Rhaps On An Old English Tune

SKU: FT.FM516

ISBN 9790570484157.

Whil st John Rutter is extremely well known for his religious choral music, he has also written a few orchestral pieces that are every bit the equal of his better known works. This Suite is indeed one of these. Originally written in 1973, and following the tradition of earlier English composers like Vaughn Williams and Percy Grainger, this suite explores various English folk tunes. The opening movement has a kind of hornpipe feeling to it that uses the jaunty tune 'A rovin' yet this is balanced with the more reflective counter melody 'I sowed the seed of love.' Of course the 'racy' tune wins the day! The second movement - 'I Have A Bonnet Trimmed In Blue' is a perfect evocation of an elegant young lady who is keen to display her new bonnet to the local swains! Yet perhaps she is a little shy and is apprehensive about possible comments. From the last section I believe she found her hearts desire… The slow movement is based on the folksong 'O Waly Waly', a tune that will forever be associated with the late Kathleen Ferrier. This version gives the tune a sense of regret and sometimes intensity that matches the words:- O love is handsome and love is fine, And love is charming when it is true; As it grows older it groweth colder And fades away like the morning dew. The mood is lifted for the last movement, with an almost Handelian rendition of 'Dashing Away With The Smoothing Iron'. However, this tune doesn't have everything it's own way, for the 'Bailiff's Daughter' makes an appearance as well for a triumphant ending:- O stay, O stay thou goodly youth! She's alive, she is not dead; Here she standeth by thy side, And is ready to be thy bride... (and hopefully they both do the ironing!).

SKU: AP.1-ADV7012

ISBN 9783892214298. UPC: 805095070125. English.

These well-loved tunes have been around for a long time. Perhaps the oldest is Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, a Negro spiritual that may have been written by slaves. Others come from the latter half of the 19th century and from the turn-of-the-century era that produced the precursors of jazz. The unifying factor in selecting these particular tunes, apart from the fact that every American seems to know them, is that they have been constantly recreated by jazz performers, from the birth of jazz to the present day. There is an immediate link from the improvisor to the mood, structure, or chord structure (sometimes all three!) of these tunes that allows for a free-flowing personal variation on these timeless themes.

Titles: Down By The Riverside * Little Brown Jug * Bill Bailey * Peg O' My Heart * A Tisket, A Tasket * Take Me Out To The Ballgame * Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen * Frankie & Johnny.

SKU: CF.YPS265

ISBN 9781491163658. UPC: 680160922444.

The Rocky Road to Dublin is a song written by Irish poet D. K. Gavan in the mid-nineteenth century for English music-hall performer Harry Clifton and tells the story of an Irish man leaving his hometown of Tuam in the county of Galway in Ireland to go to Dublin to make money. Because of the Great Potato Famine at that time, large groups of Irish folks left their hometowns looking for food and work. Thousands ended up in America, in particular, Philadelphia, where many made their way south through the Appalachian mountains, settling in southwest Virginia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. As the Irish began their new lives here in America, they would often sing these songs, which would bring back fond memories of their homeland. Many old-time fiddle tunes can be traced to Irish music, including this song. However, their music changed as the songs were passed around through other cultures in the mountains, with new verses about their new lives. Often the tunes and lyrics made their way back overseas where they would change yet again, so there are many versions of these songs found in both Ireland and America. This setting is close to the original and can be found in both places. It gets to the heart of having to leave one’s home to seek a better life.This tune is a fun one and should be played with a lilt until m. 43. At this point, the original material is more legato, but returns at m. 59 in the alto saxophone. Let the percussion play on their solis, especially at the end where some of them answer the band motifs. The straight eighth notes (as at m. 29) will perhaps look difficult to younger players, but once they understand the concept, it will be a favorite part. Have fun!

SKU: CF.YPS265F

ISBN 9781491164051. UPC: 680160922840.

