The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers is a landmark collection of non-idiomatic compositions from the sixteenth century to the present day, providing a comprehensive introduction to an area of choral music that has been historically under-represented. This unique anthology seeks both to improve representation in the historical canon and to showcase the music of some of the best names in choral music today.

for SSATB unaccompanied A Gaelic Blessing was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh, McDowall's alma mater, for performance by the Edinburgh University Singers conducted by Calum Robertson. This meditative, folk-style anthem is given a Scottish lilt through the use of Scotch snap rhythms and held drone-like vocal lines. The text is a traditional Scottish Gaelic blessing, translated by the Right Reverend Ian Paton, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane. McDowall chose this text for the 'warmth and simplicity' of the words that seem to 'resonate with the times in which we live'.

Barcelonian Gaspar Cassado (1897-1966) was one of the greatest cello virtuosi of the twentieth century and a notable composer and arranger, leaving a vast and heterogeneous legacy. In this book, Gabrielle Kaufman provides the first full-length scholarly work dedicated to Cassado, containing the results of seven years of research into his life and legacy, after following the cellist's steps through Spain, France, Italy and Japan. The study presents in-depth descriptions of the three main parts of Cassado's creative output: composition, transcription and performance, especially focusing on Cassado's plural and multi-facetted creativity, which is examined from both cultural and historical perspectives. Cassado's role within the evolution of twentieth-century cello performance is thoroughly examined, including a discussion regarding the musical and technical aspects of performing Cassado's works, aimed directly at performers. The study presents the first attempt at a comprehensive catalogue of Cassado's works, both original and transcribed, as well as his recordings, using a number of new archival sources and testimonies. In addition, the composer's significance within Spanish twentieth-century music is treated in detail through a number of case studies, sustained by examples from recovered score manuscripts. Illuminated by extraordinary source material Gaspar Cassado: Cellist, Composer and Transcriber expands and deepens our knowledge of this complex figure, and will be of crucial importance to students and scholars in the fields of Performance Practice and Spanish Music, as well as to professional cellists and advanced cello students.

for Oboe and Piano John Rutter creates a peaceful and contemplative atmosphere in this new arrangement of the traditional German carol, Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming.

In Off Key, Kay Dickinson offers a compelling study of how certain alliances of music and film are judged aesthetic failures. Based on a fascinating and wide-ranging body of film-music mismatches, and using contemporary reviews and histories of the turn to post-industrialization, the book expands the ways in which the union of the film and music businesses can be understood.
Moving beyond the typical understanding of film music that privileges the score, Off Key also incorporates analyses of rock 'n' roll movies, composer biopics, and pop singers crossing over into acting. By doing this, it provides a fuller picture of how two successful entertainment sectors have sought out synergistic strategies, ones whose alleged "failures" have much to tell about the labor practices of the creative industries, as well as our own relationship to them and to work itself. A provocative and politically-conscious look at music-image relations, Off Key will appeal to students and scholars of film music, cinema studies, media studies, cultural studies, and labor history.

for SSAATTBB unaccompanied A reflection on the plainchant antiphon 'Pulchra es et decora', this hauntingly beautiful piece was commissioned by ORA100 for Suzi Digby and ORA Singers. The original antiphon has been transcribed and included at the beginning, and may be used as an introduction. Porter's use of rich harmonies and rippling melismatic vocal lines make this an impassioned setting of a Marian text.

for SATB accompanied (piano or organ) and unaccompanied The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers is a landmark collection of non-idiomatic compositions from the sixteenth century to the present day, providing a comprehensive introduction to an area of choral music that has been historically under-represented. This unique anthology seeks both to improve representation in the historical canon and to showcase the music of some of the best names in choral music today.

for SSA and piano Setting words by Chief Dan George, this optimistic work reminds us that there is still beauty to be found in times of trouble and that difficult days will not last forever. Quartel's sensitive setting uses triplets against duplets to give a sense of fluidity to the melodic phrasing. The balanced vocal lines will be enjoyed by youth and adult upper-voice choirs.

The Kalevala, or runic, songs is a tradition at least a few thousand years old. It was shared by Finns, Estonians and other speakers of smaller Baltic-Finnic languages inhabiting the eastern side of the Baltic Sea in North-Eastern Europe. This book offers a combined perspective of a musicologist and a linguist to the structure of the runic songs. Archival recordings of the songs originating mostly from the first half of the 20th century were used as source material for this study. The results reveal a complex interaction between three different processes participating in singing: speech prosody, metre, and musical rhythm.

