SKU: HL.50593468
SKU: HL.48025032
ISBN 9783793143017. UPC: 196288019961. 9.0x12.0x0.064 inches.
Grasshoppers was written in 1956 during Mamlok’s studies at the Manhattan School. She balances a variety of moods, textures and tempi in six brief movemenm of a divertimento-like character that are thematically unified by the use of melodic fourths and scurrying chromatic figures. The second movement, Night Serenade, is a poignant siciliano, the fourth movement a bitonal Minuet, while the fifth movement, In the Army, is a humorous march. The third movement, In the Rain, is the most virtuosic of the set. Grasshoppers concludes with Hurrying Home, a rapid, often bitonal waltz. Marnlok orchestrared Grasshoppers in 1957. lts 1958 orchestral premiere, by Carl Bamberger and the Süddeutsches Rundfunkorchester, was one of the first important performances of her music. (Barry Wiener).
SKU: BR.EB-9399
ISBN 9790004188736. 9 x 12 inches.
One of my favourite pieces of music as a child - and I still love it - was Schubert's Trout Quintet. It was partly the wonderful music, of course, so light-hearted and joyful on the surface, yet with twists and turns and murky depths of feeling too. But I also liked the picture of a trout on the album sleeve - such beautiful creatures! Last year, while resident at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg, as I took daily walks along the Regnitz river, I observed the trout as they calmly hovered and swayed in the shallows... But if they felt my shadow they were gone in a split second! If you ever get a chance to look closely at brown trout you see that they are covered in myriad brown/red spots of varied sizes; camouflage I suppose. Now those patterns seem to be mixing in my mind with the shifting colours of the spectral arpeggios that flow through this little piece. It's a watery piece, with rippling waves, shimmering surfaces and textural veils around the melodies which flow through it. But it also takes inspiration (and it's title) from a Pablo Neruda poem: the third stanza of Every Day You Play includes the line The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish. There's no singer, but I imagine an invisible or imaginary voice somewhere behind (or beyond) the music, and so the score includes a melodic setting of the text. Even though this is not performed by a voice, the melody is always played by the ensemble - especially high register cello - making the piece something like the inverse of a song without words. (Christian Mason)World premiere: Aix-en-Provence, October 16, 2020 Commissioned by the Grand Theatre de Provence - Aix-en-Provence.
