Nonet op.70

SKU: HL.44012485

ISBN 9789043145183. UPC: 888680086459.

Op. 70 - flt, ob, eng hn, 2 clar, 2 hn, 2 bsn.

SKU: PR.11441352S

UPC: 680160573523. Key: F major.

SKU: HL.14030047

ISBN 9788759852095. 8.25x11.75x0.048 inches.

The Piano music of Jean Sibelius ranks among the greatest of Finnish music, and his 1924 set Five Characteristic Impressions demonstrates his importance, particularly in the field of Tone Poems. The fifth piece of this set, In Mournful Mood is a slower piece than the others, but is moving nonetheless. It is an impressionist piece that expresses imagery of reality with fabulous tonality and colour.

SKU: FL.FX070711

EPSIBOP is a fast tune that sounds like a little Big Band. Claudio Roditi, in the record, is exposing the theme, very swing.

SKU: PR.466000470

UPC: 680160099405. 11 x 17 inches.

This is the second incarnation of a work I first composed in 1994 for symphonic wind ensemble. The earlier version was intended to be the summation of three-part suite, each part being named for a different national park in the Western United States. This orchestral version, commissioned in 1999 by the Utah Symphony and dedicated to the memory of Aaron Copland, is more than a re-scoring of the earlier piece; it is a re-thinking of all its elements. Zion is a place with unrivaled natural grandeur, being a sort of huge box canyon in which the traveler is constantly overwhelmed by towering rock walls on every side of him -- but it is also a place with a human history, having been inhabited by several tribes of native Americans before the arrival of the Mormon settlers in the mid-19th century. By the time the Mormons reached Utah, they had been driven all the way from New York State through Ohio and, with tragic losses, through Missouri. They saw Utah in general as a place nobody wanted, but they were nonetheless determined to keep it to themselves. Although Zion Canyon was never a Mormon Stronghold, the people who reached it and claimed it (and gave it its present name) had been through extreme trials. It is the religious fervor of these persecuted people that I was able to draw upon in creating Zion as a piece of music. There are two quoted hymns in the work: Zion's Walls (which Aaron Copland adapted to his own purposes in both his Old American Songs and the opera The Tender Land) and Zion's Security, which I found in the same volume in which Copland found Zion's Walls -- that inexhaustible storehouse of 19th-century hymnody called The Sacred Harp. My work opens with a three-verse setting of Zion's Security, a stern tune in F-sharp minor which is full of resolve. (The words of this hymn are resolute and strong, rallying the faithful to be firm, and describing the city of our God they hope to establish). This melody alternates with a fanfare tune, whose origins will be revealed in later music, until the second half of the piece begins: a driving rhythmic ostinato based on a 3/4-4/4 alternating meter scheme. This pauses at its height to restate Zion's Security one more time, in a rather obscure setting surrounded by freely shifting patterns in the flutes, clarinets, and percussion -- until the sun warms the ground sufficiently for the second hymn to appear. Zion's Walls is set in 7/8, unlike Copland's 9/8-6/8 meters (the original is quite strange, and doesn't really fit any constant meter), and is introduced by a warm horn solo. The two hymns vie for attention from here to the end of the piece, with the glowingly optimistic Zion's Walls finally achieving prominence. The work ends with a sense of triumph.

SKU: CA.2718709

ISBN 9790007302191. Latin.

As an acclaimed opera composer, Georges Bizet admitted that he had no real sensibility for sacred music. His Te Deum is nonetheless a truly fascinating and highly expressive work. From the majestic “Te Deum laudamus”, to the skillful choral fugue of “Fiat misericordia tua”, and the opening's powerful recapitulation, the composition shows no trace of the difficulties that beset the young Bizet by his own admission before he finally completed the work in 1858.

In the extensive trilingual preface to this Urtext edition, editor Marc Rigaudière illuminates the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Te Deum, a work which occupies a singular position in Bizet’s œuvre. The edition is based on the composer’s autograph score — the work's only surviving source. For the first time, this work is available with all performance parts.

SKU: CA.2718737

Latin.

As an acclaimed opera composer, Georges Bizet admitted that he had no real sensibility for sacred music. His Te Deum is nonetheless a truly fascinating and highly expressive work. From the majestic “Te Deum laudamus”, to the skillful choral fugue of “Fiat misericordia tua”, and the opening's powerful recapitulation, the composition shows no trace of the difficulties that beset the young Bizet by his own admission before he finally completed the work in 1858.

In the extensive trilingual preface to this Urtext edition, editor Marc Rigaudière illuminates the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Te Deum, a work which occupies a singular position in Bizet’s œuvre. The edition is based on the composer’s autograph score — the work's only surviving source. For the first time, this work is available with all performance parts.

SKU: CA.2718732

Latin.

