with different asymmetric structures than in the first movement). While longer rests are gradually filled in with motive fragments, we slowly come to the conclusion that we have found ourselves inside a rhythmic-melodical whirl: without change in tempo, only through increasing the density of the musical events, a rotation is created in the stream of successive and compiled, augmented and diminished motive fragments, and increasing the density suggests acceleration. Thanks to the periodical structure of the composition, always new but however of the same (all the motivic cells are similar to earlier ones but none of them are exactly repeated; the general structure is therefore self-similar), an impression is created of a gigantic, indissoluble network. Also, rhythmic structures at first hidden gradually begin to emerge, two independent speed layers with their various internal accentuations. This great, self-similar whirl in a very indirect way relates to musical associations, which came to my mind while watching the graphic projection of the mathematical sets of Julia and of Mandelbrot made with the help of a computer. I saw these wonderful pictures of fractal creations, made by scientists from Brema, Peitgen and Richter, for the first time in 1984. From that time they have played a great role in my musical concepts. This does not mean, however, that composing the fourth movement I used mathematical methods or iterative calculus; indeed, I did use constructions which, however, are not based on mathematical thinking, but are rather craftman's constructions (in this respect, my attitude towards mathematics is similar to that of the graphic artist Maurits Escher). I am concerned rather with intuitional, poetic, synesthetic correspondence, not on the scientific, but on the poetic level of thinking. The fifth, very short Presto movement is harmonically very simple, but all the more complicated in its rhythmic structure: it is based on the further development of ''inherent patterns of the third movement. The quasi-equidistance system dominates harmonically and melodically in this movement, as in the third, alternating with harmonic fields, which are based on the division of the chromatic whole into diatonics and anhemitonic pentatonics. Polyrhythms and harmonic mixtures reach their greatest density, and at the same time this movement is strikingly light, enlightened with very bright colours: at first it seems chaotic, but after listening to it for a few times it is easy to grasp its content: many autonomous but self-similar figures which crossing themselves. I present my artistic credo in the Piano Concerto: I demonstrate my independence from criteria of the traditional avantgarde, as well as the fashionable postmodernism. Musical illusions which I consider to be also so important are not a goal in itself for me, but a foundation for my aesthetical attitude. I prefer musical forms which have a more object-like than processual character. Music as frozen time, as an object in imaginary space evoked by music in our imagination, as a creation which really develops in time, but in imagination it exists simultaneously in all its moments. The spell of time, the enduring its passing by, closing it in a moment of the present is my main intention as a composer. (Gyorgy Ligeti).

SKU: BT.SLB-00595900

INSSTR inches. French.

A previously unreleased piece by Francis Poulenc, published with permission from the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris and Benoît Seringe, secretary of the Association des amis de Francis Poulenc [Association of the Friends ofFrancis Poulenc]. Le Voyageur sans bagage [The Traveller Without Luggage], which had been premiered in 1937 with music by Darius Milhaud, was reprised on 1 April 1944 at the Thé tre de la Michodière; Francis Poulenc was asked to compose new stage music. Theentire unpublished score lay undiscovered until Bérengère de l’Épine, a librarian at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, announced the existence of a manuscript in the Association de la Régie Thé trale collection.Poulenc finalised the score between 19 and 21 March 1944. It contains nine songs, all written for a small instrumental ensemble including oboe, clarinet, cello and piano. However, at the end of the manuscript, the composer echoes the second song Lent [Slow] and creates another version for cello and piano; curiously, the original version of the song has not been erased in the manuscript. Poulenc seems to suggest that we consider the piece for cello and piano, that we have publishedhere, as a different piece of music. It was premiered on Wednesday 23 January 2013 by Marc Coppey, accompanied by Jean-François Heisser, in the organ auditorium of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), during thesymposium for the fiftieth anniversary of Poulenc’s death.Given in a dramatic context, some elements allow us to get an idea of the character of the piece, which Benoît Seringe, Poulenc’s beneficiary, judiciously chose to name Souvenirs.The main character of Anouilh’s play, Gaston, is suffering from amnesia at the end of World War One. Several families try to claim him; they want him to be their missing relative. The Renaud family prove to be particularly stubborn, but Gaston doesnot recognize himself in the child and young man they depict: a ruthless and violent person. In Act 1 Scene 3, left alone for a moment, overwhelmed by the story of the “old Gaston” that is gradually coming to light, and outraged by the desire ofthose around him to appropriate him (to the detriment of the person he would like to be from now on), he whispers these words: “You all have proof, photographs that look like me, memories as clear as day… I’ve listened to you all and it’s slowlycausing a hybrid person to rise up in me; a person in which there is a piece of each of your sons and nothing of me.” Poulenc chose to place the second piece from his stage music score as these words are spoken.He borrowed part of the material, as he often did, from an earlier composition. In this particular case, the beginning is a recycled version of the “slow and melancholic” section from L’Histoire de Babar , composed between 1940 and 1945, andpremiered in 1946 (unless it is Babar that reuses the musical idea from Voyageur ).The eponymous elephant decides to leave in search of the great forest. He embraces the old lady, promises her he will return and reassures her that he will never forget her. Left alone, the old lady, feeling sad and pensive, wonders when she’ll seeher friend Babar again. The situation is similar to that in Voyageur sans bagage: solitude, sadness, a distressing and introspective time, fear of oblivion, the presence of memories…

