Dana-dana

SKU: BT.EMBZ20017A

English-German-Hungarian.

In 1845 Franz Liszt embarked on a project to compose an Italian opera based on Lord Byron’s tragedy, Sardanapalus (1821). It was central to his ambition to attain status as a major European composer, with premieres variously planned for Milan, Vienna, Paris and London. But he abandoned it half way through, and the music he completed has lain silently for 170 years.
Liszt’s difficulty in obtaining a libretto meant that composition only began in April 1850. He completed virtually all the music for Act 1 in an annotated piano-vocal score of 111 pages, contained within his N4 music ‘sketch book’. The unnamed librettist was an Italian poet and political prisoner, seemingly living under house arrest, and a close acquaintance of Cristina Belgiojoso. His libretto survives as underlay in the N4 sketchbook and has been critically reconstructed and translated.
Sardanapalo is Liszt’s only mature opera. While he consistently referred to it in French, as Sardanapale, the published title of the Italian opera would almost certainly have used the Italian name, hence this forms the title of the first edition. There are three solo roles and a chorus of concubines. The manuscript was previously thought to be fragmentary and partially illegible, but it was finally deciphered to international acclaim in March 2017. Liszt’s score offers a richly melodic style, with elements from Bellini and Verdi alongside glimmers of Wagner and the symphonic poems ahead: a unique mixture of Italianate pastiche and mid-century harmonic innovation. It remains quintessentially Lisztian. The opera sets Byron’s tragedy about war and peace in ancient Assyria: the last King, effeminate in his tastes, is drawn to wine, concubines and feasts more than politics and war: his subjects find him dishonourable (a ‘man queen’) and military rebels seek to overthrow him, but are pardoned, for the King rejects the ‘deceit of glory’ built on others’ suffering: this leads only to a larger uprising, the Euphrates floods its banks, destroying the castle’s main defensive wall, and defeat is inevitable: the King sends his family away and orders that he be burned alive with his lover, amid scents and spices in a grand inferno. As Byron put it: ‘not a mere pillar formed of cloud and flame, but a light to lessen ages.’ For his part, Liszt told a friend that his finale ‘will even aim to set fire to the entire audience!’
This critical edition includes a detailed study on the genesis of Liszt’s Sardanapalo in English, German, and Hungarian, the libretto in the original Italian as well as in English, German, and Hungarian translation, several facsimile pages of Liszt’s manuscript, and a detailed Critical Report.

SKU: BT.DHP-1115083-010

9x12 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.

Chapters of Life is a moving concerto that musically carries the positive message that even life’s hardest knocks don’t mean the end. In three movements: Wild Days, To Dana and Chapters of Life, the solo trombone and solo tuba enter into a dialogue and the alto flute is also given an opportunity to shine.News: Selected as a FINALIST in the 2012 ITEA Composition Contest (USA)

Chapters of Life is een roerend concert met een positieve boodschap. Al zijn de tegenslagen nog zo groot, ze hoeven niet het einde te betekenen... Chapters of Life brengt deze boodschap bijzonder goed over. In de driedelen Wild Days, To Dana en Chapters of Life horen we een dialoog tussen een trombone en een tuba. En ook een altfluit mag zich van zijn beste kant laten zien.Geselecteerd als FINALIST bij de 2012 ITEA CompositionContest (USA)

Chapters of Life ist ein bewegendes Konzert, das die positive Botschaft, dass auch die schwersten Schicksalsschläge nicht das Ende des Lebens bedeuten, musikalisch gut herüberbringt“. In den drei Sätzen - Wild Days, To Dana und Chapters of Life betitelt - tritt eine Solo-Posaune mit der Solo-Tuba in den Dialog und auch eine Altflöte darf sich solistisch präsentieren.Aktuelles: Das Werk steht in der Endauswahl des ITEA Wettbewerbs der Kompositionen 2012 (USA)

Ce concerto pour tuba s’articule en trois mouvements : Wild Days (Jours sauvages), To Dana ( Dana) qui consiste en un dialogue entre tuba solo et trombone, et A Celebration of Life (Célébration de la vie) qui nous rappelle que les moments difficiles que nous traversons au cours de notre vie ne sont que temporaires. C‘est cette même joie de vivre et cet optimisme sans faille qu’exhale le troisième et dernier mouvement de Chapters of Life (Les chapitres de la vie). Une oeuvre étincelante qui mettra votre tubiste sous les feux de la rampe.Finaliste du Concours de composition 2012, organisé par l’ITEA (Association international de Tuba et Euphonium) - USA

Chapters of Life ci ricorda che i momenti difficili che incontriamo nel corso della vita sono solamente temporanei. Dovremmo, al contrario, apprezzare maggiormente ogni giorno, con i suoi alti e bassi, concentrandoci soprattutto sugli aspetti positivi. E’ l’ottimismo con il quale tutti noi dovremmo affrontare la vita, che è evocato in questo brano in tre movimenti, To Dana, A Celebration of Life e Chapters of Life.News: Selected as a FINALIST in the 2012 ITEA Composition Contest (USA).

SKU: PR.510079290

UPC: 680160680399.

Determined to be seen as a complete composer, Liszt set out to create a full-fledged opera, only to later abandon the project. 170 years later, an examination of the manuscript revealed a virtually complete Act One in piano/vocal score form, and Sardanapalo finally came to life. This critical edition includes a detailed study on the genesis of Liszt's Sardanapalo in English, German, and Hungarian, the libretto in the original Italian as well as in English, German, and Hungarian translation, several facsimile pages of Liszt's manuscript, and a detailed Critical Report. (--E.M.B.).