SKU: PR.16400212S

Composed by Dan Welcher. With Standard notation. Duration 16 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #164-00212S. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.16400212S).

UPC: 680160037605.

Works of chamber music including flute and strings are not nearly as numerous as those for clarinet, or even the oboe. Probably the reason for this is the less assertive, more pure tone the flute possesses - it can't compete for volume or range with the clarinet, except in its top octave, and the oboe's tone is more penetrating and easily discerned from within a string texture. Consequently, composers who have written for flute and strings have done so in lightweight divertimento works: compare, for instance, the delicate flute quartets of Mozart with his monumental quintet for clarinet and strings.   When Karl and Joan Karber approached me with the ideas of writing a work for flute and string trio, I originally thought it would be best to write a humorous, rather offhand piece - but a look at their repertoire (mostly comprised of smaller works of the Rococo period) convinced me that it was the last thing they needed. In spite of the challenge (or maybe because of it?), I determined to write a large work, and a serious work. Zephyrus (named for the God of the West Wind, in deference to the flute) is a three-movement work, with each movement cast in a very different form, but all three being built of the same twelve-note series. There is also a rhythmic motive and a pair of themes that appear in all three movements.   The first movement plays with the idea of contrast and persuasion. The flute, at the outset, is the hell-for-leather protagonist, charging and swooping around the strings - who seem oddly unconcerned by his passion. Indeed, they have a more somber song to sing - and as the movement unfolds, the flute becomes less and less active, while the strings become increasingly enlivened. By the midpoint, when all four instruments are finally in the same meter and the same tempo, the flute's energy has finally infected the other three players, and this energy does not let up until the movement's abrupt final cadence.   The second movement begins with a tag from the first - as if the energy left over was too great to simply stop. At length, though, a very poignant flute melody appears over an almost bluesy harmony in the strings. After this has been fully exposed, a slight increase in motion, marked gently rocking in triplets, features a theme-fragment from Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 (Kaddish). Bernstein died as I was writing this work, and it seemed quite natural to encourage what was already implicit in the music, and create an Elegy for L.B. The music rises and peaks, then in the recapitulation of the opening the Kaddish theme reappears, as the ensemble suggests a gentle song of sleep.   The final movement is a Rondo-Variations form, with the slight alteration of adding the main theme of the second movement in what would be the trio of the form. The ritornello theme is a kind of ethnic dance music, almost an allusion to the Klezmer ensembles of Eastern Europe. The successive episodes between the ritornelli are loosely organized variations on the basic theme, but always beginning with a metric modulation, a rhythmic changing of gears. The movement reaches and apex of speed and furious pulsing, then abruptly pirouttes, and finishes.   Zephyrus was written between April and November of 1990 in Austin, Aspen, and Honolulu, and is dedicated to Karl Kraber and The Chamber Soloists of Austin. --Dan Welcher.

String Quartet

SKU: HL.14022547

Composed by Nicola LeFanu. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. Music Sales #NOV120815. Published by Music Sales (HL.14022547).

ISBN 9780853607595.

This quartet lasts about nine minutes. Composed in April 1996, it is dedicated to the memory of Nicola's father William LeFanu (1904-1995) and Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994). The quartet was commissioned for the 1997 London International String Quartet Competition.

String Quartet

SKU: HL.14022544

Composed by Nicola LeFanu. Music Sales America. Classical. Book [Softcover]. 32 pages. Music Sales #NOV120814. Published by Music Sales (HL.14022544).

ISBN 9780853607588. 8.25x11.75x0.162 inches.

This quartet lasts about nine minutes. Composed in April 1996, it is dedicated to the memory of Nicola's father William LeFanu (1904-1995) and Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994). The quartet was commissioned for the 1997 London International String Quartet Competition.

Soprano and Piano Accompaniment

SKU: HL.14025245

A3 Size Score. Composed by Anthony Payne. Music Sales America. Post-1900. Vocal Score. Chester Music #SOS03574. Published by Chester Music (HL.14025245).