Pi èce inédite de Francis Poulenc, publiée avec l’autorisation de la Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris et de Benoît Seringe, secrétaire de l’Association des Amis de Francis Poulenc.Le 1er avril 1944, Le Voyageur sans bagage d’Anouilh, qui avait été créé en 1937 avec de la musique de Darius Milhaud, est repris au Thé tre de la Michodière. Francis Poulenc a été sollicité afin d’écrire une nouvelle musique de scène. On ignoraittout de cette partition inédite, jusqu’au jour où Bérengère de l’Épine, conservateur la Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris, nous signala l’existence d’un manuscrit dans le fonds de l’Association de la Régie thé trale.Poulenc mit au point sa partition entre le 19 et le 21 mars 1944. Elle comprend neuf numéros, tous écrits pour un petit effectif instrumental réunissant un hautbois, une clarinette, un violoncelle et un piano.Cependant, la fin de son manuscrit, le compositeur reprend le no 2 Lent et en donne une seconde version, pour violoncelle et piano. Curieusement, la version originale de ce numéro n’est pas biffée dans le manuscrit.Poulenc semble nous inviter considérer comme un morceau distinct cette pièce pour violoncelle et piano dont nous proposons ici l’édition. Elle a été créée par Marc Coppey, accompagné de Jean-François Heisser, lors du concert donné durant lecolloque organisé pour le cinquantenaire du décès de Poulenc, le mercredi 23 janvier 2013, salle d’orgue du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP).Quelques éléments sur le contexte dramatique permettront de se faire une idée du caractère du morceau, que Benoît Seringe, ayant droit Poulenc, a judicieusement choisi d’intituler Souvenirs.Le personnage principal de la pièce d’Anouilh, Gaston, a été retrouvé amnésique la fin de la Première Guerre Mondiale. Plusieurs familles le réclament. On veut voir en lui un parent disparu. Les Renaud se montrent particulièrement tenaces ; maisGaston ne parvient se reconnaître dans l’enfant et le jeune homme dont on lui trace le portrait : un être violent et sans scrupule. Au tableau 3 de l’acte I, resté seul un moment, écrasé par l’histoire de cet autre lui-même qu’il découvre peu peu, indigné par le désir des personnes qui l’entourent de le ramener elles au détriment de celui qu’il voudrait être désormais, il se murmure ces paroles : « Vous avez tous des preuves, des photographies ressemblantes, des souvenirs précis commedes crimes… je vous écoute tous et je sens surgir peu peu derrière moi un être hybride où il y a un peu de chacun de vos fils et rien de moi »…C’est sur ces mots que Poulenc a choisi de placer le no 2 de sa partition de musique de scène.Comme il le fait souvent, il emprunte une composition antérieure une part de son matériau. Dans ce cas précis, il réutilise pour le début du morceau la section « Lent et mélancolique » de l’Histoire de Babar, composée entre 1940 et 1945, créée en1946 ( moins que ce ne soit Babar qui réutilise l’idée musicale du Voyageur). Le héros-éléphant s’est décidé partir pour retrouver la grande forêt. Il a embrassé la vieille dame, lui a promis de revenir, l’a rassurée : jamais il ne l’oubliera.Rest� �e seule, la vieille dame, triste et pensive, se demande quand elle reverra son ami Babar. La situation est similaire celle du Voyageur sans bagage : solitude, tristesse, instantde trouble et de retour sur soi, crainte de l’oubli, présence des souvenirs….

SKU: BR.DV-9515-01

ISBN 9790200490596. 9 x 12 inches. German / English.

