SKU: PR.110417650
ISBN 9781491111482. UPC: 680160615797. 9x12 inches.
Commissione d by Piano & Keyboard magazine, Amlin’s EIGHT VARIATIONS is a charming 5-minute piece designed to be within reach of intermediate pianists. The work begins with a fascinating chorale in true Amlin style — a study in major-seventh chords in varied inversions and everchanging harmony. The result is a theme that is at once beautiful, fresh, and always moving forward. Seven characteristic variations follow, subjecting the original chord progression through the guises of a Habanera, a Bach-style invention, and further treats. [ADDITION] Andrew Willis has recorded EIGHT VARIATIONS for Albany Records, on a CD also including the works listed below.
SKU: HL.49015404
ISBN 9790001082327.
SKU: BT.MUSACF017434
French.
Bach 's Inventions is a collection of 15 Two-Part and 15 Three-Part pieces. Originally composed as pedagogical exercises for his students, their contrapuntal composition still works brilliantly as an introduction and practice in counterpoint. Bach wrote the Inventions as a way for his students to practise playing in two parts, then, after some progress, in three parts; with an end goal of becoming more accomplished at composition. The two groups of pieces are arranged in order of ascending key, with each covering eight major and seven minor keys.
SKU: ST.Y291
ISBN 9790220223372.
CONT ENTS 1. Blackbird (Anne Stevenson) (b - g) 2. The moon is distant (Emily Dickinson) (b - g sharp) 3. Bird in hand (Anne Stevenson) (e flat - g flat) 4. On not being able to look at the moon (Anne Stevenson) (b - g) For medium voice and piano or ensemble of flute, harp and string quartet, Moon and Birds is a substantial cycle of songs to words by Anne Stevenson and Emily Dickinson. Its sequence of four settings, 'Blackbird', 'The moon is distant' (Dickinson), 'Bird in hand' and 'On not being able to look at the moon' unfolds a symmetrical structure of contrasting yet interlocking moods in which the reflective second and fourth numbers, lunar visions of mystic tranquillity flawed by doubt and pain, temper with human frailty the bright epiphanies of the first and third songs. There is a fascinating challenge here for the performer to embrace both elation and gravitas in a single reading, Samuel's vigorous musical invention binding the developing web of feeling with its own formal strengths and subtly illustrative moments. In the version for string quartet, flute and harp, first performed by Contemporary Connections on 4 November 2011 at St James's Church Piccadilly, the flute takes a prominent role throughout. Violins, viola and cello at times elaborate on the simpler textures of the keyboard version, though the two scores remain entirely compatible. The bluesy harmonies of the concluding number, whether weighted by sonorous string quartet or profiled in edgier piano chords, bring the cycle to a sombre conclusion with a proper sense of an emotional world traversed.
SKU: UT.NAP-5
ISBN 9790215318465. 9 x 12 inches.
Napoli e l'Europa (Naples and Europe) - Masterpieces of the Neapolitan School selected by Riccardo Muti for the Salzburg Whitsun Festival Project in association with the Ravenna Festival Betulia liberata, for four voices, strings, two oboes, two horns and basso continuo, was the second oratorio by Niccolo Jommelli (1714-1774), following Isacco figura del Redentore. It was composed in 1743 to a commission from the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratorio of Saint Philip Neri, and was widely performed in Italy throughout the 18th century, as well as in Prague and in London. Metastasio's text proved popular with composers, and Jommelli's version of this text is one of the most felicitous on account of its impact, variety and consistent inventiveness, and also for the care he took in matching the music to the drama.The brilliant combination of different styles and forms, the attention to dramatic characterisation, and the power of invention displayed by Jommelli in Betulia liberata make him the foremost Italian composer of the mid-eighteenth century, pre-eminence recognised by the music critics and historians of his age.
SKU: C4.9790902260312
ISBN 9790902260312. 8.27 x 11.7 inches.
Michael Leighton Jones has created a brilliant sequence of six Marian works that take their lead from their plainsong counterparts. These wonderfully reflective and carefully-crafted motets take the practice of fauxbourdon in new directions, with free harmonic invention linking old to new in a beautifully warm soundworld. Motets may be performed individually on feast days or within the appropriate liturgical season, or the whole sequence can make an effective frame for a concert programme.
SKU: BR.EB-8746
ISBN 9790004181584. 12 x 9 inches.