Edward Thomas was born in Lambeth on 3rd March, 1878, and spent most of his childhood in London. His holidays, however, were spent with relatives in Swindon, and it was there that he developed his abiding love of all things rural. He was educated at St Paul's Hammersmith, and was encouraged in his creative writing by James Ashcroft Noble, whose daughter he secretly married, after her father's death, and to the great disapproval of her family. Despite growing anxiety over poverty, ill health and literary discouragement, which exacerbated a natural tendency to depression, Thomas worked unstintingly as a reviewer, and wrote and published over 30 books between 1897 and 1917. Adlestrop was written with four other poems between 7th and 9th June 1915. He enlisted in 1915 at the age of 37, and was called to the Front in 1917. He arrived at Arras on 9th February 1917, and was killed on the 9th April, Easter Monday, by a shell blast in the opening minutes of the offensive. This work for Soprano and Piano is set to the text of Edward Thomas.

Violin

SKU: ST.Y274

Composed by Morgan Hayes. String music. 3 minutes. Score. Stainer & Bell Ltd. #Y274. Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (ST.Y274).

ISBN 9790220223358.

1st perf: Keisuke Okazaki, Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 22 April 2008
1st UK perf: Darragh Morgan, Schott Recital Room, Bauer & Hieber, London, 5 February 2009

Though the jagged figures and phrases of Lucky's Dream by Morgan Hayes are unmistakably those of a contemporary musical expressionist, the shadow of Bach also falls on this work, inspired by the virtuosity of the young Japanese soloist Keisuke Okazaki and his playing of the E major Partita.

In fact, though 'standard' contemporary techniques are widely used in the piece - left-hand pizzicato, harmonics and microtones, all deployed in edgy, unpredictable rhythms - there is also a classical shape to the structure. In this two-part form, lasting around four minutes, the first section is reflective, dwelling on single notes, phantoms as it were of pitches that are subtly deflected through slow glissandi. Then a spectral dance ensues, delivered largely on plucked strings, ethereal, disembodied, strange.

The 'Lucky' in question is a character from Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, and Lucky's Dream is a complementary work to the earlier, impassioned Lucky's Speech (2006). The two items can stand alone or may be performed consecutively. Both are to be found on the recent all-Hayes CD released on the NMC label (NMC D163), which also features the composer's 17-minute Violin Concerto as further evidence for his original approach to writing for the instrument.

Orchestra Bass Clarinet, Bassoon I, Bassoon II, Bassoon III, Clarinet I, Clarinet II, Clarinet III, Contra Bassoon, English Horn, Flute I, Flute II, Flute III, Hor, Horn I, Horn II, Horn III, Oboe I, Oboe II, Oboe III, Piccolo I, Piccolo II, Piccolo III, Piccolo IV

SKU: CF.O5368

Composed by Carlos Rodriguez. SWS. Large Score. With Standard notation. Carl Fischer Music #O5368. Published by Carl Fischer Music (CF.O5368).

ISBN 9780825836190. UPC: 798408036195. 9 X 14 inches.

Fábulas (Fables), the first work of Carlos Rodriguez to be published by Pembroke Music (a division of Carl Fischer), was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. It was premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen on April 10, 1996. The piece, an extended one-movement structure involving a large orchestra with a very full percussion section, is concerned with narrative forms in purely symphonic terms, ie. - without an actual program. The musical sequence of the piece, in three continuously evolving sections lasting about 15 minutes overall, is derived from the very opening 12-note string chord arrayed in a pattern of perfect 5ths and minor seconds extending over four octaves. The central core of the piece, subtitled Six Anagrams, involves a highly unusual and original application of the 12-note concept. Each pitch in the row is assigned a letter so that the row spells out the phrase voice leading. The six anagrams are re-orderings of this sequence into six new rows, which are then subjected to canonic development. The resulting sophisticated game provides Fábulas, with a rare degree of musical coherence. A fascinating work that rewards detailed analysis, Fábulas, is so brilliantly scored that it dazzles on its own terms, as sound, even without detailed examination of its elaborate underpinnings.