Christmas Landscapes

SKU: FG.55011-455-5

ISBN 9790550114555.

This cycle of carols, to the poetry of Christina Rossetti, was assembled piecemeal over a number of years, gradually acquiring a larger dramatic and harmonic arch shape as new settings were added. I was particularly attracted to Rossetti's conflation of the dark, fallow winter landscape with that of the soul waiting for salvation. The cycle traces the long nights of watchfulness before Christmas, with the great event constantly deferred, only glimpsed periodically in different visions before the music turns inward again to contemplation. The opening carol embodies this spirit, with passages of diffuse, roving harmony interspersed with meditative, lyrical pedals, calling out the night watch and dreaming of a far-off summer of the spirit. Earth Grown Old is a kind of double carol, setting two complete poems, their lines at first presented separately as a still, expectant chorale and a jubilant dance, then progressively interwoven toward a fervent climax before once again receding into quiet. In the bleak mid-winter, which sets a highly compressed version of Rossetti's original poem, presents an enfeebled landscape frozen in time, in dire need of deliverance. A gentle melody weaves its way through static drones, broken by an angels' chorus announcing the joy to come. Love Came Down at Christmas ends the waiting, with its gently falling, overlapping lines building to a final revelation, the mystery of Christmas at last made real.

SKU: SU.12800022

BachScholar Editions Vol. 22 – 24 Four-Part Chorales | Advent & Christmas (33 pages) is a beautifully laid-out landscape volume with spiral binding consisting of 24 selected four-part chorales by J.S. Bach appropriate for the seasons of Advent and Christmas. Each chorale is notated in two parts for beginners (soprano and bass lines, fingerings indicated) followed by the original four-part chorale. The volume also includes an introduction from the editor plus a table of contents with historical information about the hymn tunes and their first performances in Bach’s cantatas. Ideal for piano and organ teachers and students, as well as for theory and keyboard classes at the college level. Published by: BachScholar Publishing, LLC.

SKU: FG.55011-355-5

Asked to contribute a carol to the already rich Finnish Christmas repertoire, music I've sung myself for many years, I was very aware of the things that mark the season for my adopted countrymen: peace, stillness, the cold landscape and home. When I came across Ester Ahokainen's gentle poem, so focused around these images, it seemed like providence. The resulting song is modest and warmly modal, departing only a little from Finnish tradition: a lingering dissonance here, a moment of quiet sentiment held slightly longer expected there. Like the words, the music opens outward in thanks at the end. Aattoilta was composed for the Helsinki Chamber Choir Christmas CD recording, and is dedicated to them.

SKU: FP.FDD02

ISBN 9790570503834.

Vern on Park, Stockport’s oldest park, was created on land donated by Lord Vernon (George John Warren). It was built by poor mill workers who called it pinch-belly park and opened on 20th September 1858. Comprising twenty-one acres, it houses a museum, a bandstand, ornamental fountains, a fernery, rockery, borders and sunken rose garden as well terraced walkways that overlook the river and weir. The piece depicts a solitary walker engrossed in his own thoughts on a winter’s day, the landscape, and the park’s Victorian past.

At the very end of the piece a reminder of the park’s Victorian origins can be detected in a quote from Elgar’s Salut d’amour of 1899, which may well have been played by a band in the bandstand. Stockport market celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2010. It dated back to September 1260 when a Royal Charter allowed Robert de Stokeport, the Mayor, to hold a weekly market within the defensive walls of the Norman Castle on the present site of Castle Yard.

The Glass Umbrella was a popular name given to the 1861 covered market built of timber, glass and iron - nine bays with open sides and a glass canopy. In 1912, one bay was removed to enable electric trams and trolley buses to turn a sharp corner.

The piece depicts a lively market day, the multiculturalism of the present day and the old cries of pick and pay without delay. The bells of St Mary’s Church are depicted by a cascading peel tuned to the ten bells of the church tower, and a fleeting reference to John Wainwright’s famous Christmas hymn Christians Awake, and the Westminster chimes striking the hour from St Mary’s, bring to piece to a conclusion. Separate parts are provided for recorder and oboe.

SKU: ST.EC66

ISBN 9780852499726.

EECM 65 and EECM66 revisit the repertoire of the ground-breaking volumes 6 and 10 in the series, Early Tudor Organ Music, in the light of 60 years of continuing research and deeper understanding of the surviving corpus. Some 109 works are brought together here, in the order in which they appear in each manuscript â?? British Library Additional MS 29996 accounting for three-quarters of the content, plus 22 works from other sources. There are settings for the Office (antiphons, hymns, the Te Deum and Magnificat) and Mass ordinary and propers (particularly the Offertory).

The format is of the same dimensions as other EECM volumes, although presented in landscape for more practical use. EECM66 contains Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Lenten hymns from Add. MS 29996, and 22 pieces from other sources. Three appendices include intabulated pieces, plainchant melodies, and hymns and faburdens.

In addition to numerous anonymous titles, composers found in these volumes include Avery Burnett, Robert Coxsun, William Kyrton, Thomas Preston, John Redford, Philip ap Rhys, Edmund Strowger, Thomas Tallis, John Thorne, Robert White and Richard Wynslate.

SKU: CF.CM9016

ISBN 9780825864131. UPC: 798408064136. 6.875 X 10.5 inches. Key: A minor. Text: Christina Rossetti. Christina Rossetti.

A remarkable a cappella setting of Christina Rossetti's celebrated poem, this original work employs such contemporary techniques as un-pitched whispering and unmeasured passages to convey the bleak winter landscape that is transformed by the birth of Jesus. An unusual and unique treatment of a beautiful text that will amaze and inspire listener and choir alike.

SKU: AP.12-0571520634

ISBN 9780571520633. English.

A Garland of Carols is a homage to Benjamin Britton's Ceremony of Carols. Written by Anthony Bolton, best known as one of the UK's most successful fund managers, it includes a translation of the traditional Portuguese carol Beijai o menino, as well as original works such as Lanterns which evokes a barren winter landscape from which we are transported to a more mystical land in the middle section. Though originally written for trebles, the carols work equally well for female voices.

This is the harp part only.