Johann Sebastian Bach: 15 Three-Part Inventions: Piano: Instrumental Album

This setting is based on a three-part keyboard composition attributed to J.S. Bach. The contrapuntal lines are individually melodic and independent.

These String trio arrangements of some of Bach's many 'inventions' (published by SJ Music in two volumes) will bring pleasure to all who play them. The 2nd Violin part as an alternative to the Viola part makes them accessible with or without a Viola player on hand.

10 Fugues For String Quartet Vol. 2-The idea for these arrangements came to me whilst listening to the Hagen Quartet's beautiful recording of the fugues that form part of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets' Op. 20. The spirit and influence of J.S. Bach in particular his Well Tempered Clavier Book II courses through these three miraculous Haydn fugues. Like the viol consort the string quartet suits this kind of composition (the fugue) with all four instruments sufficiently similar in character to each other to match the extraordinary unity and economy of the counterpoint. A string quartet playing Bach fugues is a good example of a harmonious relationship between form andcontent: just as there is a unifying principle behind the construction of the four string instruments so there is (usually) a single theme or subject that unifies the construction of a four-part fugue. Thus the form enacts the content telling you something about the text and message within. Apart from Haydn's and a handful of other composers' wondrous creations there's little fugal writing for string quartet at least in comparison with the abundance of other forms. This was another reason to make these arrangements. The quartet offers a melodic independence impossible to achieve on a single instrument. And I believe the technical and interpretative challenges posed by this repertoire – lightness of sound and rhythmic fluidity for example - will be very valuable to quartets seeking the holy grail: a unified sound. Perhaps the simplest and most compelling reason for this work is that I just love this music more than I can say. These dazzling pieces mostly fast bright and in major keys show Bach at his most playful funny and mischievous composing for an instrument rarely associated with these qualities. And so I'm very happy to offer string quartets these little know fugues written by my favourite composer - a violinist and violist himself but above all a master

for Viol (Viola) and Harpsichord-The three sonatas for Viola da gamba and Harpsichord obbligato by Johann Sebastian Bach BWV 1027–1029 edited here both in the original version with viola da gamba and in a version with viola have been handed down to us only as separate works. Neither source material nor style indicate that the three works – as for example the six sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord BWV 1014–1019 – should be regarded as a whole. It is provable or at least feasible that all three sonatas were not originally conceived for this instrumentation. The musical substance and therefore the artistic status of the sonatas were not affected by this transcription.-Urtext of the New Bach Edition- Also includes optional part for Viola

Das Te Deum Deutsch 'Herr Gott Dich loben wir' for 12-part mixed Chorus a cappella (SSMezMezAATTBarBarBB).The Te Deum in the translation of Martin Luther 1529. Heinz Werner Zimmermann (born 11 August 1930 in Freiburg im Breisgau) is a German composer. Zimmermann had his first composition instruction from 1946 to 1948 with Julius Weismann and studied from 1950 to 1954 in Heidelberg with Wolfgang Fortner as well as at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg (Institute for Church Music) there. After passing his examinations at the Freiburg Conservatory under Harald Genzmer he became Fortner’s successorin Heidelberg. Here he maintained close contacts with the musicologist Thrasyboulos Georgiades whose rhythm and language studies influenced him the most along with his occupation with American spirituals and jazz. From 1963 to 1976 Heinz Werner Zimmermann was director of the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule (Spandau school of church-music) in Spandau and then from 1975 to 1996 as successor to Kurt Hessenberg as composition teacher at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (Brusniak 2001). Zimmermann’s best-known works are his sacred motets with plucked Double Bass his Organ psalms and his 'Prosalieder'. Among his chief works are his Missa profana the sacred oratorio The Bible of Spirituals as well as his Symphonia sacra. Amongst other honors Zimmermann has been awarded the Music Prizes of the cities of Stuttgart and Berlin a Villa Massimo Stipend in 1965/66 and received in 1982 the Johann Sebastian Bach Prize. The American Wittenberg University in Springfield bestowed upon him an honorary doctorate Zimmermann wrote three American theses including one at the Stanford University in California. (Source: Wikipedia)