SKU: PR.140401330
ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.
Nathaniel 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: GI.G-7474
UPC: 785147747406. English. Text by H. Leslie Adams.
An interesting Christmas piece from the African-American series. It begins as a quiet lullaby in G-flat major and gradually goes into a brief triumph praise section in E major. Then back again to the quiet G-flat lullaby.
SKU: HL.35031925
ISBN 9781540013705. UPC: 888680719890. 6.75x10.5 inches.
Translating as “Hush” or “Quiet child, baby, little one,” this arrangement incorporates a South African folk song lullaby with additional original music using lyrics from another South African lullaby. The subtle percussion, included in the choral, is played lightly as the piece begins in unison, then a round, adding harmony and later a descant which provides a “heavenly” layer above the folk melody.
SKU: CF.SC92
ISBN 9781491162293. UPC: 680160921041.
Originally written for violin and piano, William Grant Still's Suite for Violin and Orchestra was inspired by significant artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Each of the three movements depict three sculptures created in the 1930s: Richmond Barthé’s African Dancer, Sargent Johnson’s Mother and Child, and Augusta Savage’s Gamin. The suite follows traditional fast-slow-fast Classical form. The first movement, African Dancer, illustrates the unrestrained urgency of the dancing figure using varying tempi and hints of the jazz. Mother and Child, later arranged for string orchestra alone, sings a gently syncopated melody in a soothing lullaby. The final movement, like the child in the sculpture Gamin, invokes mischievous and playful motifs with blues-infused fiddle techniques.
SKU: AP.46554
UPC: 038081531298. Swahili. Traditional Lesotho Lullaby.
A combination of the traditional Lesotho lullaby with some original words and music, this arrangement pairs a simple African text with English lyrics on the same topic. All parts sing in unison first, laying the groundwork for both two and three part canons which soon develop. Legato verses and a hushed bridge provide nice contrast to the form. Choreography is on Alfred's Movin' DVD.
About Alfred Choral Designs
The Alfred Choral Designs Series provides student and adult choirs with a variety of secular choral music that is useful, practical, educationally appropriate, and a pleasure to sing. To that end, the Choral Designs series features original works, folk song settings, spiritual arrangements, choral masterworks, and holiday selections suitable for use in concerts, festivals, and contests.
SKU: AP.46553
UPC: 038081531281. Swahili. Traditional Lesotho Lullaby.
SKU: AP.46556
UPC: 038081531311. Swahili. Traditional Lesotho Lullaby.
SKU: AP.46555
UPC: 038081531304. Swahili. Traditional Lesotho Lullaby.
SKU: SU.29110060
1. Sidestep Reel - In 19th Century America, the Afro-Celtic fiddle style was the centerpiece of many a dance. Reels and hornpipes were very popular forms. Their repetitive, even-metered rhythms were easy and fun to dance to, and their infectious singable melodies stayed in the mind and on the tongue. More adventurous fiddlers were given to syncopating on these forms by accenting off beats and by embellishing melodies with oddmetered note groupings. Syncopation is a fundamental rhythmic attitude of jazz and this movement is a celebration of that art. The melodic language is a home-grown concoction of commonality between traditional reels and hornpipes and the Baroque, Ragtime and the quartal concepts of Modern Jazz. 2. As the Wind Goes - the wistful late night song of a lullabye, a campfire song, a ballad...a spiritual. It is sung as if on the wind, yearning to experience once again that which will only ever again live as memory. 3. Jones’ Jig - the Irish Jig, the African 6/8 bell pattern, the shuffle rhythm of jazz and the drum style of Elvin Jones all play around with the relationship of 3 in the time-space of 2. The juxtaposition, negotiation and reconciliation of these opposing rhythmic perspectives create interesting musical relationships all over the globe. 4. Nicola’s Strathspey - In the traditional Strathspey, improvised embellishments, syncopated dotted rhythms and the use of space between notes create expectation, momentum and surprise. These same elements and their effect on the listener are the same in the blues. It seems like a natural marriage. 5. Bye Bye Breakdown - This is good ol’, Saturday night barn dance, hoedown fiddling. It revels in the whining cry of open double stops, in all types of musical onomatopoeia from train sounds to animal calls to country whistling, and in the steady 2/4 rhythm that is as basic as walking. The harmonic framework of several popular fiddle and folk tunes provide a practical grid for the cutting of challenging melodic and rhythmic figures. It is designed to tire fiddler and dancers out. Then we stomp our way home in varying states of delight and disrepair.Solo Violin Duration: 24' Composed: 2018 Published by: Wynton Marsalis (administered by Skayne's Music).
