SKU: A0.976734

CONJUNCTION interprets the convergence of Jupiter and Saturn near the end of the year 2020 as a celestial metaphor for the good news of Christ's birth in a replay of the Star of Bethlehem. Hence, its subtitle of The Christmas Star of 2020. The music, along with narration from selected Old and New Testament scriptures, delivers a message of hope amid the turmoil and chaos of current times.

It's written for smaller concert bands hungry for challenging music. Ample cues and doubling allow for flexible instrumentation while mixed meters, varying tempos and textures, and interesting solo lines provide opportunities for strong players to shine. CONJUNCTION is also available with strings for orchestra.

PROGRAM NOTES:

2020 is widely characterized for its maladies: murders, burning cities, riots, a pandemic, economic shocks, and political turmoil. For some of us, it also held personal tragedy such as my brother’s passing from COVID. But, 2020 also brought a sign of hope, namely the celestial phenomenon known as the Great Conjunction of 2020. For earth-bound observers, this was the closest approach of Jupiter and Saturn in almost 400 years as they appeared to almost touch in the early evening sky to produce the most brilliant evening star of our lifetimes. The occurrence of the event in November-December neatly coincided with the Advent season, peaking just before Christmas Day. One could hardly fail to note the parallels with the Christmas star of Matthew’s gospel which gave the conjunction its alternate name, the Christmas Star of 2020. Thus, this star spoke, to those with ears to hear, the same message the prophet Isaiah wrote about the coming Messiah, The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. This star thus served to remind us that the LORD has not rejected us; He will show His favor again; His love has not vanished; His promises have not failed; He has not forgotten to be merciful or compassionate; and we are called to remember His mighty deeds (Psalm 77). CONJUNCTION: The Christmas Star of 2020 is inspired by these particulars.

For the music, I looked to Gustav Holst’s The Planets for themes that would portray Jupiter and Saturn’s pas de deux. I selected several motives from the corresponding movements mixed and matched in sometimes easily recognized quotations and other times in heavily camouflaged derivations. An exuberant polyphonic passage recaps themes from both Jupiter and Saturn when the music resolves from uncertainty into hopefulness. While Holst’s motives provide CONJUNCTION’s foundation I also used Handel’s Messiah for transitory and climactic material. You will hear his The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light in transitions and a short trombone solo. And a re-harmonization of the opening line from For unto us a child is born brings the music to a joyous climax.

Although the music stands firmly on its own, I elected to incorporate some narrative to make the musical sentiment explicit. In a commentary on 2020’s grim events, I took adaptations of Habakkuk 1:2-4 and 2 Tim 3:1-4 and set them over Saturn’s plodding and ominous harmonies. Contrasting replies shimmer with hope as the narration melds Isaiah 9:2 and Luke 1:78-79 over another Saturn motive set against pitch sets from Jupiter’s main hymn theme. Still, it’s the music that tells the story of the Christmas Star of 2020.

Please visit my website for a complete score preview: https://wheatmyermusic.com/conjunction-the-christmas-star-of-2020

I feel somewhat guilty making claim to this music as almost all the building blocks are taken from other composers. But the end result is neither a medley, nor an arrangement, rather it is something clearly new, so I call it my own with deep respect to those giants on whose shoulders I stand.

Robert Myers
S.D.G.

SKU: A0.1081697

[S]tanding by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), 'I thirst.' A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, 'It is finished'; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, 'Not a bone of him shall be broken.' And again another scripture says, 'They shall look on him whom they have pierced.' --John 19:25-37.

SKU: A0.1315331

Duration : Approx. 30 minutes
Instrumentation
Flutes 1&2
Piccolo/Flute 3
Oboes 1&2
Cor Anglais
Clarinets 1&2 in Bflat
Bass Clarinet in Bflat (To Low C)
Bassoons 1&2
Horns 1 – 4 in F
Trumpets 1&2 in Bflat
Tenor Trombones 1&2
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani – 4
Bass Drum, Sleigh Bells, Temple Blocks, Maracas, Cymbals – Crash and Suspended Snare Drum,Tambourine Triangle Tubular Bell (only 1 B bell required) Glockenspeil Xylophone
Celesta
Harp
Violins 1&2
Violas
Cellos
Double Basses

About The Work
On Tuesday March 24th 2020, one day into the first UK national Lockdown at the start of the worldwide Covid-19 Pandemic, my Mum died! She was 91 and had been poorly with many different illnesses for the previous 6 months, so we knew it was coming. But the timing and unfathomable sadness of her death, together with the start of a worldwide pandemic, little did I know it at the time, was to bring forth from me a tsunami of music the likes of which I hadn’t written for many years. A set of six solo studies for various members of the clarinet family came first, written between March 20th and April 20th. As I wrote them they were orchestrating themselves in my head and forming something else as well. That “something else� grew and grew, as the Six Studies intertwined themselves around each other and expanded together, joining forces with two brand new themes to form what soon was to become an immense orchestral work. The title was easy. Glastry is a tiny district in the middle of the Co.Down countryside of Northern Ireland, where my Mum was born and brought up. And Pearl was her name. Her full name was actually Margaret Mary Ward (eventually to become Denny when she married my Dad, Colum Denny, from Belfast), but everyone always called her Pearl. The nickname was bestowed upon her just after she was born on February 28th 1929 and stuck ever since.

