Format : Score
SKU: HL.44004947
UPC: 073999696592.
SKU: BP.HB168
Arranged for 3 to 6 octave handbell choir, organ and optional brass quintet and percussion. Level 4. Uses TERRA BEATA, ELLACOMBE, HYMN TO JOY.
SKU: CF.CPS250F
ISBN 9781491159583. UPC: 680160918171.
Kaleidoscope Sky is inspired by the breathtaking pastime of hot-air ballooning and the glorious festivals around the world that honor the practice. A sky full of colorful spheres elegantly floating at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, Mondial Air Ballons and more draw thousands of people to witness awe-inspiring scenes full of passionate balloonists. Traditional hot-air balloons mix with creatively designed balloons to thrill the tens of thousands of spectators below. While I personally am not a person who dreams of taking my own flight--heights are not my thing--I have to marvel at how gently and easily these vessels float among the clouds. It truly is an image of exquisite freedom. This piece reflects the view and experience of the onlooker taking in an elegantly shifting scene reminiscent of kaleidoscope patterns. Spectators like me can appreciate the beauty and vibrancy associated with a horizon full of adventurous balloonists and their wondrous aircrafts. Kaleidoscope Sky starts in a triumphant and celebratory fashion and continues to conjure images reminiscent of the wide variety of soaring colors on display at a hot-air balloon event. Ultimately, the piece appropriately concludes with a suspenseful, yet graceful, run to the finish line. Melodic lines should soar with attention being paid to phrase markings and assigned articulations. Encourage musicians to allow room for the melodic material to be heard in thicker textures where supporting harmonies are often rhythmic in nature. These harmonies should support, and not cloud the melodies. The meter changes should sound effortless, and the continuous figures in the percussion will help to achieve this effect. The snare drum, in particular, should bring accented notes to the foreground while maintaining a steady textural effect with non-accented notes as a rhythmic background. This will go a long way in finding a cohesive subdivision and ensemble pulse.Kaleidoscope Sky is inspired by the breathtaking pastime of hot-air ballooning and the glorious festivals around the world that honor the practice. A sky full of colorful spheres elegantly floating at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, Mondial Air Ballons and more draw thousands of people to witness awe-inspiring scenes full of passionate balloonists. Traditional hot-air balloons mix with creatively designed balloons to thrill the tens of thousands of spectators below. While I personally am not a person who dreams of taking my own flight—heights are not my thing—I have to marvel at how gently and easily these vessels float among the clouds. It truly is an image of exquisite freedom. This piece reflects the view and experience of the onlooker taking in an elegantly shifting scene reminiscent of kaleidoscope patterns. Spectators like me can appreciate the beauty and vibrancy associated with a horizon full of adventurous balloonists and their wondrous aircrafts. Kaleidoscope Sky starts in a triumphant and celebratory fashion and continues to conjure images reminiscent of the wide variety of soaring colors on display at a hot-air balloon event. Ultimately, the piece appropriately concludes with a suspenseful, yet graceful, run to the finish line.Melodic lines should “soar†with attention being paid to phrase markings and assigned articulations. Encourage musicians to allow room for the melodic material to be heard in thicker textures where supporting harmonies are often rhythmic in nature. These harmonies should support, and not “cloud†the melodies. The meter changes should sound effortless, and the continuous figures in the percussion will help to achieve this effect. The snare drum, in particular, should bring accented notes to the foreground while maintaining a steady textural effect with non-accented notes as a rhythmic background. This will go a long way in finding a cohesive subdivision and ensemble pulse.
SKU: CF.BAS82F
ISBN 9781491157442. UPC: 680160916023. 9 x 12 inches.
First-year players can reach for the stars with this easy concert piece. An ethereal theme reflecting the mysterious celestial spheres is created with simple rhythms in first position. All sections of the orchestra have interesting parts and melodic lines, supported by doubling of Violin 2/Viola and Cello/Bass. The energetic piano part is recommended and will help students hear the subdivision of the beat.First-year players can “reach for the stars†with this easy concert piece. An ethereal theme reflecting the mysterious celestial spheres is created with simple rhythms in first position. All sections of the orchestra have interesting parts and melodic lines, supported by doubling of Violin 2/Viola and Cello/Bass. The energetic piano part is recommended and will help students hear the subdivision of the beat.
About Carl Fischer Beginning String Orchestra Series
This series of Grade 1 pieces is designed for first year string groups. The pieces in this series are characterized by:
SKU: HL.277282
UPC: 840126915006. 6.75x10.5 inches.