The Rocky Road to Dublin is a song written by Irish poet D. K. Gavan in the mid-nineteenth century for English music-hall performer Harry Clifton and tells the story of an Irish man leaving his hometown of Tuam in the county of Galway in Ireland to go to Dublin to make money. Because of the Great Potato Famine at that time, large groups of Irish folks left their hometowns looking for food and work. Thousands ended up in America, in particular, Philadelphia, where many made their way south through the Appalachian mountains, settling in southwest Virginia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. As the Irish began their new lives here in America, they would often sing these songs, which would bring back fond memories of their homeland. Many old-time fiddle tunes can be traced to Irish music, including this song. However, their music changed as the songs were passed around through other cultures in the mountains, with new verses about their new lives. Often the tunes and lyrics made their way back overseas where they would change yet again, so there are many versions of these songs found in both Ireland and America. This setting is close to the original and can be found in both places. It gets to the heart of having to leave one’s home to seek a better life.This tune is a fun one and should be played with a lilt until m. 43. At this point, the original material is more legato, but returns at m. 59 in the alto saxophone. Let the percussion play on their solis, especially at the end where some of them answer the band motifs. The straight eighth notes (as at m. 29) will perhaps look difficult to younger players, but once they understand the concept, it will be a favorite part. Have fun!

SKU: HL.14035061

ISBN 9788759862353. English-Danish.

Win ter Cantata / Vinterkantate (1976) by Per Norgard for a variable ensemble of soloist, mixed choir and instruments (minimum: vocalist and organ). Programme Note: When in 1975 I had finished composing my 3rd Symphony (begun in 1973), I wrote three simple melodies for two psalm texts by Ole Sarvig: The Year and Choral Hymn. These three tunes were derived from the same material as the second movement of the 3rd Symphony and could be harmonized together in several different tempo relationships at the same time - like fractals - which inspired me to write several choral and instrumental works in the following decade based on these melodies: Frost Psalm, Winter Cantata, Winter Hymn, Cantica and others. One of these 'Sarvig melodies' is now included in the new Danish Hymnbook, under the title Aret(The Year). Ole Sarvig's poem Aret (The Year) is Danish, perhaps Scandinavian in character, but its symbolic atmosphere is global (now snow is covering the whole earth). The basic composition of this cantata - based on Sarvig's many verses - was done by letting soloist, choir and instruments change in feelings and moods: from the almost silent, inward-looking beginning (I: Chorale dolorosa) to a dancelike and happy optimism (II: A heaven germ on winged foot thrust deep into the earth its root), followed by nightmarish tone rows as the year-wheel of fortune is turning (III: Sacrifice - The Year) and the temptations of the snake (IV: In Paradiso) - to the allegorical fights between egoism and altruism (V:The Cycle - Autumn. Purgatory) before the waiting for a disaster- atmosphere at the end of this choral Odysse. Winter Cantata was from the beginning (1976) designed as an open work, to be arranged by different combinations of soloists, choir and (different) instruments. The printed version by Per Norgard and Ivan hansen for soloist, mixed choir and instruments (obo, violin, trombone, vibraphone/percussion and organ) is from 1990. The work is available in both the (original) Danish version (Vinterkantate) and an English version (Winter Cantata), translated by Helen and Ole Sarvig. (Per Norgard).

SKU: AP.1-ADV7422

ISBN 9783892215769. UPC: 805095074222. English. Traditional.

Noels (the French spelling) are old but enduring carols that often tell a ballad-like story. Nowells (English spelling) are likely derived from and developed by English wandering minstrels. Both carols and nowells are often in 3/4 meter, lending themselveswell to dance. The First Nowell is one of a few carols that survived a ban on Christmas by the English Parliament in 1645. The tune is one of the oldest ballad carols, perhaps dating back to 1500, and likely originating in England. This arrangement of The First Nowell has multiple settings of the 3/4 time melody.

This arrangement for saxophone quartet (SATBar)---rather than favoring a soprano solo with accompaniment---strives to include all the players in the music making, particularly by distributing melodic material throughout the ensemble. In addition, all dynamics and articulations should be taken as suggestions only, as performers are encouraged to make their own interpretations.

SKU: PR.11641373S

UPC: 680160680344.