In the latter half of the 18th and in the 19th century the Old Preface Testament Christmas prophecy (Isaiah 9, 1-6) formed the basis for numerous motetto- and cantata-like compositions originating from the Erzgebirge and the Vogtland of Saxony. From very early times, this text was included in Matins for Christmas day, hut until the period specified it was usually intoned on a reciting note. The present cantata is one of the few surviving testimonies to musical activity in the small Thuringian town of Schleiz. The prophecy Das Volk, so im Finstern wandelt was written - probably for performance at court services - in all likelihood by Johann Georg Reichard, a magistrate in the Grafschaft (County) of Reuss who later held higher judicial appointments. Reichard was born at Oels (Olefoica) in Silesia in 1710 and studied law at Leipzig from 1732. He then went to Schleiz and rose from the position of archivist to high legal office, at the same time succeeding Gottfried Siegmund Liebich (d. 1736) as director of the court chapel. He died in Schleiz on 2 June 1782. A few of his church cantatas and other pieces (serenades etc) written for the court at Schleiz once belonged to the Fursten- and Landesschule of St Augustine at Grimma whose music holdings are now preserved in Dresden. Some of Reichard's compositions are autograph, some in copies made by his son Heinrich Gottfried Reichard (1742-1801) who pursued an active career at Grimma both in music and ancient philology, first as cantor, finally as co-rector. The 'Prophecy' cantata survives anonymously in a score copied by Heinrich Gottfried Reichard who may well have sung it himself when he was fourteen, before bis voice broke - as the date Anno 17 56 suggests. He probably prepared the score in bis later years from the original parts, now no langer existent, as he did in the case of other works of his father's. Whether he revised the musical text, and to what extent, cannot now be established. This short and attractive work has all the lightness and exuberance of the rococo as well as genuine emotional depth. In addition, it is easy to perform and should prove very popular. Liturgically, it still occupies a place in Christmas matins or vespers. Permission for this publication was kindly given by Dr. Wolfgang Reich of the Sachsische Landesbibliothek Dresden, Musikabteilung. Wolfram Steude, Dresden, January 1972.

SKU: HL.48025445

ISBN 9783793145820. UPC: 196288216438.

Hans Winterberg's extraordinary life was written in two chapters, one Czech and one German, split right down the middle by the experience of the Shoah, which Winterberg, unlike his colleagues Ullmann, Krása, Haas and Klein, miraculously survived. In 1947, the Prague-born composer moved to Munich, where he worked for the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation. As a student of Alexander Zemlinsky and Alois Hába, he belongs both to the Czech tradition following Janácek and to the circle of the Second Viennese School. He saw himself as a bridge builder between Western and Eastern culture. The circumstances under which Winterberg was able to compose during the war years are still unclear. Although his “mixed marriage” initially saved him from deportation, he had to perform forced labour and was eventually sent to the Terezin ghetto in January 1945. The Suite for Violin and Piano was composed in 1942, the year in which both Winterberg's mother and his piano professor Thérèse Wallerstein were murdered by the Nazis. Compared to the violin sonata from 1936, the Suite is much more condensed, lasting less than seven minutes. A melody dominated by chromatic turns and expressionist harmony lend the work its melancholy character, which gives way, however, to an almost irrepressible defiance in the rhythmically percussive last movement.

SKU: HL.51481508

Ravel's plans for a piano concerto can be traced back to 1906, but it was only in early 1929 that the composer seriously started work on one. He later stated that he wrote it “in the spirit of the concertos by Mozart and Saint-Saëns”, the music being “cheerful and brilliant” and not “aiming for profundity or dramatic effects”. The outer movements are characterised by rhythmic drive and borrowings from jazz; while the slow movement, with its subtle shifts of accented beats, is entirely dedicated to melody. Alongside manuscripts and prints, a recording made under Ravel's supervision by the work's dedicatee, Marguerite Long, was consulted for this Henle Urtext edition. Since its successful premiere in January 1932 the concerto has been part of the repertoire of all great pianists, including Pascal Rogé, the French music expert who has provided the fingerings for the solo part.

About Henle Urtext

What I can expect from Henle Urtext editions:

• error-free, reliable musical texts based on meticulous musicological research - fingerings and bowings by famous artists and pedagogues
• preface in 3 languages with information on the genesis and history of the work 
• Critical Commentary in 1 – 3 languages with a description and evaluation of the sources and explaining all source discrepancies and editorial decisions 
• most beautiful music engraving 
• page-turns, fold-out pages, and cues where you need them 
• excellent print quality and binding 
• largest Urtext catalogue world-wide 
• longest Urtext experience (founded 1948 exclusively for Urtext editions)