PARTITIONS GRATUITES : CONTRE BASSE
- Calm of the Sea

For voice and C instrument. Format: fakebook (spiral bound). With vocal melody, lyrics, piano accompaniment, chord names and leadsheet notation. Hymn. Series: Hal Leonard Fake Books. 494 pages. 9x12 inches. Published by Hal Leonard.

Piano and orchestra

SKU: FG.55011-372-5

Composed by Matthew Whittall. Study score. Fennica Gehrman #55011-372-5. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-372-5).

ISBN 9790550113725.

Imag es of the sea figure prominently throughout my life and memories: from holidays on the Atlantic coast during my Canadian childhood to my current Baltic home, and the imagined, only later experienced Mediterranean of my ancestral heritage. As an immigrant (son of an immigrant) bound to two northern countries, the sea is emblematic of my twin homelands, from the expanses of water surrounding them to those separating them. A Mari usque ad Mare. The sea is also an enduring image of the unknown, of expanses unexplored, of the raw power of nature and, for too many currently, of terror holding a hope of refuge - or the pain of loss.
Such disparate ideas were captured for me in the seascapes of the New York painter MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom I met in 2008 during a residency on the Gulf of Mexico. Her vast, abstract, nearly monochromatic depictions of imaginary seas in wildly varying moods were the catalyst for a concerto where the piano is frequently far from a hero battling a collective, but rather acts as a channel for elemental forces surging up from the orchestra, floating - sometimes barely so - on its constantly shifting surface. There are few themes to speak of, beyond a handful of iconic ideas that periodically cycle upward. Rather, the piano's material is largely an ornamentation of the more primal rhythmic and harmonic impulses from the orchestra below - a poetic interpretation, if you will, of the more immediate experience of facing the vastness of some unknown body of water.
The title Nameless Seas is borrowed from one of Thielhelm's exhibitions, as are those of the four movements, which are bridged together into two halves of roughly equal weight - one rhapsodic and free, the other more single-minded and direct, separated only by a short breath. The opening movement, Nocturne, is predominantly calm, if brooding, darkness and light alternating throughout. Lyrical arabesques sparkle over gently lapping cross-currents in the strings and mirrored timpani, the piano's full power only rarely deployed. The waves gradually build, drawing in the full orchestra for a meeting of forces in Land and Sea, a brighter, more warmly lyrical scene that unfolds in series of dreamlike, sometimes even nostalgic visions, which for me carry strong memories of sitting on rocks above surging Atlantic waves. The third movement, Wake, is a fast, perpetual-motion texture of glinting, darting rhythms and sudden shafts of light, with a prominent part for the steel drums, limning the piano's quicksilver figurations. An ecstatic climax crashes into a solo cadenza that grows progressively calmer and more introspective rather than virtuosic. Much of the tension finally releases into Unclaimed Waters, a drifting, meditative seascape in which the piano is progressively engulfed by a series of ever-taller waves, ultimately dissolving into a tolling, rippling continuum of sound.
It has been a great privilege to realize such a long-held dream as this piece, and to write it for not one, but two great pianists. Risto-Matti Marin and Angela Hewitt, both of whose friendship and support have been unfailing and humbling, share the dedication. Nameless Seas was commissioned by the PianoEspoo festival and Canada's National Arts Centre, with the premieres in Ottawa and Helsinki led by Hannu Lintu and Olari Elts. Thanks are due also to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, whose generous grant provided me with much-needed time, and Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida, the source to which I returned to do a large part of the work.

11 Miniaturen. Composed by Claus Kuhnl. Edition Breitkopf. In these eleven short piano pieces, the composer follows the cue of such modern-day masters as Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann and Nicolaus A. Huber. Pedagogical. Breitkopf and Haertel #EB-9175. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel

Orchestra Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Clt, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Cb

SKU: CA.1039509

Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Edited by Sven Hiemke. 1x 10.395/21 flute 1, 1x 10.395/22 flute 2, 1x 10.395/23 oboe 1, 1x 10.395/24 oboe 2, 1x 10.395/25 clarinet 1, 1x 10.395/26 clarinet 2, 1x 10.395/27 bassoon 1, 1x 10.395/28 bassoon 2, 1x 10.395/31 horn 1, 1x 10.395/32 horn 2, 1x 10.395/33 horn 3, 1x 10.39. Harmony parts. Secular choral music. Set of Orchestra Parts. Op. 112. Duration 8 minutes. Carus Verlag #CV 10.395/09. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.1039509).

