SKU: HL.367874

ISBN 9781705140307. UPC: 840126966664. 9.0x12.0x0.523 inches.

Commissioned by Caramoor Music Festival in New York and premiered July 14, 2017 by the Argus Quartet, this work is in no small part a response to this quartet's sense of adventure and expressive emotional range. Inspired by two end-of-civilization novels the composer was reading prior to composing the work, the quartet unfolds in a single movement, loosely based on plot lines in both novels. One of the novels includes a Traveling Symphony, an assortment of musicians and actors who travel the countryside for decades playing symphonies, jazz and orchestral arrangements of popular music alongside performances of Shakespeare plays, reminiscent of medieval troupes traveling the countryside in plague-ridden times. The work is written so that the quartet embodies the Traveling Symphony, not only playing music but also singing and 'stage whispering' fragments of King Lear and other text across the collection of nine scenes.

SKU: PR.164002720

UPC: 680160573042. 8.5 x 11 inches.

My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change.   I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]   The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla.   Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional.   II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts]   This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture.   This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream.   III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts]   The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this.   Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1.   String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.

SKU: CF.CY3256

ISBN 9780825881947. UPC: 798408081942. 8.5x11 inches.

Reviewers, trying to find a label for Godfrey's music, will compare him to Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, even Barber, using words such as lyrical, lush, and always tonal and melodic. 2004 saw the release of an all-Godfrey CD, including String Quartet No. 2, by the Cassatt String Quartet, an album that the New Yorker hailed as one of the 10 best of that year. Formerly available only on a rental basis, String Quartet No. 2 is now available for sale. Real sensual warmth, with a touch of the sensibility of Schoenberg's Transfigured Nightà These very touching works are completely tonal and basically pick up from the point where music was derailed some four score years ago... It is remarkable that music like this is being written, recorded, and widely celebrated. Robert Reilly, Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music (Ignatius Press).

SKU: FH.VA7

ISBN 978-1-55440-569-5.

This groundbreaking series for viola offers a sound and progressive collection of Repertoire, Recordings, Etudes, Technique, and Orchestral Excerpts for the aspiring virtuoso. Representing all major style periods and a variety of genres, Viola Series, 2013 Edition offers all the music and tools needed to support a comprehensive course of study from the beginner to advanced levels. A rich and varied selection of music in each of these nine progressive volumes of repertoire appeals to violists of all ages. From the Preparatory Level through Level 8, students will be exposed to quality selections originally written for viola, fun arrangements of traditional fiddle and folk tunes, as well as contemporary pieces by notable composers such as Violet Archer, Carey Cheney, and Fritz Kriesler.
Level 7:
Holberg Suite, op. 40: I,V - Grieg, Edvard
Symphony No. 5, op. 67: II - Beethoven, Ludwig van
Symphony No. 4 (Italian), op. 90: II - Mendelssohn, Felix
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048: I - Bach, Johann Sebastian
Symphony No. 35 (Haffner), K 385: I - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Level 8:
Ruslan and Ludmilla: Overture - Glinka, Mikhail
Symphony No. 35 (Haffner), K 385: IV - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique), op. 75: I - Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich
Symphony No. 9, op. 125: IV - Beethoven, Ludwig van
Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), op. 55: IV - Beethoven, Ludwig van
Symphony No. 1, op. 68: I - Brahms, Johannes
Symphony No. 9 (New World), op. 95: IV - Dvorak, Antonin
Level 9:
Symphony No. 5, op. 67: III - Beethoven, Ludwig van
Die Zauberfloete, K 620: Overture - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
The Hebrides, op. 26: Overture - Mendelssohn, Felix
Variations on a Theme by Haydn, op. 56a - Brahms, Johannes
Le carnaval romain - Berlioz, Hector
Symphony No. 8, op. 88: I - Dvorak, Antonin
Symphony NO. 4 (Romantic): II - Bruckner, Anton
Level 10:
Symphony No. 4 (Italian), op. 90: I,IV - Mendelssohn, Felix
Symphony No. 4, op. 98: II,IV - Brahms, Johannes
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, op. 46: I - Grieg, Edvard
Concerto for Orchestra: IV,V - Bartok, Bela
Symphony No. 40, K 550: I,IV - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Serenade for Strings, op. 48: I,II - Tchaikovsly, Pyotr Il'yich
Symphony No. 5, op. 47: I - Shostakovich, Dmitri
Associate:
Group 1: Ochestral Tutti Parts (Viola):
Daphnis et Chloe: III - Ravel, Maurice
Don Juan, op. 20 - Strauss, Richard
Symphony No. 9, op. 125: II,IV - Beethoven, Ludwig van
Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, op. 61: Scherzo - Mendelssohn, Felix
The Bartered Bride: Overture - Smetana, Bed_ich
Group 2: Viola Solos:
Don Quixote, op. 35 - Strauss, Richard
Harold en Italie: I - Berlioz, Hector.