Par BOULANGER NADIA. Nadia Boulanger's Three Pieces for Viola and Piano Posterity has retained of Nadia Boulanger only her gifts as a virtuoso of the piano and organ, her skill as a conductor (of vocal ensemble and orchestra) and most of all, her incredible charisma as a teacher. For nearly sixty years, 'Mademoiselle' made the most of her famous Wednesdays, bringing rigour and passion to the tra…

John Dryden wrote two odes in honour of the patroness of music and musicians - A Song For St. Cecilia's Day , in 1687, and, in 1697, Alexander's Feast , both of which were subsequently set to music by Handel. A Song For St. Cecilia's Day proved so popular that it was performed six times during the winter of 1739-40, in spite of the fact that this was a 'hard winter'. Written for soprano and tenor …

Par ADOLPHE BRUCE. Study in Solitude was composed in New York during the stay-at-home lockdown of 2020. The piece is a contemplation of the separation from family, friends, and community that everyone was experiencing in some way around the world. The feeling is not just of loneliness, but of being trapped. Staying home for so long, the composer found himself at times pacing around the apartment a…

Par PART ARVO. It takes 75 minutes to relate the story of the Passion according to the Latin of St John's Gospel; Pärt uses solo singers for the roles of Pilate and Christ, and a group of four soloists (soprano, counter tenor, tenor and bass) for the Evangelist, together with a small chorus. Understatement is all: the instrumental accompaniment is confined to a quartet of woodwind and strings that…

On a poem by Laurence Binyon. Par SPARKE PHILIP. In Memoriam : For the Fallen est une adaptation pour narrateur et brass band du poème de Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), For the Fallen (« Pour les Morts»), qui apparut pour la première fois dans The Times en septembre 1914. Binyon fut consterné par le déclenchement de guerre et s’inquiéta particulièrement sur le grand nombre de pertes souffertes par l…

Hymnes. Par PETTI A. / LAYCOCK G.. Since early Victorian times, music in church has lagged increasingly behind the developments in the secular field. The New Catholic Hymnal includes a number of new settings which are nearer the technique and spirit of the day than was hitherto customary. Whilst most congregations would baulk at contemporary dodecaphonic music, simple diatonic dissonance and other…

On a poem by Laurence Binyon. Par SPARKE PHILIP. In Memoriam : For the Fallen est une adaptation pour narrateur et brass band du poème de Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), For the Fallen (« Pour les Morts»), qui apparut pour la première fois dans The Times en septembre 1914. Binyon fut consterné par le déclenchement de guerre et s’inquiéta particulièrement sur le grand nombre de pertes souffertes par l…

Play In A Day. Par WEEDON BERT. In this remarkable DVD the world-renowned master guitarist unlocks the secrets of the guitar. Highly regarded for his versatility, Bert's glittering career (including being voted Britain's top guitarist nine times!) has been a strong influence on virtually every famous name linked with the instrument. Play in a Day means just that. After just the first 25 minutes …

Par WOOLRICH JOHN. 'A cleverly devised, texturally fresh and engaging short essay. . .with its percussive tick-tocks, extended melodies for a woodwind section including saxophone. . .'Paul Driver, Financial Times, June 1986/ Répertoire / Conducteur

Par KNUSSEN OLIVER. Paul Griffiths says 'The piece is full of clever and beautiful things - the early scenes proceed almost in convulsions of orchestral brilliance within a marvellously clear and animated world whose chief references, sometimes explicit, are to Ravel and Stravinsky. The scene with the pig is deliciously rich in bass gruntings - that with the milkman cat mixes Marx brohters dialogu…

The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time. Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night. The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed, without any regard to copyright law, or royalties paid to the composers who created these musical masterpieces. Hal Leonard is very proud to present the first legiti…

Par HARVEY JONATHAN. Bhakti was written in 1982, to a commission from IRCAM, Paris. It is in twelve short movements totalling about fifty minutes. There are 36 subsections - each one defined by a certain number of instruments playing a certain pitch cell. As there are only 12 types of subsection, each occurs (with variation) 3 times, thus making for repetitions over the course of the work. Scored …