Early American Suite

SKU: AP.31614S

UPC: 038081355184. English.

A musical postcard to the world! Your audiences will be thrilled with this early piece of Americana, and your musicians will love the colors and energy of this uniquely American music as imagined by the great Czech master following his visit to America in the 1890s. This work contains music inspired by African-American, Native-American and Scottish music and features three movements (I, IV and V) of Antonín Dvorák's original five-movement suite.

SKU: HL.4002870

UPC: 884088353032. 9x12 inches.

Commissione d by Prattville (Alabama) High School, this work in three movements pays tribute to that city's founder, Daniel Pratt, who was one of the leading industrialists of the early 1800s. Including movements entitled “Fanfare for a New Era,” “Ode: The Southern Landscape,” and “Perpetual Motion: Machines,” composer Johnnie Vinson uses creative scoring and intriguing sounds to recreate this period of American history in an impressive work for band. Duration: 7:30 (Grade 4).

SKU: PR.140401330

ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.

Natha niel Dett was among America’s leading composers in the early 20th century, and MAGNOLIA SUITE is a beautiful example of his rich, hybrid style. Deeply inspired by the music and mission of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dett’s piano music springs from the late Romantic traditions of florid texture and embellishment, along with programmatic titles and raw emotion. It is notable for melody writing inspired by and paraphrasing African-American song. The 18-minute MAGNOLIA SUITE contains five movements, any of which may also be performed separately. This edition by Lara Downes provides a clean, new engraving that corrects the many errors and unclear indications appearing in the historical printing.
Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in a place that was built on freedom. The little village of Drummondville, Ontario was founded by enslaved Africans – Dett’s ancestors among them – who traveled the Underground Railroad out of the American South into Canada. Their journey brought them to a safe haven, a place where fortunes and futures could be transformed in the span of one generation, to lives full of new possibilities. You could call it “the place where the rainbow ends,” which is the title of the last movement of Dett’s Magnolia Suite.When Dett wrote these pieces, he was a young teacher at Lane College in Tennessee, a historically Black college that had been founded in 1882, the year of his birth. A place built on freedom, with the purpose of educating newly-emancipated slaves – a place designed to nurture the blossoming of ideas, the vibrant flowering of minds set free. This music is inspired by the gorgeous splendor of the magnolia blooms on that college campus, and also by the shared histories, experiences, and aspirations of the community that Dett found there.These five pieces pay affectionate tribute to lineage and legacy. They express gratitude for the bittersweet beauties of the present; nostalgia for the past (a bit romanticized, as the past always is); and an effervescent optimism for the future that awaits us in the place where the rainbow ends.

SKU: SU.00220340

This CD Sheet Music™ collection brings together over 250 works for piano by Spanish and Latin American composers from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Works include: Albéniz (Cantos de España, Doce Piezas Características, España, Iberia, Mazurkas de Salón, Navarra, Recuerdos de Viaje); Cabezón; Falla (El Sombrero de Tres Picos, Nights in the Gardens of Spain, Pièces Espagnoles); Granados (Bocetos, Cuentos de la Juventud, Danzas Españolas, Escenas Poéticas, Books 1&2, Goyescas, Seis Piezas sobre Cantos Populares Españoles); Soler (Fandango); Turina (Coins de Séville, Contes d'Espagne, Danzas Fantasticas, Femmes d'Espagne, Suite Pittoresque); Villa-Lobos (Carnaval das Crianças, Danças Características Africanas, Histórias da Carochinha, Prole do Bebê, Volume 1, Simples Coletânea, Suíte Floral); Yradier, and more Also includes composer biographies and relevant articles from the 1911 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2000+ pages

Please note, customers using Macintosh computers running macOS Catalina (version 10.5) have reported hardware compatibility issues with this product. If you encounter these issues, we recommend copying the entire contents of the disk to a contained folder on a thumb drive or other storage device for use on your Mac.

