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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Western music, periods & styles
for solo soprano and SSATB Written for the wedding of the
composer's niece in 2012, this piece affectionately sets a poem of
the same title by Robert Burns. It was first performed by Chantage
in London's Church of Scotland, St Columba's, conducted by James
Davey. With something intrinsically Scottish about it, this tender
setting of the well-loved poem, although written specifically for a
wedding, would suit almost any occasion.
How does music heard and played over many years inform one's sense
of home? In Distant Melodies, Edward Dusinberre, the English first
violinist of the Takacs Quartet, explores changing ideas of home,
exile and return in the lives and particular chamber works of four
composers: Antonin Dvorak, Edward Elgar, Bela Bartok and Benjamin
Britten. A resident of Boulder, Colorado for nearly three decades,
Dusinberre discovers ways in which music may both accentuate and
ameliorate homesickness, as he visits and imagines some of the
places crucial to these composers' creative inspiration. Drawn to
the storiesof Dvorak, Bartok and Britten's American sojourns as
they try to reconcile their new surroundings with nostalgiafortheir
homelands, Dusinberre looks at his own evolving relationship to
England through the prism of Elgar's unusual Piano Quintet and the
landscapes that inspired it. New aspects of familiar music reveal
themselves under altered circumstances. In the forty-eight years
since the Takacs Quartet was founded in Budapest, the ensemble has
undergone several significant changes of personnel. During a
concert tour in Hong Kong and a return to Budapest to perform in
the same hall where Bartok gave his last concert in Hungary,
Dusinberre examines how a piece of music may both reinforce roots
and cross borders. When travel is forbidden, the ability of music
to affirm home and transcend distance takes on extra significance.
As the Takacs welcomes a new violist during the COVID-19 pandemic,
Britten's string quartets shape the ensemble's experience of
rehearsing at home. Combining travel writing with revealing and
humorous insights into the working lives of string quartet
musicians, Distant Melodies illuminates the relationship between
music and home.
for soloists, SATB, and organ Written for the Choir of Wells
Cathedral, of which Matthew Owens is Organist and Master of the
Choristers, this setting of the St Matthew Passion is ideally
suited to liturgical performance during Holy Week. The principal
role of the Evangelist is taken by a baritone soloist, who narrates
the story of Christ's trial and Crucifixion in unaccompanied chant.
The other, smaller, solo roles of Judas (tenor), Pilate (tenor),
Jesus (bass), and Pilate's wife (alto) continue in the same vein,
with four-part choral interspersions from the crowds, soldiers, and
priests providing a contrast in texture. The hymn 'When I survey
the wondrous cross', set to the Rockingham hymn tune, appears twice
throughout the work, and the congregation are encouraged to join in
on both occasions. The simple organ part supports the voices for
the hymn, and may also optionally double the choir during the
narrative.
for SAA and piano Exhibiting Chydenius's unique style, this
contemplative ballad sets a wistful text by American lyrical poet
Sara Teasdale. The close harmonies, persuasive melodies, and
appealing syncopations in the voices are underpinned by a stylistic
piano part with a rhythmic chord pattern that creates a sense of
build and drive. The Kiss is ideal for upper-voice choirs looking
for an evocative concert piece.
This book, first published in 1934, contains the recollections of
the varied and coloured life of a great pianist and composer, who
is one of the most striking figures of the musical world.
Rachmaninoff dictated his memoires to the author of this book, and
much of the story is therefore told in the first person. The final
chapter is Riesemann's own contribution. It is an estimate of
Rachmaninoff's qualities as composer; it shows knowledge of all his
more important works; and it shows discrimination. The whole book
is an authoritative and interesting study of a popular artist.
for SAA and piano The quirky style of The Look perfectly
complements the nature of Sara Teasdale's poem, which reminisces on
past romances. The melody is catchy and colourful, with a stylistic
ornament that gives the piece a carefree feel, and there are
effective contrasts of tonality and texture. The voices are
accompanied by a jazzy, characterful piano part with driving
syncopations.
for SAATB unaccompanied A piece made famous by the award-winning a
cappella group Vocado, Coffee Time is an upbeat dedication to the
down time we all crave, for sharing thoughts, silence, and that
aroma! Founded on classic a cappella style and sense of fun, the
piece boasts an infectious melody and bossa nova rhythm, with
sumptuous key changes, scat rhythms, and contrasting sections. The
piece is perfect for vocal groups or small- to medium-size choirs,
and has the makings of a great encore or competition piece.
