Three Contemporary Latin Settings

SKU: AP.29638S

ISBN 9780739050972. UPC: 038081322872. English.

This cycle is a setting of three contrasting poems by Latin-American poets Leopoldo Lugones, Rube én Dari ío and Jose é Marti í. Olas Grises uses evocative rain and sea imagery to meditate on the nature of life and death. Set as a lyrical, quasi-strophic song, these images are portrayed through the opening percussion raindrop motive and the moaning vocal line used throughout the movement. Nocturno is a frantic soliloquy set as an extended opera scene. The opening recitative is followed by a surreal aria. This is followed by a re-statement of both sections. Suen ño Despierto is a short poem about the contrasting images of a waking dream. Based on a fragment of the lullaby Nanita Nana, heard in its entirety at the opening, the song is a set of three variations, followed by a coda, which portray these various images. Three Spanish Songs was commissioned by Michael Haithcock and the University of Michigan Symphony Band. This is the recital/rehearsal version of this piece. The vocal solo with wind ensemble accompaniment is also available (00-29639/$150).

SKU: CA.2780200

ISBN 9790007167783.

Toda y Monteverdi's Selva morale et spirituale (1641) stands entirely in the shadow of his famous Vespers 1610. The editions from 1610 and 1641 both include music for the Mass and Vespers, but each of these collections was composed under much different circumstances during Monteverdi's lifetime. If the works of 1610 are a bold combination of traditional compositional techniques and avant garde music, which were intended by this weary Court Composer at Mantua as an application portfolio for a new job, the 1641 collection is the only church music by the mature Monteverdi which was published after almost thirty years in his position as Music Director of St. Mark's Cathedral: the latter, a kind of best of collection from his many years of experience as a church musician. In Venice the composer had not only a fabulous, but a large ensemble at his disposal (finally, about 35 singers, alone)! The big effect in this music is the combination of soloistic and weighty tutti sections, it makes the music, with its clearly defined sections and, for the most part homophonic choral passages more easily performable than the Vespers for today's choirs. The new edition, comprised initially of three volumes, also includes those works from the Selva Morale (a Mass and two Magnificats) which have already been published by Carus, as well as all further liturgical compositions for use in the church. The present volume, Salmi I, contains each of the first of the multiple settings of the psalms, as well as the Credidi. The edition is based on the methods employed in the much acclaimed Carus edition of the Vespers: * It contains a detailed foreword with suggestions for notation, scoring and for the liturgical use of individual compositions. * For the present edition four of the five surviving printed copies, as well as contemporary manuscript were consulted. Facsimiles illustrate special characteristics of the edtion of 1641. A Critical Report makes clear all of the editorial decisions made in the edition. * All of the pieces are printed untransposed and using the original note values. * All of the pieces are available in single editions with complete performance material. * Vocal scores of all works with obbligato instruments facilitate rehearsal. * Instrumental parts for collaparte accompaniment of tutti-sections (including text underlay).

SKU: HL.14018993

ISBN 9788759850978. 7.25x10.25x0.061 inches. Latin.

This set of three motets for unaccompanied male choir sets the Latin words for the De Profundis, Ave Maria and Laudate and manifests Lewkovitch's fascination both with chant and with modality.Contemporary Danish composer, conductor and Organist Bernhard Lewkovitch has followed a rare path among modern composers. From 1947 he was Organist at St Ansgars Kirches and later remained connected with the Catholic Church by working as an Organist. Clearly he is inspired by the Catholic liturgy and sees his great output of ecclesiastical music as a vocation and a great responsibility. For many years his work by inspired by Gregorian chant and was composed in church modes, then inthe mid 1950's he began to expand into modern bitonality and polytonality, culminating in Il cantico delle creature in 1962/3 in which there was no conventional notation and no fixed pitch. After that, Lewkovitch had somewhat of a hiatus, later returning again to the inspirations of the mid1950's.

SKU: PR.44641326L

UPC: 680160643349. 11 x 14 inches.

In January, 2005 at Stetson University, the TARAB Cello Ensemble performed a new music concert that was suberb and exhilarating. To the audience's dismay, the ensemble had no encore prepared (do any even exist?). I later found out that the group was comprised of recent Eastman School of Music graduates, many of whom I had conducted during the end of my academic tenure in Rochester. I was struck by the ensemble's determination to remain together to make music and, with their blessings, set out to rectify this omission in their repertoire. BEGUINE AGAIN is a Latin-American echo consisting of three choruses (the third becomes a little mixed up—as if the dancers momentarily part ways...) plus a Coda, and is roughtly four minutes in duration. The piece was stolen— and extended— from an excerpt of my 12-year-old PARLOR PIECES (1993); the score was completed in May of 2005 in Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida.

SKU: CA.965300

ISBN 9790007164881. Language: Latin.

