Call To Remembrance

SKU: HL.35028697

UPC: 884088861742. 4.75x5.5 inches.

Uses: Holy Week, Maundy Thursday

Scripture: Luke 22:7-23

The drama and emotion of the Last Supper is on full display in this dramatic anthem from the best-selling cantata Harvest of Sorrows. An important solo theatrically becomes the voice of the Savior as he celebrates the Passover with his chosen disciples. The choir provides sonorous underpinnings giving the work a sense of scope and power. Available separately: SATB, StudioTrax CD, Orchestration CD-ROM (Score & parts for Flute 1&2, Oboe, Clarinet 1&2, Bassoon, Horn 1&2, Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2&3, Trombone 1&2, Bass Trombone/Tuba, Timp, Perc 1&2, Harp, Piano, Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Double Bass). Duration: ca. 4:34.

SKU: MN.56-0119

UPC: 688670221477. English.

Unconditional Love is Howard Goodall’s heartfelt cantata of gratitude and remembrance, a poignant reflection upon the COVID-19 crisis. It seeks both to give thanks to those who sacrificed their lives in the aid of others and to offer solace to the grieving. Yet unifying each of its seven movements is a call to hope and to moving forward in a world rebuilt. The cantata commemorates the selflessness and togetherness felt by communities across the world during the pandemic, communities that offer their thanksgiving in many different ways. It is hoped that Unconditional Love’s universal messages will resonate with choirs of all kinds and in all places, for many years to come.

SKU: SU.80101356

A meditative setting of Psalm 25:6-7 (in a translation from the 1539 Great Bible).SATB Chorus & Organ Composed: 2009 Published by: Zimbel Press Minimum order quantity: 8 copies. Perusal copies are available by contacting perusalrequest@subitomusic.com (include the organization name with your request). To order quantities fewer than 8, please call customer service at (973) 857-3440.

SKU: BR.CHB-5344

ISBN 9790004412749. 7.5 x 10.5 inches. German.

Compendium Choral MusicKurt Thomas's Kleine Geistliche Chormusik is a collection of 20 motets that covers the whole of the liturgical year from Advent until Remembrance Day, including church-related occasions such as marriage, consecration day and funeral. Most motets are composed for four-part choir a cappella, some of them, however, are accompanied by organ, violin and/or flute. Nos. 2 and 5 are also scored for soprano solo and no. 18 for baritone (ad lib.). The exact scoring is often kept open since Thomas as a choirmaster knew about locally differing resources. Regular divisions of the choir into two or even three individual parts, however, seem to call for an appropriate number of singers. The often-quoted Lutheran chorales appear for instance in the form of a cantus firmus or in unison, giving the opportunity of including the congregation in liturgical usage. The performance in concert, however, can also be rewarding by emphasizing the diversity and suspenseful contrasts of this music. The new edition combines all previous single editions in a modern and easy-to-read engraving image.

SKU: PR.114405050

UPC: 680160008377. 11 x 14 inches.