The concerto has always seemed an especially attractive medium to me, not necessarily because of its expectations of virtuosity (although flaunting it when you've got it certainly has its place), and emphatically not because of the perception of a concerto as a contest, but because so much of what I write feels song-like; I'm very much at home with the age-old texture of melody and accompaniment. I hope, before I move on, to have the opportunity to write concertos for all the major instruments, and perhaps some of the rarer ones as well. The oboe is not only one of the major instruments, it is one of my favorite instruments. I've always loved its sound, but since moving to New York I have gotten to hear and, in some cases, know some extremely fine oboists who broadened my appreciation of the instrument's possibilities. I especially remember a concert, probably in the late 1960's, in which Humbert Lucarelli played a Handel concerto, filling out large melodic leaps with cascading scale passages in a way that raised the hair on the back of your neck, somewhat in the way that John Coltrane's sheets of sound did. The sweeping scales in the second movement of my concerto were definitely inspired by Bert Lucarelli's performance. The first, third and fifth movements of the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra are song-like, whereas the second and fourth have strong scherzo and dance qualities, including a couple of sections that sound like out-and-out pirate dances to me. The hymn-like tune at the beginning of the middle movement was originally begun as a vocal piece to be sung by my wife, son and daughter at my brother's wedding, but I couldn't come up with good works for it, so it ended up as an instrumental chant. The opening and closing of the concerto make use of the oboe's uniquely soulful singing. I had not heard Pamela Woods Pecha's solo playing in person when she approached me about writing a concerto, but I had heard her fine recording of chamber music for oboe and strings by the three B's (English, that is: Bliss, Bax and Britten) with the Audubon Quartet. I actually already had some oboe concerto ideas in my sketchbooks; although I didn't end up using any of those earlier ideas, it's interesting that most of them tended to share the general feeling and tonality of the eventual opening of the concerto. The work was completed on October 13, 1994. I hate the compromises involved in making piano reductions -- perhaps I would feel differently if I were a more accomplished pianist -- so I often decide to make piano reductions for four hands rather than two. My good friend Jon Kimura Parker is a terrific sight-reader, and I roped him into coming over to my place on February 17, 1995, to help me accompany Pamela on the first read-through of the piece. The first performance of the work took place on July 21, 1995, at the American Music Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma, with Mark Parker conducting the Festival Orchestra.

SKU: PR.11641373L

UPC: 680160680337.

The concerto has always seemed an especially attractive medium to me, not necessarily because of its expectations of virtuosity (although flaunting it when you've got it certainly has its place), and emphatically not because of the perception of a concerto as a contest, but because so much of what I write feels song-like; I'm very much at home with the age-old texture of melody and accompaniment. I hope, before I move on, to have the opportunity to write concertos for all the major instruments, and perhaps some of the rarer ones as well. The oboe is not only one of the major instruments, it is one of my favorite instruments. I've always loved its sound, but since moving to New York I have gotten to hear and, in some cases, know some extremely fine oboists who broadened my appreciation of the instrument's possibilities. I especially remember a concert, probably in the late 1960's, in which Humbert Lucarelli played a Handel concerto, filling out large melodic leaps with cascading scale passages in a way that raised the hair on the back of your neck, somewhat in the way that John Coltrane's sheets of sound did. The sweeping scales in the second movement of my concerto were definitely inspired by Bert Lucarelli's performance. The first, third and fifth movements of the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra are song-like, whereas the second and fourth have strong scherzo and dance qualities, including a couple of sections that sound like out-and-out pirate dances to me. The hymn-like tune at the beginning of the middle movement was originally begun as a vocal piece to be sung by my wife, son and daughter at my brother's wedding, but I couldn't come up with good works for it, so it ended up as an instrumental chant. The opening and closing of the concerto make use of the oboe's uniquely soulful singing. I had not heard Pamela Woods Pecha's solo playing in person when she approached me about writing a concerto, but I had heard her fine recording of chamber music for oboe and strings by the three B's (English, that is: Bliss, Bax and Britten) with the Audubon Quartet. I actually already had some oboe concerto ideas in my sketchbooks; although I didn't end up using any of those earlier ideas, it's interesting that most of them tended to share the general feeling and tonality of the eventual opening of the concerto. The work was completed on October 13, 1994. I hate the compromises involved in making piano reductions -- perhaps I would feel differently if I were a more accomplished pianist -- so I often decide to make piano reductions for four hands rather than two. My good friend Jon Kimura Parker is a terrific sight-reader, and I roped him into coming over to my place on February 17, 1995, to help me accompany Pamela on the first read-through of the piece. The first performance of the work took place on July 21, 1995, at the American Music Festival in Duncan, Oklahoma, with Mark Parker conducting the Festival Orchestra.