This is the third in a trilogy of organ works inspired by the
metaphysical poet, George Herbert. This piece and the first of the
three, Sounding heaven and earth, draw their titles from George
Herbert's Prayer (I). The second of the group, Sacred and hallowed
fire, takes its inspiration from the sequence of poems by George
Herbert entitled he Temple.
Exposes the roots of 18th-century musical cosmopolitanism through
an investigation of exchanges and collaborations between musicians
and dancers from the two major national musical traditions in the
early years of the century. This study stems from discoveries in a
trove of documents belonging to Charles-Henri de Lorraine, prince
de Vaudemont, who served as governor of Milan under the Spanish
crown from 1698 to 1706. These documents, together with a mass of
other sources - letters, diaries, treatises, libretti, scores -
offer a vivid new picture of musical life in Paris and Milan as
well as exchanges between France and Italy. The book is both a
patronage study and an examination of the contributions by - and
the difficulties facing - musicians and dancers who worked across
national and cultural boundaries. Music, Dance, and Franco-Italian
Cultural Exchange, c.1700 follows the careers of the prince and the
French violinist and composer Michel Pignolet de Monteclair. In the
context of a renewed fascination with Italian music in the 1690s,
Monteclair made a name for himself in Paris as a pedagogue and
composer who understood both national styles and blended them in a
way that was successful on French terms. Vaudemont hired Monteclair
to direct a French violin band and to compose dance music for a
series of new operas that observers declared "the best in Italy"
but are virtually unknown today. These productions involved
collaborations among a mixed company of French and Italian
musicians, dancers, composers, and librettists modeled on the
practice of Turinese court operas. The book is an account of the
contributions of these figures to the cultural life of Paris,
Milan, and other northern Italian states, and to the creative
mixing of musical styles, operatic conventions, and dance technique
in France and Italy through the 1720s and beyond. The connections
fostered by Vaudemont thus played a heretofore unrecognized early
role in the development of 18th-century cosmopolitanism, and they
attest to both the liveliness and the artistic importance of such
exchanges in the era before the well-known travels of Handel,
Telemann, and Vivaldi.
Sacred and hallowed fire was commissioned by Harrison &
Harrison as part of their 150 years celebration of organ building.
It is one of a trilogy of works for organ by McDowall which draws
from the poetry of George Herbert; the first of the three
(commissioned by Christopher Batchelor for the London Festival of
Contemporary Church Music) is Sounding heaven and earth; the last
of the trilogy, Church bells beyond the stars, has been
commissioned to celebrate the centenary of the Edinburgh Society of
Organists, May 2013.
Detailed exploration of an enigmatic manuscript containing the
texts to hundreds of songs, but no musical notation. The medieval
songbook known variously as trouvere manuscript C or the "Bern
Chansonnier" (Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 389) is one of the most
important witnesses to musical life in thirteenth-century France.
Almost certainly copied in Metz, it provides the texts to over five
hundred Old French songs, and is a unique insight into cultures of
song-making and copying on the linguistic and political borders
between French and German-speaking lands in the Middle Ages.