The life of a great musician is always interesting, but the story of Hazel Harrison is exceptional. Her achievement was particularly impressive because she had been schooled entirely at home and was the first black pianist, male or female, to perform with a major European orchestra. Harrison's extraordinarily long and impressive performing career spanned more than half a century, from the days when Brahms was still alive and Stravinsky had not yet composed The Rite of Spring to the time of the civil rights struggle in the deep South.

for SATB unaccompanied 'Ya basta!' is a Spanish saying that roughly translates to 'Enough is enough!'. Regan has combined this with text from a poem by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado. Ya Basta! has an exuberant and carefree energy, expressing the freedom to walk wherever you choose and to make your own path. The song easy to teach and learn; the score includes helpful tips on pronunciation and improvisation at the break section. Offprinted from Community Voiceworks, ed. Alison Burns and Gitika Partington.

for SA and piano In this beautiful setting of words by the composer, based on a quote by Brian Palmer, singers are encouraged to listen to the sounds and people around them in order to learn and grow: 'one act of love, I know, for sure, is to listen.' Listen is suitable for upper-voice or children's choirs, and its memorable melodies are accompanied by a simple and supportive rippling piano accompaniment.

for SABar unaccompanied The Parting Glass is a traditional Scottish song, often sung as a farewell at the end of a get-together. Sarah Quartel's arrangement features close harmonies, idiomatic Scotch snap rhythms, and effective interjectory moments in what is a largely homophonic setting. The arrangement was made for the composer's friend Matt Jones, who served with the Canadian Military in Afghanistan in 2010-2011; his deployment and eventual safe return inspired the setting of the piece. With its valedictory message, The Parting Glass would make a fitting end to a performance, perhaps as an encore item. Also available in versions for SATB and TTBB.

Revolutionary approaches to compositional practice and musicological research have been associated with Otto Laske's work for over a quarter of a century. Laske's scientific understanding of the compositional process has made it possible to systematically formalize computer-assisted and computer synthesized music. In this book, international scholars survey new directions in compositional and musicological practices as influenced by Laske's pioneering work. These two seemingly independent areas of inquiry, composition, and musicology, are presented as a comprehensive integration. The essays offer an interdisciplinary examination of issues imbued with ethnographic considerations of the musical experience, research in perception and brain functions, the design of computer-based neural networks that emulate human musical activities, investigations into the psychological make-up of artists, and a unique perspective on how computers are used in many different areas of music. Compositional and cognitive musicological research are placed in a historical perspective and accompanied with contemporary issues surrounding this research. An interview with Otto Laske and two of his own essays are also included.

This study of Otto Laske will appeal to musicologists and students of music theory and composition. Its interdisciplinary content will also interest scholars in a variety of fields including electronic music, ethnomusicology, computer science, artificial intelligence and other cognitive sciences, psychology, and philosophy. Researchers will appreciate the comprehensive bibliography of Laske's compositions and writings.

In 1959, the Bolshoi Ballet arrived in New York for its first ever performances in the United States. The tour was part of the Soviet-American cultural exchange, arranged by the governments of the US and USSR as part of their Cold War strategies. This book explores the first tours of the exchange, by the Bolshoi in 1959 and 1962, by American Ballet Theatre in 1960, and by New York City Ballet in 1962. The tours opened up space for genuine appreciation of foreign ballet. American fans lined up overnight to buy tickets to the Bolshoi, and Soviet audiences packed massive theaters to see American companies. Political leaders, including Khrushchev and Kennedy, met with the dancers. The audience reaction, screaming and crying, was overwhelming. But the tours also began a series of deep misunderstandings. American and Soviet audiences did not view ballet in the same way. Each group experienced the other's ballet through the lens of their own aesthetics. Americans loved Soviet dancers but believed that Soviet ballets were old-fashioned and vulgar. Soviet audiences and critics likewise appreciated American technique and innovation but saw American choreography as empty and dry. Drawing on both Russian- and English-language archival sources, this book demonstrates that the separation between Soviet and American ballet lies less in how the ballets look and sound, and more in the ways that Soviet and American viewers were trained to see and hear. It suggests new ways to understand both Cold War cultural diplomacy and twentieth-century ballet.

Going to concerts is becoming, for large numbers of Americans, an increasingly frequent pleasure. For those who encounter unfamiliar traditions and terms in the concert hall, here is information and advice which tells all listeners what they need to know to be comfortable at an orchestral concert. Includes background, biographies, and discussions of 200 masterpieces. Drawings.