As an acclaimed opera composer, Georges Bizet admitted that he had no real sensibility for sacred music. His Te Deum is nonetheless a truly fascinating and highly expressive work. From the majestic “Te Deum laudamus”, to the skillful choral fugue of “Fiat misericordia tua”, and the opening's powerful recapitulation, the composition shows no trace of the difficulties that beset the young Bizet by his own admission before he finally completed the work in 1858.

In the extensive trilingual preface to this Urtext edition, editor Marc Rigaudière illuminates the circumstances surrounding the composition of the Te Deum, a work which occupies a singular position in Bizet’s œuvre. The edition is based on the composer’s autograph score — the work's only surviving source. For the first time, this work is available with all performance parts.

SKU: CF.B3470

ISBN 9781491159460. UPC: 680160918058.

The awardee of two Guggenheim fellowships, Julia Perry studied composition with Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger, and conducted her works on a tour throughout Europe with the Vienna Philharmonic and the BBC Orchestra. She would become one of the first African-American female composers to have an orchestral work performed by the New York Philharmonic. Although she had an auspicious and promising career in her early life, it was tragically cut short by a series of strokes leading to partial paralysis and eventually, her death, at age 55 in 1979.Perry’s catalog is widely varied, featuring thirteen symphonies, numerous chamber and solo works, pieces for band, choral and vocal music, and four operas. Her Violin Concerto, completed in 1968, shows the influence of Dallapiccola’s teachings: sharp harmonic dissonances organized around specific pitch centers, short repetitive patterns that establish significant musical materials, and contrapuntal textures. Her fastidious performance markings in the solo violin part indicate her profound understanding of the instrument. Angular, muscled, and sparkling by turns, this piece is a sophisticated entry to the serious violinist's concert repertoire.There is no evidence or documentation that the Violin Concerto was ever premiered or performed during her lifetime, despite the fact that the composer prepared a full score, piano reduction and orchestral parts. Regrettably, this is the case with the majority of her works composed in the final decade of her life.
What is extraordinary about Julia Perry’s musical career was the astonishing success she attained in her early years. In her youth she studied piano, voice, violin and cello. She began to compose in her teenage years, her first publication being a choral work in 1947 by Carl Fischer. Her Stabat Mater was published in 1951 and would become one of her most often performed pieces, with performances in Europe and the United States. In 1953 she was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to study with the Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola, first at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, later in Florence, Italy. During this time, she also pursued studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and was awarded a second Guggenheim fellowship. She studied conducting at this time, touring Europe in 1957 to conduct her own works with the Vienna Philharmonic and the BBC Orchestra. During her European sojourns, she learned and mastered French, German and Italian. She would become one of the first African-American female composers to have an orchestral work performed by the New York Philharmonic.Perry’s circumstances would change dramatically once she reached forty years of age, having returned permanently to the United States. At some point in the spring of 1970, she suffered the first of two strokes that would paralyze her right side and confine her to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Nonetheless, she continued to compose and to promote her works with publishers and conductors. A second stroke contributed to her death in 1979 at age 55. She likely endured harsh ethnic and gender discrimination in the course of her career, and her later years would witness a period of extreme civil unrest. These matters and the significance of music in her life are undoubtedly what led her to say, “Music has a great role to play in establishing the brotherhood of man.”Perry’s catalog is widely varied, featuring thirteen symphonies, numerous chamber and solo works, pieces for band, choral and vocal music, and four operas. Her Violin Concerto, completed in 1968, is indicative of the influence of Dallapiccola’s teachings: sharp harmonic dissonances organized around specific pitch centers, short repetitive patterns that establish significant musical materials, and contrapuntal textures. The work is a single movement of 392 measures organized around three alternating tempos: Slow (Œ = 60), Moderate (Œ = 84) and Fast (Œ = 120). The opening thirty-measure cadenza for the solo violin introduces most of the thematic material for the piece. The orchestration commonly features antiphonal writing between orchestral groups, for example, strings alternating with brass, or strings alternating with winds. The harp and piano generally appear as solo instruments, rather than as members of the orchestra. Her fastidious performance markings in the solo violin part indicate her profound understanding of the instrument.There is no evidence or documentation that the Violin Concerto was ever premiered or performed during her lifetime, despite the fact that the composer prepared a full score, piano reduction and orchestral parts. Regrettably, this is the case with the majority of her works composed in the final decade of her life.

SKU: HL.156352

UPC: 876964009416. 5.5x6.5x0.47 inches.

The definitive documentary about the beloved and influential '70s rock band Big Star. Together less than four years, the band flirted with mainstream success but never achieved it. Nonetheless, they produced a body of work of seminal important to pop and alternative music, influencing major artists like REM, The Replacements, Elliot Smith, Beck, The Flaming Lips and countless others.