Notably, the names of trouveres, including several female
poet-musicians, are found in its margins, names which would be
unknown today without this evidence. However, the manuscript has
received relatively little scholarly attention, partly because the
songs' musical staves remained empty for reasons now unknown, and
partly because of where it was copied. This collection of essays is
the first to consider C on its own terms and from a range of
disciplinary perspectives, including philology, art history,
literary studies, and musicology. The contributors explore the
process of creating the complex object that is a music manuscript,
examining the work of the scribes and artists who worked on C, and
questioning how scribes acquired and organised exemplars for
copying. The peculiarly Messine flavour of the repertoire and
authors is also discussed, with contributors showing that C frames
the tradition of Old French song from a unique perspective. As a
whole, the volume demonstrates how in this eastern hub of music and
poetry, poet-composers, readers, and scribes interacted with the
courtly song tradition in fascinating and unusual ways.
Music, Place, and Identity in Italian Urban Soundscapes circa
1550-1860 presents new perspectives on the role music played in the
physical, cultural, and civic spaces of Italian cities from the
sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Across thirteen chapters,
contributors explore the complex connections between sound and
space within these urban contexts, demonstrating how music and
sound were intimately connected to changing social and political
practices. The volume offers a critical redefinition of the core
concept of soundscape, considering musical practices through the
lenses of territory, space, representation, and identity, in five
parts: Soundscape, Phonosphere, and Urban History Urban Soundscapes
across Time Urban Soundscapes and Acoustic Communities Urban
Soundscapes in Literary Sources Reconstructing Urban Soundscapes in
the Digital Era Music, Place, and Identity in Italian Urban
Soundscapes circa 1550-1860 reframes our understanding of Italian
music history beyond models of patronage, investigating how sounds
and musics have contributed to the construction of human identities
and communities.
Examines the reputation of the Hungarian musician Bela Bartok
(1881-1945) as an antifascist hero. This book examines the
reputation of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) as an
antifascist hero and beacon of freedom. Following Bartok's
reception in Italy from the early twentieth century, through
Mussolini's fascist regime, and into the early Cold War, Palazzetti
explores the connexions between music, politics and diplomacy. The
wider context of this study also offers glimpses into broader
themes such as fascist cultural policies, cultural resistance, and
the ambivalent political usage of modernist music. The book argues
that the 'Bartokian Wave' occurring in Italy after the Second World
War was the result of the fusion of the Bartok myth as the
'musician of freedom' and the Cold War narrative of an Italian
national regeneration. Italian-Hungarian diplomatic cooperation
during the interwar period had supported Bartok's success in Italy.
But, in spite of their political alliance, the cultural policies by
Europe's leading fascist regimes started to diverge over the years:
many composers proscribed in Nazi Germany were increasingly
performed in fascist Italy. In the early 1940s, the now exiled
composer came to represent one of the symbols of the anti-Nazi
cultural resistance in Italy and was canonised as 'the musician of
freedom'. Exile and death had transformed Bartok into a martyr,
just as the Resistenza and the catastrophe of war had redeemed
post-war Italy.
for soprano solo, SSA chorus, and full orchestra This new edition
of Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 7, the Sinfonia Antartica, has
been prepared by David Matthews with support from the Vaughan
Williams Charitable Trust. The work was drawn from the music
Vaughan Williams provided for the film Scott of the Antarctic in
1947 and was completed in 1952. In it the composer skilfully evokes
the sparse beauty and grandeur of the landscape with a large
orchestra and percussion section, including - famously - a wind
machine, to create a work of great power and intensity. This new
edition contains an introduction and textual commentary and is
published as a full score, study score, and women's chorus, with
all performing material on hire.
In this first comprehensive examination of the music of the most
prolific Bach son, David Schulenberg offers new perspectives on the
career, style, and originality of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Of
Bach's four sons who became composers, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714-88) was the most prolific, the most original, and the most
influential both during and after his lifetime. This is the first
comprehensive study of his music, examining not only the famous
keyboard sonatas and concertos but also the songs, the chamber
music, and the sacred works, many of which resurfaced only recently
and have not previously been evaluated. A compositional
biography,the book surveys C. P. E. Bach's extensive output of
nearly a thousand works while tracing his musical development-from
his student days at Leipzig and Frankfurt (Oder), through his
nearly three decades as court musician to Prussian King Frederick
"the Great," to his final twenty years as cantor and music director
at Hamburg. David Schulenberg, author of important books on the
music of J. S. Bach and his first son, W. F. Bach, here considers
the legacy of the second son from a compelling new perspective.