George Gershwin is perhaps the most popular American composer of the twentieth century, and his short and dramatic life has been the subject of much attention. His music, however, has never been scrutinized as closely as his life, and the composer known for his show tunes has had difficulty finding a niche in the world of "serious" music. This book is the first in-depth analysis of Gershwin's entire compositional oeuvre, including his concert music. Weaving biographical material with musical analysis, Steven Gilbert presents a chronological study of the highlights of Gershwin's career. He discusses the well-known Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, An American in Paris, and Porgy and Bess, as well as such popular songs as "Swanee." "S'Wonderful," "I Got Rhythm," "Love Walked In," and "Love Is Here to Stay." But he also examines relatively neglected works that are no less deserving, such as Second Rhapsody, Cuban Overture, and Pardon My English, the last of which, says Gilbert, was a failure on Broadway but was one of George and Ira Gershwin's finest collaborations. Written in a fluid, conversational style and illustrated with numerous musical examples, some of which have never before been published, this book will be enjoyed by general readers and appreciated by professional musicians and musical scholars alike.

This is a startlingly fresh account of the life of one of the greatest 20th-century Americans, composer and songwriter George Gershwin. Joan Peyser examines Gershwin's character, his complex relationship with brother and collaborator Ira, and his several romantic affairs. This 2007 edition includes newly discovered information in a new author's introduction.

This is the fifth volume of Carl Nielsen Studies which is an annual publication issuing from the Royal Library of Denmark, also home to the Carl Nielsen edition. Carl Nielsen's status as one of the twentieth-century's foremost composers is now well-established. These volumes provide a forum for the spectrum of historical, analytical and aesthetic approaches to the study of Nielsen's music from an international line-up of contributors. In addition, each volume features reviews and reports on current Nielsen projects and an updated Nielsen bibliography, making Carl Nielsen Studies the most important source for up-to-the minute research on the composer and his work. Carl Nielsen Studies is distributed outside Scandinavia by Ashgate; distribution within Scandinavia is handled by The Royal Library, Copenhagen, PB 2149, DK 1016 K, Denmark.

This four-act comic opera celebrating Shakespeares Sir John Falstaff was given its first professional performance in 1946. The libretto, written by the composer, is based on The Merry Wives of Windsor, and interpolates texts by contemporaries of Shakespeare such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Campion. The work contains English folksong material and fine examples of the composer's orchestral lyricism and dramatic flair. Music from the opera was later adapted to form the cantata In Windsor Forest and the Fantasia on Greensleeves. For this comprehensive new edition, the editor (and conductor) David Lloyd-Jones has drawn on all available sources, providing an authoritative Study Score with critical commentary. The performance materials are newly-engraved. The orchestral score, vocal score, choral scores, and the optional Episode & Interlude are also available on hire. Please note that this score comes as two separate volumes.

Commentary on Skryabin has struggled to situate an understanding of the composer's music within his idiosyncratic philosophical world views. Early commentators' efforts to do so failed to establish a thorough or systematic approach. And later twentieth-century studies turned away from the composer's ideology, focusing instead on 'the music itself' with an analytic approach that scrutinized Skryabin's harmonic language in isolation from his philosophy. This groundbreaking study revisits the questions surrounding the composer's music within his own philosophy, but draws on new methodological tools, casting Skryabin's music in the light not only of his own philosophy of desire, but of more refined semiotic-psychoanalytical theory and modern techniques of music analysis. An interdisciplinary methodology corrects the narrow focus of Skryabin scholarship of the last century, offering insights from New Musicology and recent music theory that lead to hermeneutical, critically informed readings of selected works.

for solo organ Celebration is an exciting work for solo organ. Exuberant rhythms prevail in the outer sections (including a playful reference to Walton's Crown Imperial), framing more pensive music at the centre of the piece.

for SSAA and piano Our Roots is an upbeat setting of evocative words by Delphine Chalmers on the themes of unity and commonality. An effective syncopated, single-note motif in the piano underpins the piece, rooting the tonality and providing a firm ostinato around which the music blossoms. Chilcott's word-painting - in places such as the drawing together of the four-part choral texture into unison on the words 'yours and mine the same' and the use of the piano's upper and lower registers as the text looks to roots and sky - creates a great sense of unity between music and lyrics. Powerful key changes and a strong rhythmic drive create an affirmatory setting that is sure to uplift both singer and listener.

for SATB (with divisions) unaccompanied One of McGlade's longer settings, As the hart begins simply, before expanding into a more complex central section with fluctuating time signatures and shifting tonalities. Ideal for advanced mixed-voice choirs in a sacred or concert setting, it is a fitting alternative to Herbert Howells's famous setting of Psalm 42.

for SATB (with divisions) and small orchestra This is a beautiful, sensitive arrangement of the African-American spiritual and folk hymn Oh, watch the stars. The text reflects on the beauty of creation, and alternative verses by David Warner celebrating Christ's birth have been included for performance during the Christmas season. Wilberg artfully retains the understated feel and simplicity of the original spiritual while demonstrating hallmarks of his unique style, such as rich harmonies, contrasting keys and textures, and effective obbligato instrumental fills.