Scottish Miniatures

SKU: CY.CC3087

ISBN 9790530110645. 8.5 x 11 in inches.

Hill Country Miniatures for 8-part Trombone Ensemble was written by Richard J. Lawn in 2002 for the Trombone Choir at the University of Texas and its director Nathaniel Brickens. The work is dedicated to Donald Knaub its former director. It has become a staple in the American Trombone Ensemble repertoire since its original release. Mr. Lawn explains in the notes, his deep emotional connection to the Hill Country land and to his days at the Eastman School of Music, hearing the legendary Trombone Choir led by Emory Remington and following through to his days at the University of Texas with Knaub and Brickens, all of which inspired him to compose this work. This music is about 15 minutes in length and is for advanced performers. The four movements of the work are: Hickory Cove - September 2001 - a lyrical, somber and solemn introductory movement. Smithwick - a jaunty piece reflecting the Scottish and English heritage of this tiny Texas spot. The Narrows - As part of the Colorado River narrows, it twists and turns its way through the Texas Hill Country. You can hear the gentle waters winding through the cliffs and slopes. Blue Bonnet Boogie - The springtime brings a profusion of the Blue Bonnet, the Texas state flower. A sea of these swaying in the breeze brings out the good old down-home boogie-woogie! A jazz solo featuring Bass Trombone (written for Bill Reichenbach in mind) with solo written out or improvised using chord symbols adds a festive finish. Cherry Classics is proud to be the new distributor of this great work.

SKU: HL.14020993

ISBN 9780711952010. 5.5x8.5x0.222 inches.

The solo group consists of a sextet of the woodwind instruments which are normally doubled with more regular members of the orchestra: these six strangers, now brought to the fore, are piccolo and alto flute, cor anglais, Eb and bass clarinets and contrabassoon. They make a motley group, diverse in colour as in register, and one of the tasks of the piece sets itself is to have them blend and cohere, both together as an ensemble and in partnership with the string orchestra (which itself is used with unusual variety and subtlety). Another evident task of the work is to provide fine solos for each member of the woodwind sextet: bright dances for the piccolo, recitatives for the alto flute, a stoical song from the contrabassoon in the extreme bass. The work is cast as a single movement, which begins in the composer's first-movement style of rapid regeneration. This is interrupted by slow interventions, including one for divided strings which gives rise to a sextuple cadenza for the soloists. Out of this comes a slow movement, or sequence of short slow movements, followed by a dancing finale with its own slow episodes. Altogether this is music of songs and dances, heavily tinged with Scottish rhythms and tonalities: one might think of a magic bagpipe, having six chanters and a drone of variegated string texture. This work for woodwind instruments and string orchestra was commissioned by the Strathclyde Regional Council and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. It is the ninth of ten concerti to be written for principal players of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The first performance was given in February 1995 by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the composer.

SKU: AP.6-416801

ISBN 9780486416809. UPC: 9780486416809. 9x12 inches. English.

American composer Amy Beach (1867Ð1944) was largely self taught, but her precocious musical talent eventually blossomed into a remarkable career. This volume of her piano music includes a rich selection of the elegant, stylish miniatures for which she is known. Among them are Valse-Caprice, Op. 4, Four Sketches, Op. 15, Three Compositions, Op. 28, ChildrenÕs Album, Op. 36, and more.

SKU: HL.14008406

ISBN 9780711948716.

A work for solo violin and orchestra, commissioned by Donald McDonald for the 21st birthday of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the 60th birthday of the composer. It was first performed in November 1993 in Glasgow, by James Clark and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxwell Davies. The spell is one quoted by George Mackay Brown in his book An Orkney Tapestry: 'Let not plough be put to acre except a fiddle cross first the furrow.' Davies's dancing concerto imagines the fiddler following a route from field to field, from dance to dance, accompanied by a bunch of companions in the form of an orchestra. As the music goes on, so it gets brighter and livelier, moving from the dark colouring of clarinets, bassoons and strings to full ensemble with prominent brass and (solo) tuned percussion, as if the dancers as much as the fields were beginning to glow with new life. Score (miniature). Duration c. 20mins.

SKU: HL.14021025

ISBN 9780711986138. 5.5x7.5x0.164 inches.

Miniature Score. This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 13th May 1998 London. This piece is based on a genuine old tune 'Maxwell's Strathspey' which the composer found in an 1824 collection of Scottish melodies, and which unfolds at the start of the piece on solo cello. Variations and a bold up-tempo to the quick dance we know as a reel ultimately yield to the magic that has been promised right at the start: the northern lights take over at the end of the piece. Its inspiration comes from a walk to a community event in Hoy Hall, during which Davies saw the lights in the sky pulsing in and out of time with the sounds coming from the hall. Duration 12 minutes. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available on hire.

SKU: HL.14008415

UPC: 884088808242. 8.5x11.0x0.261 inches.

This work, written by Maxwell Davies in 1983 for chamber orchestra, was commissioned to celebrate the quartercentenary of Edinburgh University. The first performance was given by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Edward Harper in October 1983. Duration c. 29mins. This work was thought through in outline following a visit to the ruined pre-Reformation church of Hoy in Orkney, on a fine Spring afternoon after Maxwell Davies had played the harmonium for the tiny congregation in its large bleak Victorian replacement. The old church was surrounded by the graves of centuries, the more recent ones with familiar names, largely of people who lived in houses now ruinous - crofters, fishermen, clerics, sea-captains. Next to it stood the chief farmhouse, the Bu, going back to Viking times. He thought of the lives and deaths encompassed there, expressed through hundreds of years of music in the church, and in the big barn of the farm. The plainsongs 'Dies Irae' and 'Victimae Paschali Laudes' are used throughout the work - the first concerning the Day of Judgement, from the Mass for the Dead, the second particular to Easter Sunday and the Resurrection. These are subject to constant transformation - the intervallic contour slowly changes from one into the other, and their notes are made to dance through Renaissance astrological 'magic square' patterns. The orchestra consists of double woodwind, two horns, two trumpets and strings.

SKU: BT.EMBZ14692

This is a selection from the individual-sounding works written for pedagogical purposes by the popular Soviet Russian composer and pianist (1897-1976). The composer studied and taught in St Petersburg, Vienna, Moscow and Germany, his works include a string quartet, a piano sonata, romances and a number of pedagogical articles and studies. Typical of his miniature piano pieces is their captivating, radiant world of melody and harmony and their light and playful character. This publication is printed on high quality, durable paper made from renewable raw materials in an environmentally friendly way.

Diese Auswahl präsentiert auch in Ungarn populäre, vom sowjetisch-russischen Komponisten und Pianisten Majkapar (1897-1976) zu pädagogischen Zwecken komponierte Stücke. Er studierte und lehrte in Moskau, St. Petersburg, Wien und Deutschland. Unter seinen Werken finden sich ein Streichquartett, eine Klaviersonate, Romanzen sowie mehrere pädagogische Artikel und Studien. Seine Miniaturklavierwerke werden durch eine mitreißende, glänzende Melodie- und Harmoniewelt, Leichtigkeit und Verspieltheit charakterisiert.