SKU: PR.11642154S
UPC: 680160689897.
SKU: PR.11440615S
UPC: 680160009824. 9.5 x 13 inches.
SKU: PR.11641139L
UPC: 680160682126.
Barca rolles for a Sinking City was inspired by the city of Venice, a place that has long held the fascination of artists, writers and composers, and which I have been lucky enough to visit on several occasions. Sadly it seems that future generations may not be so lucky: in addition to the city's slow sinking and recently discovered tilting, studies predict that if global warming and the resultant rise of ocean levels is unabated, the entire city (as well as many other coastal cities around the globe) will be under water by 2100. I. Funeral Gondola The late, cryptic piano works of Franz Liszt made a profound impression on me as a young composer, among them two works he entitled La Lugubre Gondola (usually translated as The Funeral Gondola ) which were said to be a premonition of Wagner's death in Venice, his coffin transported through the canals in a black gondola. These late pieces of Liszt acquired even greater significance to me after I spent two summers in Bayreuth under the patronage of Friedelind Wagner, the granddaughter of Wagner and great-granddaughter of Liszt. This movement is a meditation on Wagner, Liszt, Venice and its own evanescence. II. Barcarolle/Quodlibet The Quodlibet (Latin for what pleases) is a musical form dating back to the 15th century where many disparate melodies are juxtaposed. Popular in the Renaissance, sacred and secular melodies were combined, often to comical effect due to the resultant incongruity of the words. The form was considered the ultimate test of a composer's mastery of counterpoint. The most famous Quodlibet is without doubt the final Variation of Bach's Goldberg Variations. As a form the Quodlibet is less common in more recent music, although examples can be found in the works of Kurt Weill and David Del Tredici. My own Barcarolle/Quodlibet was inspired by the (perhaps apocryphal) story of the funeral where musicians were asked to play a Bach Choral, but due to miscommunication played instead the Bacarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann. Here, the Bach Choral Allen Menschen mussen sterben (All Men Must Die) is heard in the strings pizzicato, with a tempo indication In slow motion. The alto line of the Bach suggests a phrase from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Alle Menchen werden Bruder) heard in the muted trombone. Before long, the famous tune from Offenbach's opera is heard, followed by quotations from iconic Barcarolles by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Faure, as well as two Venetian popular songs and more Beethoven. III. Barcarola/Ostinato/Carill on An ostinato is a repeated musical figure, and carillon is Italian for music box. This movement references the obsolete genre of salon pieces that imitated music boxes: such works by composers like Liadov and Gretchaninov used to be a mainstay of pianists' encore repertoire. This movement is however much darker in conception than those pleasant trifles. Utilizing the full battery of percussion, the carefully notated temporal slowing of the ostinato becomes overwhelmed by a poignant chorale melody before this box is snapped shut. IV. Barcarolle Oubliee (Forgotten Barcarolle) Marked limpido (still) the final movement begins with the sound of rain produced by a percussion instrument called (appropriately) a rain stick. Halting phrases in the harp coalesce into the accompaniment for a plangent melody heard in the clarinet. The central Adagio of this movement leads to a shattering climax, before the opening phrases return and dissipate into nothingness.
SKU: PR.11642154L
UPC: 680160689903.
SKU: PR.41641376L
UPC: 680160607884.
Writt en for virtuoso clarinetist Jon Manasse of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, Liebermann's new clarinet concerto is a 32-minute exploration of the depths and colors of clarinet concerto writing, featuring dazzling, sprightly passages. The present study score is large enough to read easily and the solo part with piano reduction are available separately.
SKU: PR.114419790
UPC: 680160681945.
SKU: PR.41641369L
UPC: 680160587001. 11 x 17 inches.
Orchestral score and parts available on rental from the publisher.
SKU: PR.110418200
ISBN 9781491111505. UPC: 680160667574.
Liebe rmann was commissioned by the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation for an exam piece to be played by each contestant at the Eighth New York International Piano Competition, which took place in June, 2016 at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. The First Prize Winner, Aristo Sham, also won the award for Best Performance of Commissioned Work, so it fell to him to give the first public performance of the work. Mr. Liebermann, a fine pianist himself, writes some of the most idiomatic piano music today, so any contestant would be delighted to be assigned the Two Impromptus as a 'test piece.' (Rorianne Schrade, New York Concert Review).
SKU: PR.416415280
UPC: 680160625871. 8.5 x 11 inches.
SKU: PR.114415370
UPC: 680160606191. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: PR.41641381L
UPC: 680160590889. 11 x 14 inches.
Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, English Horn, 2 Clarinets in B-flat, Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Percussion (5 players): Slapstick, Claves, Snare Drum, Cymbals, Bass Drum, Cow Bell, Tubular Bells, Marimba, Xylophone, Woodblock, Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Bongo Drums, Large Gong, Tambourine, Ratchet, Brakedrum, Small Triangle, Vibraslap, Harp, Piano doubling Celesta, Strings.
SKU: PR.114410380
UPC: 680160015160. 9.5 x 13 inches.
My second String Quartet was written twenty years after the first, Opus 4 from 1978. The First Quartet is an obsessively contrapuntal work in one movement, which was no doubt influenced by my studies with David Diamond. I had always intended to return to the medium once I left the astringency of my earlier style, but it was only when the National Federation of Music Clubs commissioned a major chamber work, with unspecified instrumentation, to celebrate their 100th Anniversary that I was enabled to do so. The Second Quartet is in four movements: Moderato, Allegro isterico, an Andante theme with 11 variations, and the closing Allegro, which then returns to the tempo of the first movement. An audience member at the premiere told me that she heard echoes of recent tragic events such as the Oklahoma bombing in this work. While I had no such programmatic intent while writing the quartet, it was not an entirely incorrect assessment of the work's intended emotional impact. The quartet is pervaded by a sense of seriousness, even mournfulness. The second movement's scherzo is an aggressively animated piece of musical machinery. The third movement's Variations unfold into a greater variety of moods than the others - but the moments of lyricism are countered by aggressive or ironic outbursts. The final movement's attempt at triumph quickly subsides into a return of the first movement, before being transformed onto a sense of resignation and acceptance as the chromaticism of the opening theme is transformed into a pure and diatonic C-Major. The work received its world premiere by the Shanghai Quartet at the 100th Anniversary Congress of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on August 19th 1998.My second String Quartet was written twenty years after the first, Opus 4 from 1978. The First Quartet is an obsessively contrapuntal work in one movement, which was no doubt influenced by my studies with David Diamond. I had always intended to return to the medium once I left the astringency of my earlier style, but it was only when the National Federation of Music Clubs commissioned a major chamber work, with unspecified instrumentation, to celebrate their 100th Anniversary that I was enabled to do so.The Second Quartet is in four movements: Moderato, Allegro isterico, an Andante theme with 11 variations, and the closing Allegro, which then returns to the tempo of the first movement.An audience member at the premiere told me that she heard echoes of recent tragic events such as the Oklahoma bombing in this work. While I had no such programmatic intent while writing the quartet, it was not an entirely incorrect assessment of the work’s intended emotional impact. The quartet is pervaded by a sense of seriousness, even mournfulness. The second movement’s scherzo is an aggressively animated piece of musical machinery. The third movement’s Variations unfold into a greater variety of moods than the others – but the moments of lyricism are countered by aggressive or ironic outbursts. The final movement’s attempt at triumph quickly subsides into a return of the first movement, before being transformed onto a sense of resignation and acceptance as the chromaticism of the opening theme is transformed into a pure and diatonic C-Major.The work received its world premiere by the Shanghai Quartet at the 100th Anniversary Congress of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on August 19th 1998.
SKU: PR.41641362L
SKU: PR.416413860
UPC: 680160607914.
Picco lo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, English Horn, 3 Clarinets in Bb, Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns in F, 4 Trumpets in C, 2 Trombones, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Timpani, 3 Percussion, Piano/Celesta, Harp, Strings.
SKU: PR.111402320
UPC: 680160607969. Poems by Hermann Melville. Poems by Hermann Melville.
SKU: PR.114419910
ISBN 9781491135242. UPC: 680160687343.
SKU: PR.111401390
UPC: 680160002863. 9 x 12 inches. Poems by William Butler Yeats.
This work was commissioned by Susan and Elihu Rose. It was written at the request of tenor Robert White, to whom it is dedicated. It was premiered at Alice Tully Hall on February 17, 1993 by Robert White, James Galway, the Lark Quartet and pianist Brian Zeger. It was actually Miss Alice Tully's suggestion that some settings of Yeats would be lovely that prompted me to look at these poems. I was at once struck by their intense lyric beauty and decided immediately to use them for this work. The six poems were chosen from Yeats' 1899 collection The Wind Among the Reeds. Dealing with unrequited love, these particular poems have hints of the mystic preoccupations which were to become more prominent in Yeats' later work. Scored for an ensemble consisting of Flute, Piano and String Quartet, it was my intention that the beauty and clarity of the poetry should be matched by a directness of musical expression which would not overwhelm the poems. The instrumental writing makes no attempt at tone painting but rather provides a colorful but often austere psychological background to the tenor's melodies which are at times almost folk-like in their simplicity. The work is unified as a cycle not only by its tonal structure, but also through harmonic and motivic elements that the individual songs share.
SKU: PR.11441980S
UPC: 680160682065.
SKU: PR.114423930
ISBN 9781491136348. UPC: 680160688883.
SKU: PR.41641386L
UPC: 680160607921.
SKU: PR.111402330
UPC: 680160608027. Poems by Stephen Crane. Poems by Stephen Crane.
SKU: PR.41541137L
UPC: 680160589678. 11 x 17 inches.
SKU: PR.417410320
UPC: 680160092734. Libretto by the composer, adapted from the novel by Oscar Wilde.
SKU: PR.11441425S
UPC: 680160607860.
