Something else op. 160

SKU: HL.49047037

ISBN 9781705182024. UPC: 842819116998. 9.0x12.0x0.123 inches.

My father, Y. “Raghu” Raghunathan, came from India to the U.S. in 1963, followed soon after by my mother Sita. Dad enjoyed a substantial career as a pharmaceutical chemist, but he drew satisfaction from a simple life among family and friends, never allowing professional demands to overshadow his devotion to loved ones. Modest, compassionate, and ardently egalitarian, he was careful not to take anything too seriously, especially himself. He embraced his own ordinariness because it connected him to everyone else; it made him no better or worse than his neighbor, no more or less deserving of friendship or kindness than any of his fellow human beings. He showed us how to live with dignity, compassion, grace, and boundless love. His last piece of advice to me: “Go slow.” Several weeks after his passing, I happened upon a recording of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, opus 87. I couldn’t understand why at the time, but the sixteenth prelude and fugue took hold of me and would not let go. I completely immersed myself in that piece for ten days, until it became a mystical conduit for something else: in this semi-trance state I produced a prelude and fugue of my own, in prayer (orison) and in praise (upastuti). It shadows Shostakovich’s form, but it somehow expresses my father’s unhurried, loving spirit. I’ve come to believe that he sent me this piece as a blessing. I hope you feel his presence in it as I do. Vijay Iyer.

SKU: BR.EB-9244

ISBN 9790004185445. 9 x 12 inches.

It was the practice of Khoomii (throat singing) - following several workshops with Michael Ormiston - that first attracted me to Tuvan music. Composing this Songbook, the first in a series commissioned by the Ligeti Quartet, I took the chance to reflect on compositional questions around transcription and arrangement of existing music, and frequently found myself asking: where is the boundary between the source material and the new substance? Of course the relationship varies from piece to piece, and moment to moment: sometimes we seem to glimpse the pure source, but most of the time there are differing degrees of distance, working towards or away from it. This new version for string orchestra corresponds closely to the original quartet version, with an additional part for double basses.The traditional Tuvan songs that I have transcribed and recomposed are all known to me from the Ay Kherel CD The Music of Tuva: Throat Singing and Instruments from Central Asia (2004, Arc Music). According to the notes from that CD, this is what the songs are about:1. Dyngylday: If you have come on a horse in blue, it doesn't mean that you are the best. My heart tells me something else: my sweetheart doesn't have such a beautiful horse, but he is my darling.An alternative interpretation from Alash Ensemble (alashensemble.com): The word dyngylday is a nonsense term with no translation. The song makes good-humored fun of somebody for being a good-for-nothing.2. Eki Attar (The Best Steeds): The horse is the basis of our life. It is a magic creature. Even its step is full of music and rhythm. You may not be a horse rider, but when you hear this song you will always remember horses.3. Kuda Yry: This wedding song glorifies the strength of the groom and the beauty of his Horse.4. Ezir-Kara ('Black Eagle'): This was the name of a horse, who became a legend through his remarkable strength and speed.It is not just overtones that abound here: there are galloping rhythms aplenty, and though I am no horse rider I tried to keep the horses galloping in my imagination while composing these pieces.Christian Mason (with quotes from Ay Kherel and Alash Ensemble)

World premiere of the original version: London/UK, May 10, 2016, World premiere of the string orchestra version: Clermont-Ferrand/France, October 8, 2020.

SKU: BR.PB-15131

In Cooperation with G. Henle Verlag

ISBN 9790004214671. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Prank or Color Code? Mozart composed all of his horn concertos for Joseph Leutgeb, a long-standing friend of his family. In Salzburg Leutgeb was in the service of the court ensemble as horn player and violinist before departing for Vienna, where he became known as a performer of Mozart's horn concertos. In 1786 Mozart wrote his fourth horn concerto in E flat major, which, unfortunately, survives only as an incomplete fragment. For the present new edition in Breitkopf Urtext, a reliable early print for the missing sections is used. Nevertheless, this autograph is still a very valuable source, since it contains Mozart's notation of the work in colored ink! The question as to whether this was one of Mozart's typical jokes aimed at Leutgeb or whether he had something else in mind, remains inconclusive to this day. Whoever is curious can take a guess as well, since Breitkopf is printing (in its new edition and in autograph form) the sections in color that were originally transmitted as such.

SKU: BR.SON-633

ISBN 9790004803684. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Symphony, symphonic poem, fantasy, or something else entirely different? For a long time while working on the Sixth Symphony, Sibelius was not certain what his new orchestral work was now about to become or what to call it. He had to interrupt work on the symphony time and again during the Finnish civil war and because of financial difficulties that forced him to earn a living with little things. So, it is not surprising that many small ideas for other works repeatedly culminated in the Sixth. In a letter to a friend, he describes his early ideas for the work: The 6th symphony is wild and turbulent in character. Gloomy with pastoral contrasts. Probably in 4 movements with a conclusion growing into a dark orchestral shower in which the main theme drowns. The editor Kai Lindberg now presents the definitive version within the context of the Sibelius Complete Edition.

SKU: FG.55011-456-2

ISBN 9790550114562.

Three Strides of Light is inspired by the light and its behaviour in different circumstances, appearances and surroundings. The work is in three movements, but they are played together attacca.

The first movement starts off with a headstrong theme on the left hand. This motif has persistent momentum, like a train, and one could think of it as the rays of a setting sun. The beams are straight and relentlessly penetrate our eyes. The seven-bar repetition on the left hand supports this mental image, until the repetition ends and a new thematically central motive starts to emerge, bringing new kind of texture for the last rays and dance of the setting sun. At the end, the light vanishes into the night.

Second movemement, slow rubato, depicts the first rays of the rising sun, they drop behind a morning cloud into the day, growing, developing and becoming yet faster. Eventually the day opens up in all of it sunny glory. The music leads us towards the third movement, in which one bathes in the rays of the sun. The repetative motive of the first movement returns, but by now it has been transformed into something else. A pensive quintuplet-passage emerges, paving ground for the final themes of the work. The ending of the work is thick in sound, depicting the relentless glare of the sun and the heat sun creates. Within the entire work, one can imagine to have gone through a whole 24-hour period on the sea, in which the three strides of light are apparent in different parts of the day.