Prelude a L'Apres Midi d'un Faun

SKU: CY.CC2582

One of the greatest works of the French impressionist era, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy evokes mystery, stillness, lyricism, finesse, sensuality, nature, dreams and desires. Taken from a poem by Stephane Mallarme this work is considered by some to be a turning point of musical history as an awakening of modern music as it stretches the limits of tonality. The work was later choreographed in 1912 by Nijinsky.

This marvelous arrangement by Ralph Sauer is appropriate for advanced performers and is about 10 minutes in length.

SKU: CY.CC2951

ISBN 9790530057704.

One of the greatest works of the French impressionist era, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy evokes mystery, stillness, lyricism, finesse, sensuality, nature, dreams and desires. Taken from a poem by Stephane Mallarme this work is considered by some to be a turning point of musical history as an awakening of modern music as it stretches the limits of tonality. The work was later choreographed in 1912 by Nijinsky.

This marvelous arrangement by Ralph Sauer is appropriate for advanced performers and is about 10 minutes in length.

SKU: BR.OB-5169-23

ISBN 9790004329894. 10 x 12.5 inches.

As Pierre Boulez put it, since the flute of the faun, music breathes differently. The complete orchestral material as well as the score are now offered for the first time for sale. This allows all ensembles to work at this masterpiece at length.

SKU: BR.OB-5169-15

ISBN 9790004329863. 10 x 12.5 inches.

As Pierre Boulez put it, since the flute of the faun, music breathes differently. The complete orchestral material as well as the score are now offered for the first time for sale. This allows all ensembles to work at this masterpiece at length.

SKU: PR.11440719S

UPC: 680160011087. 8.5 x 11 inches.

Sambuca, which most people know today as a licorice-flavored liqueur, was the name the Greeks gave to a kind of sharp, shrill-sounding harp, of Eastern, possibly Jewish origin. The Greeks then gave this same name to a wooden flute made from the elder bush, and in the middle ages it was also associated with the viol, at least to the extent that the Hurdy-gurdy, an instrument shaped like a viol and played by means of a rotating wheel, was sometimes called a Sambuca rotata. Thus, the word Sambuca is tied up with the ancestors - in each case, ancestors of ow birth, as it were - of the modern harp, flute, and viola. Somehow, the present-day association with alcohol seems very meet, in that a certain objectionable quality seems to have gone with the name - in 1545 one George Ascham wrote, This I am sure... all maner of pypes, barbitons, sambukes... be condemned of Aristotle. The word Sambucistria - for a female Sambuca player - was used by Plutarch and others to evoke a feeling of foreign-inspired decadence [Grove's Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 1984]. Currier's work is truly a Sambuca sonata. Written for the three Sambuca instruments, Currier has first of all seemingly endeavoured to make the harp part particularly Sambuca-like (i.e., sharp and shrill) with its many nail and xylophonic effects, but more importantly, has used musical material that corresponds to the low-brow, somewhat Dionysian, indeed, today even Bacchanalian implication of the name - thus, rock music seems to inspire a great deal Currier's work [the Samba, an appropriately Bacchanalian Brazilian Carnival dance, in duple meter with syncopations, while apparently having no etymological connection to Sambuca, might seem to be musically involved, too]. The Sambuca which lies behind this rather drunken piece is probably the only musical instrument which became a model for an instrument of war; one Craxton wrote in 1489 that Sambuce is an engyn whiche is made in manere of a harpe able to perce a walle. But whether talking of the modern liqueur or the ancient instrument condemned of Aristotle and mentioned four times in the Book of Daniel, it is a shame that Debussy - inspired by the Dionysian side of classical culture (as in Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune) - seems to have remained ignorant Sambuca, a word which to some extent must lie behind all works for this wonderful instrumentation which he invented, and which I might seem to have striven unconsciously, equally ignorant, to make the sole basis of Currier's work - until, having completed this piece, written for harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet, and rummaging around for a title, I chanced upon it in an old dictionary.