The Glastry Pearl is a tribute to my Mum and the great and mighty person she was to me and all who knew her. It employs at least one theme or motif from each of the Six Studies For Various Solo Clarinets and uses them throughout the work in the from of Leitmotifs. It was only when the work was nearing completion that I began to wonder how to describe it. Freddy Naftel, a good composer friend of mine, suggested that Tone Poem was a fitting description and I immediately agreed. The music itself is completely tonal and highly Romantic, yet also peppered with exciting contemporary disonance. I believe it to be a good, and hopefully fun, challenge to symphony orchestras, both professional and high standard amateur alike. It offers everything from the the somber opening to the hilarious and wildly energetic central Waltz, to the glorious soaring final section, so plenty of variety to please many palates.

SKU: A0.1402356

While his scores for both 633 Squadron (1963) and Operation Crossbow (1965) had boasted patriotic, major-key themes celebrating the heroics of the protagonists, composer Ron Goodwin took a different approach for Where Eagles Dare, generating his main theme for the picture out of the initial notes of an ascending minor scale. Rather than celebrate the heroics of the screen characters, the title music embodies the single-minded ambition of the protagonists to infiltrate the mountain fortress of Schloss Adler and complete their mission, no matter what the costs. The composer recalled in a 1994 interview that some of this approach came from the filmâ??s director, Brian Hutton. For instance, he wanted music at the beginning of the film but he also wanted to hear the airplane engines approaching from the distance, which is actually why he started off with just the side drums playing quietly and then building up and getting louder, so that you could actually hear the sound of the airplane before the orchestra comes in. After the snare drum and the â??Aâ?� section of the main title comes a melodically related fugal section that, the composer told Randall D. Larson in 1984, was an idea that arose from the â??concept of people following each other around and dodging away from each other...[which] gave me the idea of writing a sort of fugue-style theme...and then I used that in various ways for all the sort of creeping and following and chasing that was going on throughout the film.â?�

Created from the original manuscript, this release offers a rare opportunity to study film music in its authentic, original orchestration and arrangement. An opportunity not to be missed!

SKU: A0.1018940

Programme Notes:

 This composition was written to be considered for pairing alongside Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony #3, the Eroica, but can stand on its own virtues as an intense and slow meditation on heroism. The music is like a boiling pot on the stove that’s just began to overflow its bubbles.

 The first part of the title, kommos, is a Classical Greek term from Attic dramaturgy, literally meaning striking but specifically referring to beating oneself up during lamentation--ripping at the hair, gouging out the eyes--like Oedipus--slapping the forehead, and other acts amid moments of extreme emotional turmoil. For example, from Aeschylus's play Agamemnon, a character bewails: Apollo, Apollo! God of the Ways, my destroyer! For you have destroyed me-and utterly [...]What is this fresh woe [...]what monstrous, monstrous horror, beyond love's enduring, beyond all remedy? And help stands far away! We can easily imagine physical accompaniment to the script; rather than bottling up the pain, the hero lets it all explosively come out.  

 The second part of the title, When the world moved on, is an epigraph taken from American author Stephen King’s The Dark Tower epic. The primary setting of the novel, a world similar in many ways to our own, is experiencing a dark age where the glorious past is all but a distant memory and all good things are referred to wistfully as occurring, When the world moved on. Yet, the main protagonist, Roland, the last gunslinger, emphasizes that it is not just a figure of speech, but the literal distances between destinations have increased, the positions of the stars have changed, as well as the occurrence of other unnatural phenomena. The world has become a gulf of isolation from all corners.

 Taken together, this piece is a lamentation for when the world moved on. Truly completed on Yom Kippur during the Covid-19 Pandemic, being unable to fast or go to synagogue, this is my atonement.

About the Composer:

 Benjamin Sajo (b. 1988) is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music, as well as an educator. Since developing a fiercely independent creative voice upon the completion of his studies at Western (2010) and McGill Universities (2013), he continues to find inspiration from the intersection of mythology, art, and nature upon the contemporary human experience. In 2019, he released his premiere album of original music, The Great War Sextet: Canadian War Poetry with Trombone & Strings, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. He is a member of SOCAN and the League of Canadian Composers.

SKU: A0.1018959

Programme Notes:

 This composition was written to be considered for pairing alongside Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony #3, the Eroica, but can stand on its own virtues as an intense and slow meditation on heroism. The music is like a boiling pot on the stove that’s just began to overflow its bubbles.

