In The Asylum the composer is writing three pieces, The Rung, The Potent Rug, Wigs of Flanders. © Gerald Barry / Violon, Violoncelle Et Piano
SKU: HL.14005345
ISBN 9780711938335.
A Vision was written for the tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson and commissioned by the London Mozart Players. The first performance was at the Gregynog Festival in June 1991. Geoffrey Burgon has set 7 poems of John Clare (1793-1846) and the poems that Burgon has chosen were all written whilst Clare was in Northampton Asylum. The work is scored for tenor and string orchestra. There is a prominent part for solo violin, which reflects Clare's love of that instrument and upon which he would play folk tunes and dances.
SKU: HL.49015565
ISBN 9781423421047. 9.0x12.0x0.079 inches.
'I have always had a great fondness for the works by Schumann', Aribert Reimann once said. There exists a close relationship even beyond the music: As owner of Schumann's medical records from the mental asylum in Endenich, Reimann guarded the secret of the circumstances surrounding Schumann's last weeks and death.When the musical world celebrated Reimann's 70th birthday and commemorated the 150th anniversary of Schumann's death in 2006, Reimann decided to publish the records and comment on them in his book 'Robert Schumann in Endenich' (ED 9870).This book was presented to the public on 5 May 2006 at the Schumann Festival in Dusseldorf. For this occasion, as a musical bow to Schumann, Reimann composed the string quartet Adagio which the Heine Quartet premiered. Adagio is based on both Schumann's Endenich chorales 'Wenn mein Stundlein vorhanden ist' and 'Stark und Mittler, dein sind wir'.
SKU: HL.277282
UPC: 840126915006. 6.75x10.5 inches.
Program note:Looking Up is a piece for large chorus and orchestra, and is in three sections, played without pause. In the 16th century, a variety of psalters in meter were printed in England, with the idea of making psalm-singing something that could happen easily at home, with the rhyming meter being an aid to memorization. These translations are wonderful exercises in brevity and sometimes clumsy rhymemaking, and were usually prefaced by a lengthy explanation as to their merits; the title of one of the first such volumes in English is: The Psalter of Dauid newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the mynde, be reade and songe of al men. I thought it would be appropriate to set one of these introductions, and the first section of Looking Up sets the preface to Thomas Ravenscroft's psalter (1621), in which he writes: “The singing of Psalmes (assay the Doctors) comforteth the sorrowfull, pacifieth the angry, strengtheneth the weake, humbleth the proud, gladdeth the humble, stirres up the slow, reconcileth enemies, lifteth up the heart to heavenly things, and uniteth the Creature to his Creator.”It begins meditatively, but eventually grows agitated and fervent, with a vision of the “quire of Angels and Saints” “redoubling anddescanting” - an ecstatic and terrifying vision of the skies opening up. Ravenscroft then encourages the use of instrumental musicfor worship, at which point, a long, acrobatic orchestral interlude with jagged edges antagonizes the choir, who sing a kind of private, anxious meditation on two pitches.One of the most delicious biblical texts is an Apocryphal prayer known as the Benedicite or the Prayer of the Three Children (the same who were rescued by an angel after King Nebuchadnezzar tried to have them burnt in an oven for not bowing to his image). The text is repetitive, obsessive, and a gift to composers - each line is an invocation of an element of the natural world, followed by the phrase, “blesse ye the Lord, praise him & magnify him for ever.” In Looking Up, the setting begins with three solo voices, and then grows to include the whole choir, itemizing the whole of creation. The idea that these boys are spared from the furnace and then five minutes later are saying, “O ye the fire and warming heate, blesse ye the Lord...” has always felt very loaded to me, and the orchestra plays with this conflict between joyful praise and a more terrible (in the 16th-century sense) awefor the divine.The text for the third, and shortest, section is taken from Christopher Smart's (1722-1771) A Song to David, purportedly written during his confinement in a mental asylum. This ode to King David points out how David, as the author of some of the Psalms, observes the whole world from the “clustering spheres” to the “nosegay in the vale.&rdquo.
SKU: HL.49006313
ISBN 9790001068468.