Program note:Looking Up is a piece for large chorus and orchestra, and is in three sections, played without pause. In the 16th century, a variety of psalters in meter were printed in England, with the idea of making psalm-singing something that could happen easily at home, with the rhyming meter being an aid to memorization. These translations are wonderful exercises in brevity and sometimes clumsy rhymemaking, and were usually prefaced by a lengthy explanation as to their merits; the title of one of the first such volumes in English is: The Psalter of Dauid newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the mynde, be reade and songe of al men. I thought it would be appropriate to set one of these introductions, and the first section of Looking Up sets the preface to Thomas Ravenscroft's psalter (1621), in which he writes: “The singing of Psalmes (assay the Doctors) comforteth the sorrowfull, pacifieth the angry, strengtheneth the weake, humbleth the proud, gladdeth the humble, stirres up the slow, reconcileth enemies, lifteth up the heart to heavenly things, and uniteth the Creature to his Creator.”It begins meditatively, but eventually grows agitated and fervent, with a vision of the “quire of Angels and Saints” “redoubling anddescanting” - an ecstatic and terrifying vision of the skies opening up. Ravenscroft then encourages the use of instrumental musicfor worship, at which point, a long, acrobatic orchestral interlude with jagged edges antagonizes the choir, who sing a kind of private, anxious meditation on two pitches.One of the most delicious biblical texts is an Apocryphal prayer known as the Benedicite or the Prayer of the Three Children (the same who were rescued by an angel after King Nebuchadnezzar tried to have them burnt in an oven for not bowing to his image). The text is repetitive, obsessive, and a gift to composers - each line is an invocation of an element of the natural world, followed by the phrase, “blesse ye the Lord, praise him & magnify him for ever.” In Looking Up, the setting begins with three solo voices, and then grows to include the whole choir, itemizing the whole of creation. The idea that these boys are spared from the furnace and then five minutes later are saying, “O ye the fire and warming heate, blesse ye the Lord...” has always felt very loaded to me, and the orchestra plays with this conflict between joyful praise and a more terrible (in the 16th-century sense) awefor the divine.The text for the third, and shortest, section is taken from Christopher Smart's (1722-1771) A Song to David, purportedly written during his confinement in a mental asylum. This ode to King David points out how David, as the author of some of the Psalms, observes the whole world from the “clustering spheres” to the “nosegay in the vale.&rdquo.
SKU: CF.BAS90F
ISBN 9781491165157. UPC: 680160924066. Key: B minor.
With unusual and unexpected harmonies in the piano accompaniment, this easy piece for beginning orchestra uses only simple quarter notes in unison to explore the mysterious celestial spheres. Remaining in the range of the D major scale with no shifting in the bass, young players can build confidence in counting, steady pulse, finger placement, détaché and staccato bowing, and intonation. A contemporary first concert piece that sounds much harder than it actually is! Download the free accompaniment track from the publisher website.
SKU: CF.CPS250
ISBN 9781491159576. UPC: 680160918164.
SKU: PR.362034230
ISBN 9781598069556. UPC: 680160624225. Letter inches. English.
When the Texas Choral Consort asked Welcher to write a short prologue to Haydn's The Creation, his first reaction was that Haydn already presents Chaos in his introductory movement. As he thought about it, Welcher began envisioning a truer void to precede Haydn's depiction of Chaos within the scope of 18th-century classical style - quoting some of Haydn's themes and showing human voices and inhuman sounds in a kind of pre-creation melange of color, mood, and atmosphere. Welcher accepted this challenge with the proviso that his prologue would lead directly into Haydn's masterpiece without stopping, and certainly without applause in between. Scored for mixed chorus and Haydn's instrumentation, Without Form and Void is a dramatically fresh yet pragmatic enhancement to deepen any performance of Haydn's The Creation. Orchestral score and parts are available on rental.When Brent Baldwin asked me to consider writing a short prologue to THE CREATION, my first response was “Why?â€Â THE CREATION already contains a prologue; it’s called “Representation of Chaosâ€, and it’s Haydn’s way of showing the formless universe. How could a new piece do anything but get in the way? But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The Age of Enlightenment’s idea of “Chaos†was just extended chromaticism, no more than Bach used (in fact, Bach went further).Perhaps there might be a way to use the full resources of the modern orchestra (or at least, a Haydn-sized orchestra) and the modern chorus to really present a cosmic soup of unborn musical atoms, just waiting for Haydn’s sure touch to animate them. Perhaps it could even quote some of Haydn’s themes before he knew them himself, and also show human voices and inhuman sounds in a kind of pre-creation mélange of color, mood, and atmosphere. So I accepted the challenge, with the proviso that my new piece not be treated as some kind of “overtureâ€, but would instead be allowed to lead directly into Haydn’s masterpiece without stopping, and certainly without applause. I crafted this five minute piece to begin with a kind of “music of the spheres†universe-hum, created by tuned wine glasses and violin harmonics. The chorus enters very soon after, with the opening words of Genesis whispered simultaneously in as many languages as can be found in a chorus. The first two minutes of my work are all about unborn human voices and unfocused planetary sounds, gradually becoming more and more “coherent†until we finally hear actual pitches, melodies, and words. Three of Haydn’s melodies will be heard, to be specific, but not in the way he will present them an hour from now. It’s almost as if we are listening inside the womb of the universe, looking for a faint heartbeat of worlds, animals, and people to come. At the end of the piece, the chorus finally finds its voice with a single word: “God!â€, and the orchestra finally finds its own pulse as well. The unstoppable desire for birth must now be answered, and it is----by Haydn’s marvelous oratorio. I am not a religious man in any traditional sense. Neither was Haydn, nor Mozart, nor Beethoven. But all of them, as well as I, share in what is now called a humanistic view of how things came to be, how life in its many forms developed on this planet, and how Man became the recorder of history. The gospel according to John begins with a parody of Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.â€Â  I love that phrase, and it’s in that spirit that I offer my humble “opener†to the finest work of one of the greatest composers Western music has ever known. My piece is not supposed to sound like Haydn. It’s supposed to sound like a giant palette, on which a composer in 1798 might find more outrageous colors than his era would permit…but which, I hope, he would have been delighted to hear.