ISBN 9790007245320. Language: German.

Beethoven's Meeres Stille und Gluckliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) op. 112 for four-part mixed chorus and symphony orchestra - his setting of a pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - defies straightforward categorization, but can best be described as a choral ode. Beethoven in fact never voyaged by sea, but his composition, premiered in 1815, continues to surprise even today. He depicted in music the smooth surface of the motionless water and the oppressive calm, which meant nothing other than being becalmed, a delayed voyage, and short rations in the era of sailing, with the same intensity as a freshening increasing wind, with which Aeolus, the God of the winds, ultimately enabled the longed-for prosperous voyage to take place. The composed calmness of the motionless sea is conveyed in the low register used throughout, in which the chorus sings the first poem accompanied by washes of pianissimo sounds on the strings. There is a surprising moment with the musical portrayal of the ungeheuere Weite (immense breadth), at which the vocal-instrumental writing suddenly crescendos to forte and unfolds into a texture of over five octaves. By contrast Gluckliche Fahrt is written in restlessly-compiled meters, whose musical setting in flowing movement with diatonic scale passages evokes happy excitement and confidence. The work was dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom Beethoven greatly admired throughout his life. The work has now been published in a new critical edition based on the first printed edition and the performance score which Beethoven himself checked and corrected. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.1039500.

Orchestra Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Clt, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Cb

SKU: CA.1039519

Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Edited by Sven Hiemke. Complete orchestral parts. Secular choral music. Set of Orchestra Parts. Op. 112. Duration 8 minutes. Carus Verlag #CV 10.395/19. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.1039519).

ISBN 9790007245382. Language: German.

Beethoven's Meeres Stille und Gluckliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) op. 112 for four-part mixed chorus and symphony orchestra - his setting of a pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - defies straightforward categorization, but can best be described as a choral ode. Beethoven in fact never voyaged by sea, but his composition, premiered in 1815, continues to surprise even today. He depicted in music the smooth surface of the motionless water and the oppressive calm, which meant nothing other than being becalmed, a delayed voyage, and short rations in the era of sailing, with the same intensity as a freshening increasing wind, with which Aeolus, the God of the winds, ultimately enabled the longed-for prosperous voyage to take place. The composed calmness of the motionless sea is conveyed in the low register used throughout, in which the chorus sings the first poem accompanied by washes of pianissimo sounds on the strings. There is a surprising moment with the musical portrayal of the ungeheuere Weite (immense breadth), at which the vocal-instrumental writing suddenly crescendos to forte and unfolds into a texture of over five octaves. By contrast Gluckliche Fahrt is written in restlessly-compiled meters, whose musical setting in flowing movement with diatonic scale passages evokes happy excitement and confidence. The work was dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom Beethoven greatly admired throughout his life. The work has now been published in a new critical edition based on the first printed edition and the performance score which Beethoven himself checked and corrected. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.1039500.

Orchestra Coro SATB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Clt, 2 Fg, 4 Cor, 2 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Cb

SKU: CA.1039514

Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Edited by Sven Hiemke. Violoncello. Secular choral music. Single Part, Cello. Op. 112. 4 pages. Duration 8 minutes. Carus Verlag #CV 10.395/14. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.1039514).

ISBN 9790007245368. Language: German.

Beethoven's Meeres Stille und Gluckliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) op. 112 for four-part mixed chorus and symphony orchestra - his setting of a pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - defies straightforward categorization, but can best be described as a choral ode. Beethoven in fact never voyaged by sea, but his composition, premiered in 1815, continues to surprise even today. He depicted in music the smooth surface of the motionless water and the oppressive calm, which meant nothing other than being becalmed, a delayed voyage, and short rations in the era of sailing, with the same intensity as a freshening increasing wind, with which Aeolus, the God of the winds, ultimately enabled the longed-for prosperous voyage to take place. The composed calmness of the motionless sea is conveyed in the low register used throughout, in which the chorus sings the first poem accompanied by washes of pianissimo sounds on the strings. There is a surprising moment with the musical portrayal of the ungeheuere Weite (immense breadth), at which the vocal-instrumental writing suddenly crescendos to forte and unfolds into a texture of over five octaves. By contrast Gluckliche Fahrt is written in restlessly-compiled meters, whose musical setting in flowing movement with diatonic scale passages evokes happy excitement and confidence. The work was dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom Beethoven greatly admired throughout his life. The work has now been published in a new critical edition based on the first printed edition and the performance score which Beethoven himself checked and corrected. Score and part available separately - see item CA.1039500.