Format : Sheet music + CD
SKU: CF.CY305
ISBN 9780825898709. UPC: 798408098704.
When you are a prodigy, you should study with the best. For Lukas Foss (born Lukas Fuchs), this meant studying orchestration with Felix Wolfes, composition with Noel Gallon, and even flute with Louis Moyse. In 1937, his family moved to the United States, the family name became Foss, and young Lukas would attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he would meet fellow classmate Leonard Bernstein. This led to a lifelong friendship of mutual admiration-Bernstein would conduct the world premiere of Time Cycle, and Foss would conduct the premiere of Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Time Cycle would garner the New York Music Critics Circle Award for 1961 and be hailed as a true masterpiece of American music. Sony Classical has included the premiere recording by Leonard Bernstein and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with soloist Adele Addison in their remastered series Bernstein Century.
SKU: PR.11440744S
UPC: 680160011490. 9.5 x 13 inches.
The sextet was written for flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet doubling bass clarinet), violin, cello, piano and percussion (triangle, 3 temple blocks, 2 wood blocks, side drum, cymbal, 4 tom-toms, vibraphone, small tam-tam, median tam-tam and big tam-tam). It presents the composer lost in thought about ancient culture and modern civilization and her thinking about the parallels and contrasts between the East and the West. Near Distance takes us through a journey that covers thousands of miles and thousands of years. Contrasting moments of dense, busy activity with sparse, haunting lines the composer bridges the gap between the timeless history of her homeland and the ever-changing, energetic life in the modern society. The work was originally written under the request of Prof. Jacob Druckman, for a composition workshop at the Aspen Music Festival. It is dedicated to his memory with admiration and respect. Near Distance has been featured in Sound and Silence, a series of ten documentary films on contemporary music, which has been broadcast on the European TV network since 1989, produced by the ISCM, Adamov Films and the Polish TV. It has also been recorded on CRI, released in 1999, under the title Sparkle: Chamber Music of Chen Yi. [now available through New World Records] --Chen Yi Her piece... generates a vivid and wholly radiant color scheme. Harmonically, too, it seems to float enchantingly, its occasional ventures into microtones gracefully bending away from traditional tonality. Gorgeous music, this; one longs to hear more. --Alan Rich, LA Weekly 'Near Distance' evinced some delicate, dramatic sonorities in its fusion of East Asian and Western musical impulses. --John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune.
SKU: CF.FAS64
ISBN 9780825883880. UPC: 798408083885. 8.5 x 11 inches. Key: E minor.
Imagine the ominous sound of an oncoming storm rumbling through a prehistoric forest, punctuated by the lumbering footsteps of the T-Rex, shaking the ground as it advances on its prey. T-Rex allows your orchestra to paint this dramatic picture, thrilling the audience with its bold depiction of an ancient, mighty beast!.T-Rex (Tyrannosaurus Rex) is a miniature tone poem for a young string orchestra.The story: The ominous sound of an oncoming storm (Thundersheet) rumbles through the night in a prehistoric forest. The lumbering footsteps of a giant beast (m. 1: half-notes played by celli and basses) cause the ground to tremble. It is T-Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Tyrant King (m. 3: 1st violins, m. 11: celli and basses). It surveys its kingdom in a regal pose (m. 27: tutti). The storm begins (m. 41: staccato notes and Thunder Sheet). Tyrannosaurus Rex hones in on its prey (m. 43: celli and basses). There is no escape (m. 49 to end: tutti).Percussion: A sound effect for thunder is necessary. The Worldwide Web contains much information on this subject. Just search “Thundersheet.â€1. If a real Thundersheet is not available, a prepared Bass Drum may be used. The batter headshould be loosened for the lowest possible sound. It can be placed on its side. Have the rollsplayed with two bass drum mallets or two felt mallets.2. Synthesizers have certain sound effects which resemble thunder.3. A polystyrene Thundersheet is small and light enough for a young player.4. A large sheet of aluminum may be available at a home improvement store. While wearingprotective gloves, the percussion player shakes the aluminum sheet to create the standard, orchestral thunder sound effect.Thank you for choosing this composition. I hope your students and audience will find it instructive and enjoyable.
SKU: CF.CAS73
ISBN 9780825894749. UPC: 798408094744. 9 x 12 inches. Key: Eb minor.