Wilh elm Killmayer puts a single note at the heart of this composition. Butwhereas Robert Schumann took it as the starting point of his romanticism,Killmayer doesn't allow himself the freedom to develop poetic melodies. Just as Schumann deliberately decided to live within the constraints of a mental asylum in Endenich, Killmayer favours the constraints of a very limited tonal space. Recurring seconds in the piano part illustrate the confines in the life of the ill composer. Even the addition of a vibraphone,bongo and conga cannot overcome these boundaries in the end. The only option left is to look inwards for an escape. And when refined tone colours are revealed in a dialogue between piano and glockenspiel, Schumann in Endenich turns into a journey into the consciousness of an enigmatic fellow human being.Schlagzeug I: Glockenspiel, Ruhrtrommel, hohe Pedalpauke; Schlagzeug II: Glockenspiel, Xylophon, Bongo (mittel), Holzfass (oder grosses Holzbrett mit Resonanz); Schlagzeug III: Vibraphon, Marimbaphon, 2 Congas (mittel-tief), Ruhrtrommel; Schlagzeug IV: Gong in c, Steinspiel (a''), Bongo (tief), Ruhrtrommel, Pauke in g; Schlagzeug V: grosses Tamtam, Gegenschlagholzer (yoshigi), Pauke in E und A (cis), Conga (mittel).
SKU: HL.48025028
UPC: 196288019909.
The texts of Alex Freeman's Calle sin nombre for mixed choir (2019) are drawn from quotations of families seeking asylum who are victims of the policies of family separation aggressively and abruptly enacted by the administration of President Donald John Trump.These desperate words tread with bare feet across shards of fragmented lines from Emma Lazarus's The New Colossus (the iconic poem enshrined at the base of The Statue of Liberty). A rehearsal reduction for piano is included in the publication. Alex Freeman (b. 1972) grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Around the age of 13 he became interested in composing. In 1998 he moved to New York to begin his Doctoral studies at the Juilliard School, studying with Christopher Rouse. The focus of his doctoral document led him to Finland. The recipient of a Fulbright Full Fellowship, he moved to Helsinki in 2001 to research Sibelius's sketches and study composition with Eero Hameenniemi at the Sibelius Academy. Dr. Freeman is currently composing full-time and liveswith his wife and children in Finland.
SKU: BT.VOLMB133
ISBN 9788863881318. Italian.
Songs include: Ayo Technology (Milow), The House of The Rising Sun (The Animals), 1973 - High (James Blunt), Baby can I hold you? (Tracy Chapman), Layla(Eric Clapton), Hotel California (The Eagles), Life for Rent (Dido), Mercy(Duffy),Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day), Billie Jean (Michael Jackson), Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel), Come Away with Me (Norah Jones), One Love - People Get Ready (Bob Marley), Don’t Leave Me this Way (TheCommunards), Jesus to a Child (George Michael), Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana), Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) - Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd), The Show Must Go On - We Are the Champions (Queen), High andDry (Radiohead),Losing my Religion (R.E.M.),Holding Back the Years (Simply Red), Runaway Train (Soul Asylum), Back for Good(Take That), You’ve Got a Friend (James Taylor), Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears), Luka (Suzanne Vega),Back to Black - Rehab (Amy Winehouse).
SKU: FG.55011-568-2
ISBN 9790550115682.
The texts of Alex Freeman's Calle sin nombre for mixed choir (2019) are drawn from quotations of families seeking asylum who are victims of the policies of family separation aggressively and abruptly enacted by the administration of President Donald John Trump. These desperate words tread with bare feet across shards of fragmented lines from Emma Lazarus's The New Colossus (the iconic poem enshrined at the base of The Statue of Liberty). A rehearsal reduction for piano is included in the publication. Alex Freeman (b. 1972) grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Around the age of 13 he became interested in composing. In 1998 he moved to New York to begin his Doctoral studies at the Juilliard School, studying with Christopher Rouse. The focus of his doctoral document led him to Finland. The recipient of a Fulbright Full Fellowship, he moved to Helsinki in 2001 to research Sibelius's sketches and study composition with Eero Hameenniemi at the Sibelius Academy. Dr. Freeman is currently composing full-time and lives with his wife and children in Finland.
