Junior Concerto

SKU: CY.CC3136

ISBN 9790530111055. 8.5 x 11 in inches.

This fine work has sat dormant for many years and has now come to light thanks to the efforts of Charlie Vernon, Bass Trombonist of the Chicago Symphony, who performed this virtuoso work as a young performer. The concerto is in the standard three movement form: Fast, slow, fast. This publication is a reduction from the original orchestral version (to be released at some point in the future). Here is a description of the Concerto by the composer, John W. Ware. I started on the trombone concerto in my junior year studying composition at Indiana University. While working on it, I learned of an opportunity to make it sort of a thesis piece (though students didn't write a thesis in composition while an undergrad). The original version was for trombone with string orchestra, and it was performed by the IU String Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Arthur Corra, with Robert Priez, trombone, as part of my senior composition recital. I thought the performance was quite good (Priez played extraordinarily well), and the piece received a newspaper review in the Indiana Daily Student, in which the reviewer wrote that the work was almost too exciting. I thought at the time that he had given me and my music a fine compliment. I made a piano version of the accompaniment, shortening and tightening the first movement, for performances in 1966; I made a second revision in 1967 for a performance by E. J. Eaton, trombonist at the University of Tennessee at Martin, arriving at the form in which the work exists now. The first movement is in fairly normal sonata-allegro form, in the key of A minor. It alternates between assertive and more thoughtful moods. There is no introduction; the soloist enters immediately and dominates much of the movement. The main theme is--by some manipulation--a source for most of the other themes, and all of the themes are used in close proximity to each other, including contrapuntal combinations, especially near the end. Originally the movement included a lengthy fugato, now much shortened and including a stretto that builds and subsides before a cadenza leading to a coda based on both the principal and secondary themes. Key relations in this movement, as in the other two, are quite free and often chromatic, with frequent third-relations; but returns to the tonic at the end are emphatic. The writing is challenging for both soloist and accompanist; the piece is substantial, requiring technique and stamina. The second movement is in F minor and is also built on both contrast and close relationships between the main and secondary themes. The main theme is heard in the piano part before the soloist enters. The mood is more lyric than in the first movement, but with dramatic episodes also. In this movement are some definite derivations from themes in the first movement. The ending is a sort of lengthened shadow of the opening. The finale returns to A minor, with themes slightly related to polonaise rhythms, but with strong echoes of first-movement themes. Here, too, dramatic and lyric episodes alternate, with dotted rhythms frequently propelling the music forward. The introduction is a brief and simple preparation for the solo entry. Later in the movement, a very brief, slightly slower section is soon overtaken by the original tempo. Toward the end, there is a second cadenza, again leading to a swift and energetic coda. The work is about 20 minutes in length and is appropriate for advanced performers.

SKU: HH.HH546-IPT

Burgess’s concertos display unity in larger matters and variety in smaller ones, aiming to achieve coherence without monotony. Their greatest originality, and a major part of their attractiveness, arises from the fact that they draw their inspiration from three different sources. Particularly in the fast movements not in binary form, they adopt the structure and much of the style of equivalent movements by Vivaldi. But they also follow Handelian precedent in their copious use of the ‘call-and-response’ device, where soloist and orchestra exchange a series of phrases, and in their striving for gravitas and pathos. To these influences can be added their frequent allusions to English song and dance traditions.

SKU: HH.HH545-IPT

Burgess’s concertos display unity in larger matters and variety in smaller ones, aiming to achieve coherence without monotony. Their greatest originality, and a major part of their attractiveness, arises from the fact that they draw their inspiration from three different sources. Particularly in the fast movements not in binary form, they adopt the structure and much of the style of equivalent movements by Vivaldi. But they also follow Handelian precedent in their copious use of the ‘call-and-response’ device, where soloist and orchestra exchange a series of phrases, and in their striving for gravitas and pathos. To these influences can be added their frequent allusions to English song and dance traditions.

SKU: HL.14041762

9.0x12.0x0.071 inches.

'Romance for violin and piano is a short, reflective piece that exploits the lyrical qualities inherent in the combination. Originally written for a very young but talented violinist, Romance travels through numerous moods andcolours within a continuous musical development of the opening material. At first gentle and reflective with increasing dramatic outbursts outlined by the violin sforzandi and parallel sixths in the piano writing, numerous shortsolo passages in both instruments culminate in a fiery climax. Quickly subsiding into the calmer yet now more melancholy strains of the earlier stages of the piece, the ending is somewhat incomplete. This seems to suggest acontinuous turn of events alluded to in the music.'
             - Helen Grime



Born in 1981, Helen studied oboe with JohnAnderson and composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of Music. She graduated from the BMus course with First Class Honours and completed her Masters with Distinction in 2004. From 2005-07, Helenwas a Legal & General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music. In 2003 she won a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, and was awarded the intercollegiate Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well as allthe major composition prizes in the RCM. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas.Helen has had works commissioned by some of the most established performers and organisations including ENO, London Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center.Conductors who have performed her work include Daniel Harding, Oliver Knussen, Pierre Boulez and Yan Pascal Tortelier. Helen is the 2010 recipient of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund and Associate Composer of The Halle from the.

SKU: HL.50486705

ISBN 9790080143759. 9.0x12.0x0.334 inches. Friedrich Georg Handel; Andras Soos.

Andras Soos, who arranged and edited this volume, has selected from the composer's popular harpsichord suites, concerti grossi, operas and his Water Music movements and arias that are relatively simple both technically and in terms of musical expression, and suitable for performance by a junior orchestra. Thus from quite an early age, by interpreting the most demanding musical material students can become familiar with the language of the Baroque style and its mode of performance. The selection includes not only the well known Hornpipe and also a minuet from the Water Music, but also the famous aria from Rinaldo beginning 'Lascia ch'io pianga|'. (Any teacher or student who is interested can find the source of each piece in the list of contents.).