A dynamic new concert piece from popular composer Doris Gazda, Baboquivari is mysterious at first and then breaks into an exciting 6/8 groove that shifts into several different key areas to add to the excitement. Perfect for contest and festival performances.The Native American people who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico are known as the Tohono O'odham. Tohono O’odham means Desert People. The Tohono O’odham reservation is the location of the Quinlan and Baboquivari Mountains, which include Kitt Peak, the Kitt Peak National Observatory with its numerous telescopes and Baboquivari Peak. Baboquivari is a 7,730-foot (2,356- meter) granitic monolith located about 60 miles southwest of Tucson, Arizona. Part of the peak lies in the 2,900,000-acre Tohono O’odham Reservation, the second largest Indian reservation in the United States, while most of it lies in the Baboquivari Mountains Wilderness Area.Baboquivari Peak is the most sacred place to the Tohono O'odham people. It is the cen- ter of the Tohono O'odham cosmology and the home of the creator, I’itoi. According to tribal legend, he resides in a cave below the base of the mountain which is regarded by the O'odham nation as the navel of the world, a place where the earth opened and the people emerged after the great flood. Baboquivari Peak is also sometimes referred to as I'itoi Mountain. In the native O’odham language, it is referred to as Waw Kiwulik, meaning narrow about the middle.Baboquivari Peak was mentioned in the journals of Jesuit missionary Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino (1645-1711), who made many expeditions into this region of the Sonoran Desert. Beginning in 1699, Kino introduced Spanish culture and Christianity to the desert dwellers. He established at least twenty Spanish Missions in the area, most of which were in the Tohono O'odham nation. The Tohono O'odham tell the story that at the beginning of the Spanish conquest of what is present day Arizona, a certain Spanish officer and his men tried to dig their way into Baboquivari. Suddenly, the ground under them opened and Baboquivari swallowed them. This story has similarities to that of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and a place called Quivira, where, he was told, he could get his hands on unlimited quantities of gold. The gold had a way of disappearing while they were searching.Today, the mountain offers a strenuous climb for experienced hikers. It has a waist which was overcome at one time through the use of ladders. Today's mountain climbers get past the indentation that encircles the mountain by using ropes where necessary.
SKU: PR.362034230
ISBN 9781598069556. UPC: 680160624225. Letter inches. English.
When the Texas Choral Consort asked Welcher to write a short prologue to Haydn's The Creation, his first reaction was that Haydn already presents Chaos in his introductory movement. As he thought about it, Welcher began envisioning a truer void to precede Haydn's depiction of Chaos within the scope of 18th-century classical style - quoting some of Haydn's themes and showing human voices and inhuman sounds in a kind of pre-creation melange of color, mood, and atmosphere. Welcher accepted this challenge with the proviso that his prologue would lead directly into Haydn's masterpiece without stopping, and certainly without applause in between. Scored for mixed chorus and Haydn's instrumentation, Without Form and Void is a dramatically fresh yet pragmatic enhancement to deepen any performance of Haydn's The Creation. Orchestral score and parts are available on rental.When Brent Baldwin asked me to consider writing a short prologue to THE CREATION, my first response was “Why?â€Â THE CREATION already contains a prologue; it’s called “Representation of Chaosâ€, and it’s Haydn’s way of showing the formless universe. How could a new piece do anything but get in the way? But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The Age of Enlightenment’s idea of “Chaos†was just extended chromaticism, no more than Bach used (in fact, Bach went further).Perhaps there might be a way to use the full resources of the modern orchestra (or at least, a Haydn-sized orchestra) and the modern chorus to really present a cosmic soup of unborn musical atoms, just waiting for Haydn’s sure touch to animate them. Perhaps it could even quote some of Haydn’s themes before he knew them himself, and also show human voices and inhuman sounds in a kind of pre-creation mélange of color, mood, and atmosphere. So I accepted the challenge, with the proviso that my new piece not be treated as some kind of “overtureâ€, but would instead be allowed to lead directly into Haydn’s masterpiece without stopping, and certainly without applause. I crafted this five minute piece to begin with a kind of “music of the spheres†universe-hum, created by tuned wine glasses and violin harmonics. The chorus enters very soon after, with the opening words of Genesis whispered simultaneously in as many languages as can be found in a chorus. The first two minutes of my work are all about unborn human voices and unfocused planetary sounds, gradually becoming more and more “coherent†until we finally hear actual pitches, melodies, and words. Three of Haydn’s melodies will be heard, to be specific, but not in the way he will present them an hour from now. It’s almost as if we are listening inside the womb of the universe, looking for a faint heartbeat of worlds, animals, and people to come. At the end of the piece, the chorus finally finds its voice with a single word: “God!â€, and the orchestra finally finds its own pulse as well. The unstoppable desire for birth must now be answered, and it is----by Haydn’s marvelous oratorio. I am not a religious man in any traditional sense. Neither was Haydn, nor Mozart, nor Beethoven. But all of them, as well as I, share in what is now called a humanistic view of how things came to be, how life in its many forms developed on this planet, and how Man became the recorder of history. The gospel according to John begins with a parody of Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.â€Â  I love that phrase, and it’s in that spirit that I offer my humble “opener†to the finest work of one of the greatest composers Western music has ever known. My piece is not supposed to sound like Haydn. It’s supposed to sound like a giant palette, on which a composer in 1798 might find more outrageous colors than his era would permit…but which, I hope, he would have been delighted to hear.
