Contraption

SKU: PR.140401190

UPC: 680160637881.

A commission by 13 individual pianists, Pure Contraption, Absolute Gift is a suite of five movements, which Primosch describes in depth on his blog, Secret Geometry. While the first movement is contained primarily to the bass clef, the second is in the treble. The suite, however, as an entirety, makes full use of the entire range of the keyboard. For advanced pianists. The piece is ferociously difficult...Both the first prelude, with its nervous thumping and banging, and 'A Gracious Dance,' Debussy a century later, ended in question marks. The 'Gigue-Scherzo' seemed more of a 'Scherzo-Gigue'; 'Nocturnal Obsessions,' with its moody left-hand ostinatos, lived up to its title. 'Contraption' evoked jazz at first, but soon [the pianist's] hands were speaking different languages. --Jeffrey Gantz, The Boston Globe.

SKU: KJ.WB331F

Brilliant, clever and brimming with excitement, another ingenious Himes masterpiece! The objective of Thingamajig is to create a whimsical contraption of sound in the same spirit as the late Rube Goldberg, which appeared as cartoons in the New York Evening Mail. It uses melodic and rhythmic patterns - with help of conventional and unconventional percussion as well as verbal effects from the band members - to convey a unique attempt at inventiveness. The enthused percussion section will use instruments such as a metal pipe, kitchen pans and a bicycle horn.

About Standard of Excellence in Concert

The Standard of Excellence In Concert series presents exceptional arrangements, transcriptions, and original concert and festival pieces for beginning and intermediate band. Each selection is correlated to a specific page in the Standard of Excellence Band Method, reinforcing and expanding skills and concepts introduced in the method up to that point. Exciting parts with extensive cross-cueing are presented for every player. Accessible ranges, appropriate rhythmic challenges, and creative percussion section writing enhance the pedagogical value of the series.

Sold individually, each In Concert selection includes a full Conductor Score and enough student parts for large symphonic bands. Each student part also includes correlated Warm-Up Studies. The Conductor Score comes complete with rehearsal suggestions, a composer biography, program notes, a rehearsal piano part, several ready-to-duplicate worksheets and a duplicable written quiz.

SKU: FJ.B1741

UPC: 241444390528. English.

This extraordinary tour-de-force was written when the composer was just a junior in high school! An excellent opportunity to let students play the music of their peers, especially when the music itself is absolutely brilliant. Moving between simple and compound meters, the piece has an undeniable pulse and energy that will electrify your concert hall.

About FJH Symphonic Band

Appropriate for accomplished high school, college, and professional groups. Includes expanded instrumentation and ranges. Grades 4 - 5

SKU: HL.14027994

ISBN 9788759864593.

New York is the city which fascinates and inspires Ruders. Time and again he goes back there to work. 'Manhattan Abstraction' (1982) subtitles - a symphonic skyline for large orchestra - was conceived there. Ruders' Brittish colleague Oliver Knussen defines the piece as: - a performance of an extraordinary Morden-Times-like construction. It is a sort of symphonic sculpture, which in the composer's own words words propels forth from one particular inspiration: the New York profile, as seen from Liberty Island, one icy cold January day with it's open, clear sky and dazzling sun light. 'Manhatten Abstraction' appears as an amalgam of some of the compositorical habits found in present pieces. For instance, are present here compositorical ideas and melodic loans from 'Capriccio Pian'e Forte', 2nd String Quartet(1979), 'Four Compositions' (1980), and 2nd Piano Sonata(1982). The question at hand is mainly concerned with the enhanced elaboration of Ruders' use of the classic English change-ringing system: a permuting method pre-determining the order of tone-appearances and /or tone groups; a serial technique in other words. In spite of the rigidly fixed material, Ruders somehow manages to chisel out a personal expression by way of emphasising contrasting elements already existing within the material itself. The spiky, repetitive sections form a counterpart to a more human violin-solo. This dialectical tension is - as hinted by the title - a symphonic abstraction of a fascinating metropolis; the most beautiful and the ugliest. The subtitle: a symphonic skyline reflects the musical erection of the Manhattan profile, which under the clear sky, materializes into the most powerful and compelling man-made sculpture on earth. Thus 'Manhattan Abstraction' is a homage to, as well as a vision of, this giant contraption of concrete, glass, and chrome.

SKU: AP.47285

ISBN 9781470652296. UPC: 038081546001. English.

This imaginative piece brings the magical sounds of steampunk to your concert band. Enter the world of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and others whose fascinating, limitless view of the future---from a Victorian vantage point---presented all sorts of fanciful contraptions: forward-looking modes of transportation, time travel, weaponry, and more! This title is available in MakeMusic Cloud.