In Nativitate Domini In Nocte. Par RYBA JAN JAKUB. The “Missa pastoralis in C”, published here for the first time, dates from about 1808. It belongs to a cycle of sacred pieces, a „Cursus sacro-harmonicus, “ which Ryba planned as Ordinarium and Proprium settings for all the Sundays and feast days of the church year. The “Missa pastoralis in C” is a pastoral Mass for the matutinal service at Christ…

Instrumental Play-Along. Par PUCCINI GIACOMO. Who needs a singer? With Play Puccini, instrumentalists can bathe themselves in luxurious Italian melody! These ten opera arias are among the composer's most famous and distinctive achievements, here transcribed forintermediate level solo instrument and piano. The book includes a biography of Puccini, notes about the plot of each opera, and the dramati…

Par ALBERT ADRIENNE. Piccolodeon is a duet for piccolo and piano that expresses the mood and sonority of the 'nickelodeon,” an early 20th-century arcade instrument used for silent movies, carousels, and vaudeville theater. The piece begins as a playful ragtime with the instruments in sync. Gradually, the ensemble unravels to the point where it's a toss-up as to which player is off. This musical ge…

For String Quartet Volume 1. Par BACH JOHANN-SEBASTIAN. The idea for these arrangements came to me whilst listening to the Hagen Quartet's beautiful recording of the fugues that form part of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets', Op. 20. The spirit and influence of J.S. Bach, in particular his Well Tempered Clavier, Book II, courses through these three miraculous Haydn fugues. Like the viol consort, the string q…

Par KAREL RUDOLF. Rudolf Karel, the last student of Dvorák, was able to compose the Nonett in short score before his death [1945] in the concentration camp in Theresienstadt. From this score, Václav Snítil, the longtime leader of the Czech Nonett, has been able to complete and instrumentate the work. In spite of death and suffering around him, Karel was still able to portray the belief in a place …

33 pieces on the innocent sideInstrument : pianoNombre de Pages : 48Gradations is music of variety, of change, of progression, of growing up, even. Mozart?s first keyboard minuets are here, as is a pair of Marcello sonatas. A sonatina by Clementi sits alongside 'Kaleidoscope' by Benjamin Lees. Bartók and Bach knew all about children?s keyboard development and are each represented by absolute gems.…

Brahms had already announced his ?retirement' from composition when in the spring of 1894 he played chamber music with the cellist Robert Hausmann and the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. This encounter apparently renewed his enthusiasm for Mühlfeld's much admired playing and inspired him to write two clarinet sonatas in the summer of the same year. Brahms conceived an alternate version of the works…

The first three movements of Johannes Brahms' E minor Cello Sonata were composed in 1862, the last movement was written in 1865. During the first years of its performance the work was received with mixed enthusiasm. By the end of Brahms' life, however, it was widely performed and by the first decades of the 20th century it was firmly embedded in the repertoire of many distinguished cellists. It wa…

7 European Salon Pieces. Par POPP WILHELM. In the 19th Century nationalist themes came into fashion. Composers drew on songs and dances from their native lands, working them into paraphrased adaptations, pot pourri arrangements and sets of variations or incorporating folk elements from various cultures in their compositions. Flautist Wilhelm Popp (1828-1902), who wrote music for his instrument at…

Brahms completed his Cello Sonata op. 99 during the productive summer of 1886. The first public performance took place in Vienna on 24 November of the same year. Robert Hausmann played the cello part and the composer himself was his partner at the piano. Even though the work was generally received positively, it took some years until it was fully appreciated and gained its irrevocable place in the…