SKU: SU.00220618

This CD Sheet Music collection brings together over 250 works for piano by Spanish and Latin American composers from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Works include: Albéniz (Cantos de España, Doce Piezas Características, España, Iberia, Mazurkas de Salón, Navarra, Recuerdos de Viaje); Cabezón; Falla (El Sombrero de Tres Picos, Nights in the Gardens of Spain, Pièces Españoles); Granados (Bocetos, Cuentos de la Juventud, Danzas Espñolas, Escenas Poéticas, Books 1&2, Goyescas, Seis Piezas sobre Cantos Populares Espñoles); Soler (Fandango); Turina (Coins de Séville, Contes d'Espagne, Danzas Fantasticas, Femmes d'Espagne, Suite Pittoresque); Villa-Lobos (Carnaval das Crianças, Danças Caracterí­sticas Africanas, Histórias da Carochinha, Prole do Bebê, Volume 1, Simples Coletânea, Suíte Floral); Yradier, and more Also includes composer biographies and relevant articles from the 1911 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2000+ pages.

SKU: GI.G-CD-434

Five suites of early American hymns in new settings for a cappella mixed chorus. As modes of worship developed in early America, so too did their song. With Sweet Manna, gifted composer, conductor, and teacher Alice Parker gives us a glimpse into the past with new settings of early American shape-note songs found in songbooks published between 1790 and 1830. From cheerful gathering songs like My God, the Spring of All My Joy and reflective pieces such as From Deep Distress and Troubled Thoughts, to the joyous march of My Soul, Triumphant in the Lord and the familiar strains of Brethren, We Have Met to Worship (HOLY MANNA), Sweet Manna echoes the lives and the faith of early settlers.All songs in this collection keep the original combination of tune and text found in the sourcebooks, and are beautifully arranged by Alice Parker. The majority of texts are hymns of Issac Watts, while tunes are mostly from anonymous sources. Sweet Manna, however, is best described in Alice Parker's own words, Barn dances and laments, love songs and lullabies, [these songs] speak directly to us over the intervening centuries, telling us once again to 'fill our tongues with praise.' .

SKU: HL.4003881

UPC: 888680010089. 9x12 inches.

Depicting three contrasting and intriguing settings from early American lore, Rick Kirby masterfully brings these images to life in this suite for band. The first movement tells the legend of The Phantom Drummer with unique orchestrational effects. The second movement, The Lady's Lament, mourns the loss of loved ones in the Revolutionary War, and the suite concludes with the lively dance Virginia Two-Step. Rich in stylistic and tonal variety, this is an appealing work for concert or festival use. Duration: 8:00.

SKU: ST.C463

ISBN 9790570814633.

This volume contains contrasting works by Federico Ruiz spanning quite a large and rich period of his compositional output that goes from his early Micro-Suite (1971), to lilting, sweet and rhythmic Venezuelan waltzes passing by the mysterious, intimate, and intense Nocturno (1994) plus pieces originally composed for film, and theatre. Real eclecticism in styles, moods and atmospheres that show Ruiz�??s talents and scope.

The Nocturno is a deep, intriguing, substantial piece presenting a satisfying length which moves from different paths of the mind and the heart written in an abstract, chromatic idiom, that does not dissociate itself from the Venezuelan waltz and the joropo. One could perhaps say that there is a deconstruction of the latter. For the interpretation, the composer has suggested to me that it is allowed to have some flexibility in the tempo. Ruiz kindly dedicated it to me, and I have had the pleasure of performing it in many concerts.

Although all highly expressive, the Three Venezuelan Waltzes present in this collection as well as the piece titled Aliseo, are works that are close to the colourful Venezuelan folk tradition. Federico Ruiz had given me two of them when we first met: �??Tu Presencia�?? (1981) and �??Eloísa�?? (1989) and then I attended a performance of the play �??Office Number One�?? by Miguel Otero Silva with a fantastic actor, Elba Escobar in the role of Carmen Rosa and, I just fell in love and was very moved by the incidental music that I later discovered, by reading the programme, had been written by Federico Ruiz. Later that evening, I called him and asked to please make a piano score of the composition, so I could have the desired piece in my hands. That is how �??Carmen Rosa�?� waltz (1987) came to exist in a piano version.

�??Eloisa �?? is another Venezuelan waltz with more jazzy harmonies where precision in the rhythm and elegant playing is also essential, as it is in most of his pieces.

�??Tu Presencia�?? was dedicated to his mother, Margarita. It is written with the structure of the Venezuelan waltz, which consists of a nostalgic subject that leads to a faster, happier middle section where the typical graceful rhythm is given by the left-hand accompaniment figure of a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver and a crotchet.