SKU: ST.C463
ISBN 9790570814633.
This volume contains contrasting works by Federico Ruiz spanning quite a large and rich period of his compositional output that goes from his early Micro-Suite (1971), to lilting, sweet and rhythmic Venezuelan waltzes passing by the mysterious, intimate, and intense Nocturno (1994) plus pieces originally composed for film, and theatre. Real eclecticism in styles, moods and atmospheres that show Ruizâ??s talents and scope.The Nocturno is a deep, intriguing, substantial piece presenting a satisfying length which moves from different paths of the mind and the heart written in an abstract, chromatic idiom, that does not dissociate itself from the Venezuelan waltz and the joropo. One could perhaps say that there is a deconstruction of the latter. For the interpretation, the composer has suggested to me that it is allowed to have some flexibility in the tempo. Ruiz kindly dedicated it to me, and I have had the pleasure of performing it in many concerts.Although all highly expressive, the Three Venezuelan Waltzes present in this collection as well as the piece titled Aliseo, are works that are close to the colourful Venezuelan folk tradition. Federico Ruiz had given me two of them when we first met: â??Tu Presenciaâ?? (1981) and â??EloÃsaâ?? (1989) and then I attended a performance of the play â??Office Number Oneâ?? by Miguel Otero Silva with a fantastic actor, Elba Escobar in the role of Carmen Rosa and, I just fell in love and was very moved by the incidental music that I later discovered, by reading the programme, had been written by Federico Ruiz. Later that evening, I called him and asked to please make a piano score of the composition, so I could have the desired piece in my hands. That is how â??Carmen Rosaâ? waltz (1987) came to exist in a piano version.â??Eloisaâ?? is another Venezuelan waltz with more jazzy harmonies where precision in the rhythm and elegant playing is also essential, as it is in most of his pieces.â??Tu Presenciaâ?? was dedicated to his mother, Margarita. It is written with the structure of the Venezuelan waltz, which consists of a nostalgic subject that leads to a faster, happier middle section where the typical graceful rhythm is given by the left-hand accompaniment figure of a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver and a crotchet.The craft and magic found in the five movements of the Micro-Suite is based on a dodecaphonic row by Ernst Krenek. They remind us of the idiom of the Second Viennese School. These real miniatures seem to tell short stories. The â??Preludioâ?? is full of humour. I imagine dancing figures given by the jumps all over the keyboard and extreme dynamics; the phrases give the impression of a conversation with many questions and answers. The â??Invenciónâ?? is a kaleidoscopic piece where the hands mirror each other. The â??Passacagliaâ?? is the longest movement, at just over a minute where the prime motif is repeated three times on the bass line. For its construction Federico Ruiz uses as well the retrograde and the retrograde inversion of the twelve-tone series. It must be played expressively with dynamic contrasts between pianissimo and louder events. The â??Scherzoâ?? has repetitive motifs of a minor third in both hands and the â??Finalâ?? displays virtuosic passages for the pianist.Aliseo was originally written for the film â??Aire libreâ? (1995), by Luis Armando Roche. It contains elements of diverse types of Venezuelan joropo. In the film, the character of Aliseo Carvallo is played by the composer himself who performs this piece on a harpsichord to welcome scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland one day at the turn of the 1800â??s, as a sample of the new music from the South American land. It presents the refinement of the late European classical era in fusion with Venezuelan folk music.