Bassoon,Instrumental Duet - Level 1 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.548694

Composed by Franz Schubert. Arranged by James M. Guthrie, ASCAP. Christmas,Easter,Standards. 4 pages. Jmsgu3 #3411135. Published by jmsgu3 (A0.548694).

A Bassoon Christmas/Easter classic! Duration: 4:55 Score: 3 pg. Bassoon part: 1 pg. Piano reads from the score. Schubert seems to have composed this piece as a song-setting. This is because he wanted to portray a poignant emotional event from a poem. The poem was Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake. Consequently, this song became an integral part of Schubert's Song cycle. Therefore the cycle is called: the Lady of the Lake. In the poem, Ellen Douglas is the Lady of the Lake. The lake is probably Loch Katrine in the Scottish Highlands. First of all, Ellen goes with her father to stay in the Goblin's cave. They go because he earlier refused to join in a rebellion against King James. Roderick Dhu, the chief of the rebellious Alpine Clan, marches up the mountain with his army. But before the battle, he, first of all, hears Ellen singing. She is singing a prayer calling for help from the Virgin Mary. Schubert's piece was first performed at the castle of Countess Sophie Weissenwolff in Steyregg, Austria.  Schubert dedicated the arrangement to her, and as a result, she became famous as the lady of the lake.The incipit of Ellen's song is Ave Maria which is Latin for Hail Mary. It seems like this similarity led Schubert to adapt the melody to accommodate the Roman Catholic prayer Ave Maria. Consequently, the Latin version of Ave Maria finally became more famous than the original so that consequently many believe he wrote the Latin version first.

Schubert

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was, in fact, a famous Austrian composer. Moreover, he composed during the late Classical and early Romantic periods. Schubert was comparatively prolific. He wrote more than 600 secular vocal works, seven symphonies, and, correspondingly, a massive amount of piano and chamber music. Critics agree, as a matter of fact, that his most famous works include his Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (also known as the Trout Quintet), the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (Unfinished Symphony), the last sonatas for piano (D. 958–960), and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795) and Winterreise (D. 911).

Education

Schubert was furthermore a musical child prodigy. He studied violin with his father as well as piano with his older brother. In addition, when Schubert was eleven he studied at Stadtkonvikt school, where he became familiar with the orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart, and likewise Beethoven. In due time he left school and returned home where he studied to become an educator; nevertheless, he continued studying composition with Antonio Salieri.

Performance

Eventually, Schubert was admitted to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde as a performer. This appointment straightaway established his name in Vienna as a composer and pianist. Finally, he gave his only composition recital in 1828. He died suddenly a few months later probably due to typhoid fever.

Legacy

Schubert’s music was by and large underappreciated while he was alive. There were all in all only a few enthusiasts in Vienna. After he died, however, interest in his work in fact increased. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other famous composers in due time discovered his compositions. Nowadays, historians rank Schubert expressly among the greatest composers of the era, and his music remains in general very popular.

Instrumental Duet Bassoon,Instrumental Duet - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.549452

Composed by Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan. Arranged by James M. Guthrie, ASCAP. Instructional,Romantic Period,Sacred,Standards. Score and parts. 15 pages. Jmsgu3 #3497185. Published by jmsgu3 (A0.549452).

Score: 10 pages, solo part: 2 pages, piano part: 3 pages. Duration: 4:25. Not difficult, but requires sensitivity & dynamic control. Suitable for recitals, church meditations, or school programs.

School Years

First of all, Sullivan attended music school at the Royal Academy of Music. Because Sullivan was so talented, the Academy awarded him the Mendelssohn Scholarship for two years in a row. He, therefore, studied with John Goss, who studied with Thomas Atwood, who in turn studied with Mozart. Sullivan similarly studied the piano at the Academy with Arthur O’Leary.

Study Abroad

During his first year, he also earned money by singing solos in the Chapel Royal. At the end of his second year, the Academy consequently continued his scholarship and sent him to study at the Leipzig Conservatoire. He certainly studied composition, and likewise counterpoint and piano. Hence, during his final year in Leipzig, Sullivan finally completed his graduation composition project: Incidental Music for Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Association with Gilbert

It seems like Sullivan built the bulk of his composing career largely in the 1860s. As a result, he became famous for his incidental music for the Tempest and his Irish Symphony. He, therefore, began collaborating with the poet W. S. Gilbert in the 1870s. Rather than focus on serious opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, in contrast, concentrated on comic opera such as H. M. S. Pinafore, the Pirates of Penzance, and the Mikado. Therefore, certainly as a result of his education and experience, Sullivan composed a total of 24 operas, 11 symphonic works, 10 choral pieces. Even more, he wrote a large number of noteworthy hymns such as Onward Christian Soldiers.

Lost Chord

The general style of his music is maybe similar to Mendelssohn, Schumann, and perhaps Liszt. It seems like Sullivan was fond of writing distinct melodies for each character in his operettas. His melodies combine together as the characters did. Furthermore, he was a master orchestrator, and therefore played the flute, clarinet, trumpet, and trombone fluently.

The Lost Chord

Sullivan wrote his most noteworthy song the Lost Chord in 1877. As a result, it was a great success and was certainly performed all over the world by a variety of singers such as Enrico Caruso. Because Sullivan was the most famous composer in England, the Lost Chord became the most famous of all British or American songs of the 1870s and 1890s. Consequently, in 1888 Thomas Edison recorded The Lost Chord for the phonograph. It was one of the first songs ever recorded. Furthermore, Queen Victoria knighted Sullivan in 1883.

 

 

Instrumental Duet Bassoon,Instrumental Duet - Level 3 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.550113

Composed by Claude Debussy. Arranged by James M. Guthrie. 20th Century,Holiday,Multicultural,Standards,World. Score and parts. 15 pages. Jmsgu3 #4595961. Published by jmsgu3 (A0.550113).

Moonlight * лунный �вет * 月光 * Σεληνόφωτο * Měsí�ní svit, Claude Debussy, 1890. Monumental impressionist masterpiece - perfect for Valentine's Day.
Duration ca. 3:50 Score: 8 pages. 

Debussy was inspired by this poem by Paul Verlaine to compose this work:

Your soul is a chosen landscape
Where charming masquerades and dancers are promenading,
Playing the lute and dancing, and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.

While singing in a minor key
Of victorious love, and the pleasant life
They seem not to believe in their own happiness
And their song blends with the moonlight,

With the sad and beautiful moonlight,
Which sets the birds in the trees dreaming,
And makes the fountains sob with ecstasy,
The tall slim water streams among the marble statues.

Paul Verlaine, 1869