Focusing on C. P. E. Bach's compositional choices within his social
and historical context, Schulenberg shows how C. P. E. Bach
deliberately avoided his father's style whileborrowing from the
manner of his Berlin colleagues, who were themselves inspired by
Italian opera. Schulenberg also shows how C. P. E. Bach, now best
known for his virtuoso keyboard works, responded to changing
cultural and aesthetic trends by refashioning himself as a writer
of vocal music and popular chamber compositions. Audio versions of
the book's musical examples, as well as further examples and
supplementary tables and texts, are available on a companion
website. David Schulenberg is professor of music at Wagner College
and teaches historical performance at the Juilliard School. He is
the author of The Music of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (University of
Rochester Press, 2010).
for SSATB unaccompanied This expressive Wedding anthem sets an
extract from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence. With chromatic
inflections and gently arching vocal lines, the music perfectly
reflects the text's emphasis on the relationship between pleasure
and sorrow. Joy and Woe are woven fine will make a striking
addition to the repertory of more experienced choirs looking to try
something new.
for SSATB and organ This attractive and uplifting anthem sets the
text of the Eastertide Vidi aquam antiphon. Different parts of the
text are treated to contrasting musical ideas, including extended
melismatic upper-voice passages and mainly homophonic full-choir
sections, and the undulating organ part represents the flowing
water of the text. A welcome addition to a service or concert
programme for all fans of Gabriel Jackson's music. Commissioned by
the Friends of Lincoln Cathedral for their 75th anniversary and
first performed by the Choir of Lincoln Cathedral with Charles
Harrison (organ), directed by Aric Prentice, on 25 June 2011.
For SATB (divisi) with 2 soprano solos
Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Song Cycles: Analytical
Pathways Toward Performance presents analyses of fourteen song
cycles composed after the turn of the twentieth century, with a
focus on offering ways into the musical and poetic structure of
each cycle to performers, scholars, and students alike. Ranging
from familiar works of twentieth-century music by composers such as
Schoenberg, Britten, Poulenc, and Shostakovich to lesser-known
works by Van Wyk, Sviridov, Wheeler, and Sanchez, this collection
of essays captures the diversity of the song cycle repertoire in
contemporary classical music. The contributors bring their own
analytical perspectives and methods, considering musical
structures, the composers' selection of texts, how poetic
narratives are expressed, and historical context. Informed by music
history, music theory, and performance, Twentieth- and
Twenty-First-Century Song Cycles offers an essential guide into the
contemporary art-music song cycle for performers, scholars,
students, and anyone seeking to understand this unique genre.
One of contemporary music's most significant and controversial
figures, Brian Ferneyhough's complex and challenging music draws
inspiration from painting, literature, and philosophy, as well as
music from the recent and distant past. His dense, multilayered
compositions intrigue musicians while pushing both performer and
instrument to the limits of their abilities. A wide-ranging survey
of his life and work to date, "Brian Ferneyhough" examines the
critical issues fundamental to understanding the composer as a
musician and a thinker. Debuting in celebration of Ferneyhough's
seventieth birthday in 2013, this book strikes a rich balance
between critical analysis of the music and close scrutiny of its
aesthetic and philosophical contexts, making possible a more
rounded view of the composer than has been available.
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The Nutcracker Suite
(Book)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nicholas Economou
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R362
R340
Discovery Miles 3 400
Save R22 (6%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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The music of Peter Ilyich Tschaikowsky in an advanced piano duo
arrangement as recorded by Martha Argerich and Nicolas Economou on
Deutsche Grammophon. Titles: Overture * March * Danse de la F?e
Drag?e * Danse Russe Trepak * Danse Arab * Danse Chinoise * Danse
des Mirlitons * Valse des fleurs.
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