SKU: HL.14007457
UPC: 888680605735. 8.5x11.75x0.313 inches.
John McCabe's Concerto For Piano And Wind Quintet. Commissioned by the Birmingham Chamber Music Society, for first performance by the Venturi Ensemble (Sebastian Bell, Philip Jones, Roy Jowitt, Alan Hammond, James Diack, and John McCabe) on 21 February 1970.
SKU: HL.14021073
This was first performed by Martin Milner with the Halle Orchestra conducted by Maurice Handford in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, in March 1963, being broadcast some months later. The work and its general shape were suggested by T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men, and the scoring includes a large percussion section.
SKU: HL.14019930
SKU: HL.14025491
SKU: HL.14007497
SKU: HL.14029884
8.25x11.75x0.09 inches.
The Goddess Trilogy was inspired by the Welsh medieval legend of the goddess Cerridwen who was both destroyer and creator, a shape-changing being who appeared various as a white sow, a screaming black hag and a giver of the 'inspired arts'. Shapeshifter is a fast-moving work combining rondo structure with free variations. It relates to the opening work of the trilogy through the short Horn solo in the final bars.Contemporary British composer John McCabe has been a prolific composer since his earliest years and an active pianist, recording extensively and performing across the globe. His compositions tend toward the largescale works - there are seven symphonies so far -but has composed for every size and type of ensemble. He is particularly well known for his concerti.
SKU: FP.FPT06
ISBN 9780951479544.
Endless Fascination brings together Thomas Pitfield’s most significant autobiographical writings, new critical essays reappraising his work, and the recollections of family, friends, pupils and colleagues. It is illustrated with portraits, musical examples and over 100 reproductions of his art and craft works, supplemented by a CD of music by the composer and his acquaintances.Thomas Pitfield (1903-1999) was born in Bolton, Lancashire, into a conventional and narrow-minded working-class family. Drawn to music and driven by a compelling urge to compose, he overcame initial setbacks and lived according to principles he worked out for himself, maintaining a modest and honest lifestyle directed by the precepts of vegetarianism and pacifism, and keeping faith with his innate gifts to make a living and a home for himself and his like-minded wife Alice. He became a notable and prolific composer who enjoyed numerous performances and broadcasts of his works, especially in the North West region of England, some by leading artists such as John Barbirolli, Vilém Tauský, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, John McCabe, and Ronald Stevenson. His music, often written for specific occasions or performers, was typically light-hearted and small-scale, with frequent reference to folk-music; larger-scale pieces included two piano concertos, concertos for violin, cello and recorder, and more than a dozen stage works. He was also an artist, craftsman and poet (with an enthusiasm for nonsense verse), whose work reflects the revival of interest in the arts and crafts during the first half of the 20th century. Running as a thread though everything he did was his unswerving love for the natural world and in particular the beauty of trees.