Although structurally it subdivides into five movements, the entire quartet emerges as one vast continuum. There are no formal breaks between movements. However, certain musical signposts can be discerned, associated with each of the movements' terminations and new beginnings. The opening movement, The Nostalgia of Clanging Bell Sonorities, begins floating on recurrent Bbs whose soft rhythmic flow slowly puts into motion strong undercurrents suggestive of the latent power of water... After several suggestions of tolling bells, the movement gradually fades into hushed tones of veiled and very distant sonorities. It uses a unique efffect, for the first time in a musical context, conveyed through the use of extra heavy practice mutes. The second movement, The Spill of Water , disengages itself from the first through its distinct contrast in tempo. Water moves fast, and when it splashes, it tends to run wildly. In this case, it happens to be bubbly water that gushes forth bodly... smashing across rocky shorlines. So, too, the music attempts to conjure such moods. At the end of this movement, a cello cadenza emerges, introducing an introspective type of melodicism. The third movement, The Poignancy of Memory, contains many silences as it tries to convey memory through fragmented remembrances much like often occur in our dream state. Progressing through several slowly building images, it gradually works itself into juxtaposition of musical images. Towards the movement's end, high harmonics are sounding in all four instruments while left hand pizzicato notes in the cello pluch the last remembrances of this central core. Almost imperceptibly, the viola assumes leadership as it dissolves into: The fourth movement, The Fluidity of Motion, which has mostly the viola, but also the cello, articulating lyrical statements against the sheets of sound conjured up by the two violins playing a flood of swirling figures, evokes a kind of static motion in spae. Here, the virtually imperceptible manner in which this hushed whisper continues incessantly, can suggest the potential fluidity with which movement may inch forward... Later into the fourth movement , two fairly extended solos by the second and then the first violins, lead to a kind of spontaneous dialogue among the four instrumentalists. Eventually, this musical conversation gets caught up in: The fifth movement's The Rush of Time, which opens with a hushed flurry of speed, precipitates the Finale. It generates, at first slowly, but then very swiftly, whole shifts of rhythmic fields that initially seem to conflict with one another. Ultimately, this use of 'psycho-rhythmics contributes to an on-rush of motion and time. Rhythmic changes are, at times, abruptly precipitated with but little or no preparation creating a kind of inevitability in forward thrust, while the movement rushes forward with a feeling of gradual and continuous acceleration. It gathers density as more and more notes are piled progressively upon successive beats. The attempt is to spark tension and ignite excitement by means of frenetic confrontations of dissimilitudes. Ultimately - with the help of time - these polarities centrifically spin out their own destinies with their accompanying fall-out and own inevitable resolutions.

SKU: PR.44641192L

UPC: 680160610860. 11 x 14 inches.

One of my greatest pleasures in writing a concerto is exploring the new world that opens for me each time I enter the sometimes alien, but always fascinating, world of a solo instrument or instruments. For me, the challenge is to discover the deepest nature of the solo instrument (its karma, if you will) and to allow that essential character to guide the shape and form of the work and the nature of the interaction between soloists and orchestra. In recent years, many of us have become more aware of the musical world outside the Western tradition of musics that follow different procedures and spring from other aesthetics. And contemporary percussionists have opened many of these worlds to us, as they have ventured around the globe, participating in Brazilian Samba schools, studying Gamelan and African drumming with local experts, collecting instruments from Asia and Africa and South America and the South Pacific, widening our horizons in the process. I will never forget our first meeting in Toronto when Nexus invited me into their world of hundreds of exciting percussion instruments. The vast array of instruments in the collection of the Nexus ensemble is truly global in scope as well as offering a thrilling sound-universe. I was inspired by the incredible range of sound and moved by the fact that so many of these instruments were musical reflections of a spiritual dimension. After long consideration, I decided that it would not only be impossible, but even undesirable for this Western-tradition-steeped composer to attempt to use these instruments in a culturally authentic way. My goal was an existential kind of authenticity: searching instead for universal ideas that would be true to both myself and the performers while acknowledging the traditional uses of the instruments. Since many percussion instruments are associated with various kinds of ritual, I decided that I would allow that concept to shape my piece. Rituals is in four movements, each issuing from a ritual associated with percussion, but with the orchestral interaction providing an essential element in the musical form. I. Invocation alludes to the traditions of invoking the spirit of the instruments, or the gods, or the ancestors before performing. II. Ambulation moves from a processional, through march and dance to fantasy based on all three. III. Remembrances alludes to traditions of memorializing. IV. Contests progresses from friendly competition games, contests to a suggestion of a battle of big band drummers, to warlike exchanges. In the 2nd and 4th movements, another percussion tradition, improvisation, is employed. Written into these movements are a number of seeds for improvisation. Indications in the score call for the soloists to improvise in three different ways, marked A for percussion alone; marked B for percussion with and in response to the orchestra; and C where the percussionists are free to add and embellish the written parts. These improvisations should grow out of and embellish previous motives and gestures in the movement.