Whether for "Clementine," "Amazing Grace," the "Drunken Sailor" or Spanish folklore - in "Four for One," Felice Deho has created four stimulating guitar accompaniments for each of the eight traditional and three original melodies. The four different accompaniments to each song are clearly arranged on one (double) page so that the player can easily shift between the different versions while playing. An experienced guitarist and teacher, Deho subtly increases the level of difficulty in each of his suggested patterns. The book can thus be used in a number of ways: for beginners and more advanced players, as well as for teaching single students or groups. In addition to being fun to play with others, "Four for One" is intended to provide performers with models that will stimulate them to invent their own accompaniments.
SKU: BR.DV-32027
ISBN 9790200425192. 9 x 12 inches.
Bicinia - unaccompanied duos - have been known to us from the fifteenth century onwards. So quite early on it was customary tu practise this type of musical exercise, which later, especially during the Romantic period, achieved great popularity as the duo or duett. Equal numbers of this sort of instrumental duo were composed for nearly all wind and string instruments. On the other hand, only a small amount of compositions for two trumpets have come down to us. In order to play any music which progresses beyond pure fanfare on a natural (valueless) trumpet, it is necessary to make use of the clarion register (the top third of the natural harmonic). And if such a melody is to be accompanied by a second part, only the few natural notes lying below it are left, or else this high register itself, which calls for great virtuosity on the part of the trumpeter. As well as this, we must remember the fact that trumpet-playing was only allowed for the trumpeters of a royal court, army, staff, or for the field-trumpeter of a prince, plus a few council, city, and church musicians, who were bound by strict guild and corporation rules. Thus in spite of the preference for its festive sound, the spread and handing down of trumpet music was almost reduced to nothing under these circumstances. As well as this, pride of place and profession rivalry and envy amongst musicians contributed in large part. In England the situation was somewhat freer. Here pretty little trumpet duos originated, including, amongst others, those written by Handel for his master-trumpeter Valentin Snow and the Royal Sergeant-trumpeters of the Shore family. An especially happy exception was the diocese of Olmiitz. Here there was a capable group of musicians of the chapel royal with the brilliantly talented group of trumpeters and the field-trumpeter Pavel Vajvanovsky, who also composed himself. These trumpeters in the service of his prince-bishop played many sacred and secular pieces, all for several instruments. It was for them also that Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber wrote the 12 double trumpet sonatas we present here. On the other hand, the representatives of the authorities in Germany ensured strict observation of all edicts and regulations. Even the celebrated Bach-trumpeter and towm-piper Gottfried Reiche was never allowed to be portrayed with a proper trumpet due to the priveleges of court and field trumpeters. In order to represent him as one of the greatest masters of his time and art, however, the painter placed an instrument similar to a corno-di-caccia in his hand, together with a sheet with a small piece for virtuoso clarion. When we try in spite of these difficulties and adverse circumstances to gather a collection of musically valuable and characteristic examples of popular pieces for two trumpets from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is in the first, place in order to acquaint modern trumpeters with something of the wealth of music, which can also be well played on a modern trumpet with valves. The originally used trumpets correspond to modern ones in the keys of C and D, but this does not mean that many of the pieces cannot be transposed to a more comfortable register. On top of this, we have tried to give a picture of the baroque court and field trumpeter, as well as of the mysterious clarion trumpeter, with the help of musically popular material. The origin of most of the pieces used is no longer clearly discernable. In most cases we possess second- or third-hand copies which have been handed down, and show signs of frequent use. A few cases where modernization of the second part obviously did not take place until the invention of stops, have been re-shaped into their supposed original form. A series of further dynamic details were left, and marked as optional suggestions in brackets. Kurt Janetzkyz.T. mit Pauken und B.c.
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.50601915
UPC: 888680938420.
SKU: AP.12-0571540791
ISBN 9780571540792. English.
This set of inventive and hugely contrasting études for solo violin were written by Tom Coult between 2010 and 2014, the last two as commissions from the London Sinfonietta. The final piece in this eight-minute collection is the most unusual: serene and meditative, it utilizes a novel technique by which the player sustains hushed three-note chords.
SKU: FP.FLJ10
ISBN 979-0-57050-192-2.
For many years a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Joan Last was widely admired for her skill and vast experience in the teaching of young beginners and adults alike. Here she provides eight short inventions introducing the contrapuntal style in a simple, attracive form. Suggested grade 1-2.