For the moving moment in the Good Friday liturgy, when the priest symbolically washes the feet of several people thereby recalling the thoughtful, loving gesture of Christ at the Last Supper, the Christian church provides a specially intimate, conciliatory text in the antiphon Ubi caritas. Matsushita's composition sets this text quite simply to reflect this moment in a beautiful motet, which is both charming and grateful to sing. In an entirely tonal setting in F major, with chromatic accents sparingly employed, he uses elements from organum and pedal points to create tonally atmospheric expanses contrasting with the syllabic setting which runs throughout. In his writing he uses unisons, thirds and contrary motion, spanning quasi-Gregorian melodies. Matsushita sets the three verses of the hymn usually set nowadays, and these also divide the composition. Each verse is introduced with the ascending pentatonic motif Ubi caritas, but the melody is transformed according to the text and expresses the immeasurable joy of the glory of God in the third verse in a brief forte outburst with leaps of a fifth, before the composition concludes with a final Ubi caritas and an Amen lost in reverie. voice range: S: c' - f'' / A1:adeg - es'' / A2: gdeg - b' / T: fdeg - f' / B1: B - des' / B2: F - a'.

SKU: PR.161000820

UPC: 680160610822. 9 x 12 inches. Text: Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez; Dan Welcher. Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez, Dan Welcher. Original story by Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez; Lyrics by Dan Welcher.

Commission ed for the Kingsville (TX) Independent School District and its thriving music department, Welcher has created A Musical Fable for Children, based upon a story by Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez. A narrator tells the tale of two children on opposite sides of the border and the magical creatures who allowed them to see as the other sees. Welcher uses musical themes and instruments to help identify the characters for the audience. The musical play was performed at the Kingsville campus, as well as six other elementary schools in the district.
The Need to See is a theater piece for children, featuring a narrator/singer and five instrumentalists. Designed to show children (aged 8-10) a fable about acceptance and diversity, the work also exposes children to live musicians in a highly portable, suitable-for-classroom theater piece.The narrator/singer begins by teaching the children a well-known Mexican folk tune, “Naranja Dulce”, which leads directly into the story.  The fable concerns two figures from folklore: Don Conejo (the rabbit god) and Don Coyote (the coyote god).  These two trickster/adversaries take on the task of helping Isabella, an American girl, and Tomàs, a Mexican boy, understand each other’s culture—by means of a trick.  The two children, living on opposite sides of the Rio Grande in Texas and Mexico, have been taught to fear el otro lado (“the other side”), and to stay away from the river.  This causes both children to be nervous and afraid, and Conejo and Coyote decide to do something about that.Borrowing from another well-known tale, writer Santiago Vaquera-Vàsquez has the two trickster-deities perform a bit of hocus-pocus, exchanging the two childrens’ eyes for one day, so they can “see” through someone else’s perspective.  The result, told in two languages with narration, song, and constant music, allows the children in the audience to participate as singers, and also as spectators to a tale that has relevance and contemporary meaning.   Employing three familiar songs from Latin American culture (“Naranja Dulce”, “Tengo una Muñeca”, and “Mambru se fue a la Guerra”), the piece takes its audience on a journey both familiar and new—and ultimately enlightening.

SKU: CA.4041819

ISBN 9790007218447. Language: Latin.

After musical training in Naples Niccolo Jommelli began to make his name as an opera composer from the end of the 1730ies onwards. From 1750 until 1753 he was assistant director of music at St. Peter's, Rome, and responsible for the music at the Cappella Giulia - years which were decisive for Jommelli's sacred music. During those years he also composed the three-movement setting of the Whitsun hymn Veni Creator Spiritus for solo soprano, mixed-voice choir, string orchestra and continuo. It is marked by the maturity of the writing for the solo voice, modelled on the example of composers such as Johann Adolf Hasse, and by stylistic hallmarks of Jommelli's music, such as his relatively simple yet highly effective choral writing. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.4041800.

SKU: PR.446413260

UPC: 680160643332. 9 x 12 inches.

In January, 2005 at Stetson University, the TARAB Cello Ensemble performed a new music concert that was suberb and exhilarating. To the audience's dismay, the ensemble had no encore prepared (do any even exist?). I later found out that the group was comprised of recent Eastman School of Music graduates, many of whom I had conducted during the end of my academic tenure in Rochester. I was struck by the ensemble's determination to remain together to make music and, with their blessings, set out to rectify this omission in their repertoire. BEGUINE AGAIN is a Latin-American echo consisting of three choruses (the third becomes a little mixed up—as if the dancers momentarily part ways...) plus a Coda, and is roughtly four minutes in duration. The piece was stolen— and extended— from an excerpt of my 12-year-old PARLOR PIECES (1993); the score was completed in May of 2005 in Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida.