Kenneth Hesketh

SKU: AP.12-0571569897

ISBN 9780571569892. English.

The formal shape of Hesketh's Elegy for brass band and percussion is built on mounting intensification of melodic lines as each section follows from another, with varying colors and intensity. It was prepared for the UK's Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass 2009, where the premiere was given by the Desford Colliery Band, conducted by Russell Gray.

SKU: AP.12-0571570488

ISBN 9780571570485. English.

This second set of Danceries continues the format established in Danceries (Set I), namely in using material taken from Playford's Dancing Master, a collection of folk and popular tunes published in the seventeenth century, to form the basis of an extended dance suite. In this set, the melodies are more abstract and project only a distant echo of their original forms, but as before, each movement is self-contained, colorful and direct, with its own distinct mood. The outer movements---Jennie's Bawbee and Peascod's Galliarda----share a use of driving percussion writing with a military air. Tom Tinker's Toye and Heart's Ease (movements two and three) are both settings of original melodies. All movements are more extended than in the first set, with a freer use and approach to the material; melodies now occur in various keys and are supported by a greater variety of harmonic coloring. The result is a richer, even more exhilarating set of dances. Danceries has come of age! Arranged for wind band.

SKU: AP.12-0571569889

ISBN 9780571569885. English.

The formal shape of Hesketh's Elegy for brass band and percussion is built on mounting intensification of melodic lines as each section follows from another, with varying colors and intensity. It was prepared for the UK's Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass 2009, where the premiere was given by the Desford Colliery Band, conducted by Russell Gray.

SKU: HL.14014846

UPC: 884088443061. 6.75x9.75x0.044 inches.

For SATB Choir with Piano or Organ accompaniment. A lively setting of an English translation of Les Anges dans nos campagnes.

SKU: HL.49044074

ISBN 9790220134586. UPC: 841886021976. 9.0x12.0x0.075 inches.

Stimulated by my love of automata, this work for solo oboe takes its name from the invention of Wolfgang von Kempelen, who in the late eighteenth century constructed an extraordinary mechanical man powered by clockwork, dressed in a stylish Turkish costume and capable of playing chess. The chess player turned out to be a fraud but sparked many other thinkers and inventors to pondering what the possibilities of automation might be. In Hesketh's highly virtuosic work, the through-composed melody is subjected to a series of distortions by pulleys, cams, gears and cranks. There are also the onomatopoeic effects of winding up and whirring noises that add to the air of the mechanical.

SKU: HL.49019790

ISBN 9790220133541. UPC: 888680009366. 9.0x12.0x0.402 inches.

SKU: HL.49015496

ISBN 9781423419648. 9.0x12.0x0.069 inches.

This short piano work is one of Hesketh's most successful, taken from his opera The Overcoat - it would be an ideal opener to any recital programme.

SKU: HL.49018675

ISBN 9790220132599. 9.0x12.0x0.068 inches.

The title of this work is a reference to the poem Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. Important images from the poem are freely connected to suggest musical gestures and contours. Such phrases as perilous seas and plaintive anthem placed musically alongside each other give the work a continuity not suggested by the original poem. The topography in the last verse of the poem also finds its way into the work: Past the near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep The resulting work therefore utilises an organic and associative musical form, one that is dramatic and often capricious in nature. The work evaporates at its close - at Keats' instigation - through the words Fled is that music:- do I wake or sleep?. Through Magic Casements was written for William Cale on the occasion of his final recital at the Royal College of Music. 2009 KH.

SKU: HL.49017065

ISBN 9790220130571. 9.0x12.0x0.052 inches.

Taking his starting point from 17th century philosopher-poet Cyrano de Bergerac's 'Grandes Plaines du Jour', Hesketh powerfully fuses a huge range of performing and compositional techniques into this 12 minute work for solo violin. Inspired by Bergerac's imaginations of other worlds and utopian societies, the work explores extreme ranges and timbres whilst using techniques such as left hand pizzicato and natural harmonics. Open-fifth material, which is natural to the instrument, is prominent and short duets alternating between arco and pizzicato figures add yet another dimension.

SKU: HL.49012970

ISBN 9790220123290. UPC: 073999266061. 9.0x12.0x0.095 inches.

Each of the 'Three Japanese Miniatures' is a new challenge to the pianist: In each piece, a different playing technique is developed in a subtle and concentrated way. I Temple Music * II The cradle rocks... * III Little Bumbuku.