The craft and magic found in the five movements of the Micro-Suite is based on a dodecaphonic row by Ernst Krenek. They remind us of the idiom of the Second Viennese School. These real miniatures seem to tell short stories. The �??Preludio�?? is full of humour. I imagine dancing figures given by the jumps all over the keyboard and extreme dynamics; the phrases give the impression of a conversation with many questions and answers. The �??Invención�?? is a kaleidoscopic piece where the hands mirror each other. The �??Passacaglia�?? is the longest movement, at just over a minute where the prime motif is repeated three times on the bass line. For its construction Federico Ruiz uses as well the retrograde and the retrograde inversion of the twelve-tone series. It must be played expressively with dynamic contrasts between pianissimo and louder events. The �??Scherzo�?? has repetitive motifs of a minor third in both hands and the �??Final�?? displays virtuosic passages for the pianist.

Aliseo was originally written for the film �??Aire libre�?� (1995), by Luis Armando Roche. It contains elements of diverse types of Venezuelan joropo. In the film, the character of Aliseo Carvallo is played by the composer himself who performs this piece on a harpsichord to welcome scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland one day at the turn of the 1800�??s, as a sample of the new music from the South American land. It presents the refinement of the late European classical era in fusion with Venezuelan folk music.

SKU: KN.08719S

UPC: 822795087192.

As one of the best-known early American spirituals, this song embodies in word and music the emotions and convictions of the African-American people during the 19th century. The music is well suited to the ability of young players, both harmonically and rhythmically, and offers a wide range of dynamic levels. Duration 2:10. Available in SmartMusic.

SKU: PR.140401340

ISBN 9781491134450. UPC: 680160684953.

Best known for his settings of spirituals and influence on Dvorák, Henry T. Burleigh was a celebrated baritone, and a prolific composer of original works. FROM THE SOUTHLAND is a suite of six atmospheric scenes of the American south, inspired by Black musical and cultural traditions. FROM THE SOUTHLAND is within reach of intermediate pianists and artistically suited for professional recitals.
In 1835, Henry T. Burleigh’s maternal grandfather purchased his own release from slavery for the sum of $50, and traveled north out of Maryland to begin a new life as a free man. He established his family in Ithaca, NY, and then moved to the bustling lakefront city of Erie, PA, where three decades later his grandson Henry would be born and raised.For Burleigh, the “Southland” that inspired this collection of piano sketches was a distant place that could not have been more different from the physical world he knew, up there in the northern snowbelt. And yet these southern landscapes and vignettes must have been intensely present in his consciousness, absorbed through the stories and songs he first learned at his grandfather’s knee.The music of the South – the spirituals and work songs he heard as a child –would travel with Burleigh throughout his long and illustrious musical life. Even as he progressed through his early classical training, his career as a baritone soloist in Erie’s churches and synagogue, his move to New York to study at the National Conservatory of Music, and his rise to national prominence as a concert soloist, these ancestral melodies stayed firmly centered in his musical identity.When he wrote From the Southland, his only composition for solo piano, Burleigh was just beginning his career as a composer. The art songs that would establish him as one of America’s best known composers in the genre were still to come. And so were his iconic arrangements of spirituals that would bring the songs of slavery onto concert stages around the world, transformed into timeless and uniquely American music.These little piano sketches bring together all the things that made Burleigh the musician he was – the lush, late-romantic style of his time; a broad vision for American music; and a profound respect for his heritage, a memory of the world his grandfather left behind, and a love of the music he brought with him.

SKU: HL.44007393

UPC: 884088251611. 9x12 inches.

Intriguing modes, authentic rhythms and vivid orchestrational contrasts are hallmarks of James Curnow's masterfully-crafted Appalachian Dances. The enchanting authentic Appalachian fiddle melodies are a musical treasure well worth reviving and bringing to the concert band stage. Snap rhythms recall the early heritage of hill country music in the first movement, which is followed by a richly harmonized air. The piece concludes with a rollicking third movement. In addition to being a memorable addition to your concert program, Appalachian Dances is just plain FUN to play. American musical heritage on display!