Echoes of America

SKU: PR.41641542L

UPC: 680160632329.

Echoes of Silence was commissioned by the Albany Symphony Orchestra for the American Music Festival of 2012 as part of the Capitol Region Heritage Commissions project. The work takes as its inspirations the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Albany, NY, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The Troy Savings Bank was founded in 1823 and was one of the more important music halls in early-twentieth-century America. It was honored with performances by many world-renowned artists, such as Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin, and Arthur Rubinstein. The title, Echoes of Silence, refers to the echoes of these and other artists' great performances, which one might imagine still resonate in the hall. If the hall had a voice, it would also sing of the all the wonderful masterpieces that were performed there in the past. The main idea of this piece is to reflect the sounds that were absorbed by the walls of this concert hall during the past century of live performance. Some of the main pitch materials are derived from Alexander Borodin's Symphony No. 2, a masterpiece that was composed in 1823, the same year as the founding of the Troy Savings Bank. The main thematic materials of Echoes of Silence are developed from many small musical motifs found in Borodin's symphony. Another source of material is Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, composed in 1930, the year in which the Albany Symphony Orchestra was founded. These borrowed materials are used as the main elements in maintaining the structural unity of Echoes of Silence. Because this concert hall has absorbed so much wonderful music from so many great performances, we can imagine even the smallest corner of the hall filling its silence with echoes.

SKU: HL.14017989

ISBN 9781846093333.

Kirkby-Mason's second album of pieces is designed for the pupil who has achieved a preperatory level of Piano playing, offering stimuating pieces that will help expand knowledge and technique. These six solo pieces and two duets will inspire the imamgination and provide a host of simple phrasing ideas, gestures and changes. Pupils will encounter a larger keybpard scope, with exercises for finger-extension and lateral moves.

SKU: GI.G-002360

UPC: 641151023601. Spanish.

You loved SAVAE's bestselling recording Ancient Echoes, now enjoy their latest release, an authentic re-creation of the first Christmas music of the Americas! Celebrations of Christmas Eve (La Noche Buena‚ in Spanish) were spectacular events in the cathedrals of Colonial Latin America. Nativity plays featured lively music influenced by that of the Aztec and Maya indigenous Americans, as well as the rhythms of the African laborers. The diverse dialects, rhythms, and melodies on SAVAE's Christmas recording capture the lively cultural exchange between Spanish and Native Latin American musicians of New Spain. This music was the first Christmas music composed on American soil for the first American converts to Christianity. A unique and special holiday gift for any music lover!

SKU: HL.14030791

8.25x12.0x0.051 inches.

This title is taken from Dvorak. However. The models from which the songs are derived are clearly identifiable, as are the composers from whose language they have been derived. The piece appears to be in one movement though it is in fact two with a coda. The first is French in style, a sort of Waltz. It is quick and harks upon the likes of Francaix and where its idiom becomes more advanced, Messaien. The other is Germanic, a slow movement with echoes of German expressionism - perhaps Richard Strauss, perhaps Mahler. The two movements are partly complete; the cod reconciles their differences and completes them. I see the piece as my own version of En blanc et noir.