 The first part of the title, kommos, is a Classical Greek term from Attic dramaturgy, literally meaning striking but specifically referring to beating oneself up during lamentation--ripping at the hair, gouging out the eyes--like Oedipus--slapping the forehead, and other acts amid moments of extreme emotional turmoil. For example, from Aeschylus's play Agamemnon, a character bewails: Apollo, Apollo! God of the Ways, my destroyer! For you have destroyed me-and utterly [...]What is this fresh woe [...]what monstrous, monstrous horror, beyond love's enduring, beyond all remedy? And help stands far away! We can easily imagine physical accompaniment to the script; rather than bottling up the pain, the hero lets it all explosively come out.  

 The second part of the title, When the world moved on, is an epigraph taken from American author Stephen King’s The Dark Tower epic. The primary setting of the novel, a world similar in many ways to our own, is experiencing a dark age where the glorious past is all but a distant memory and all good things are referred to wistfully as occurring, When the world moved on. Yet, the main protagonist, Roland, the last gunslinger, emphasizes that it is not just a figure of speech, but the literal distances between destinations have increased, the positions of the stars have changed, as well as the occurrence of other unnatural phenomena. The world has become a gulf of isolation from all corners.

 Taken together, this piece is a lamentation for when the world moved on. Truly completed on Yom Kippur during the Covid-19 Pandemic, being unable to fast or go to synagogue, this is my atonement.

About the Composer:

 Benjamin Sajo (b. 1988) is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music, as well as an educator. Since developing a fiercely independent creative voice upon the completion of his studies at Western (2010) and McGill Universities (2013), he continues to find inspiration from the intersection of mythology, art, and nature upon the contemporary human experience. In 2019, he released his premiere album of original music, The Great War Sextet: Canadian War Poetry with Trombone & Strings, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. He is a member of SOCAN and the League of Canadian Composers.

SKU: A0.868921

The publication is based on the manuscripts from musical archive of Lev PULVER (1883 – 1970). It has been realized and edited by Sergei LEONOV. The Oath is one of the two surviving fragments of music to the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (GOSET) production Shulamis (1937). It is a duet of two main characters of the play, Shulamis and Avessalom. The ranges of the solo voices are C#4–G#5 and F#3–F#4. The Oath is definitely one of the masterpieces of Yiddish musical culture of the 20th century.

Introductory text to the publication, written by Sergei Leonov, includes a short biography of the composer and a detailed description of The Oath.

SKU: A0.486222

Orchestration for large orchestra. In this work I explore the timbres within the wood family together with the horns. The highlight goes to the transcriptions and the attempt to bring to the listener's memory a submerging cathedral.

SKU: A0.861930

The American Seasons (2nd violins part – violin and string orchestra) MO148E

2nd Violins Part (score and parts available)

Music by Mark O’Connor

36 pages - 38:00 minutes in length

The American Seasons
(Seasons Of An American Life)

The American Seasons (Seasons Of An American Life) is a concerto for Violin And Chamber Orchestra. Composed in 1999, the music celebrates the various stages of an American life at the waking of the 21st century. Constructed in four movements and representing four stages of life, birth, adolescence, maturity and old age, the music also pays homage to Shakespeare's Seasons Of Man His acts being seven ages, incorporated throughout the work.

Spring introduces the ideas of birth and infancy. After the principal theme has been stated, there is a violin cadenza encountering all twelve major keys and a 13/8 time signature representing the ancient golden ratio. These elements recall birth with all the possibilities a new life offers. Ending the movement, the principal theme is repeated with more complexity... as if posing life's questions.

Summer represents the excitement and bravado of youthful adolescence and young adulthood. For the style of this movement I use a happy-go-lucky Blues voice which melds into Swing. I identify swing rhythm in all of 20th century American music culture as a common thread that runs through Ragtime through Rock and Roll on to Rap. Swing means testing the waters and pushing the envelope for lovers and soldiers.

Fall is the slow movement symbolizing the wisdom of maturity. It is a peaceful theme with nostalgic strokes. It is a time for sincere reflection and enjoying ones accomplishments in life.

Winter embodies the complexities and knowledge of an older person and that of a dying person. The movement begins with the principal them from Spring, but with a dissonance that emanates from a lifetime full of emotions and responsibilities. In the middle of the movement is a transition to an old world. I use my personal ancestry from Ireland as a foundation from which to rediscover one's lineage and explore the meaning and value of a cultural legacy.

The exploration evolves into a four- and five-part fugue with a reel, jig, air, countered bass and the motif from the principal theme. All these elements, dances and melodies appear simultaneously and converge to form a unique insight to life's consequences from a historical perspective. Following the fugue, the principal theme finds its way back in. It sounds much as it did at birth. In the end, the solo violin cadenza carries the last earthly breaths before the violin and orchestra once again join in harmony to focus on a new life being transformed somewhere else. Life's four seasons in perpetuity.

Original music printed from the composer’s manuscripts.

Music editing, copying and engraving by Mark O’Connor

using Finale on Apple Macintosh 1999

Composed by Mark O’Connor

Commissioned by the Troy Savings Bank Concert Hall for their 2000 Celebration

Can be heard on American Seasons Sony Classical and The Essential Mark O’Connor Sony Classical

Mark O’Connor - violin, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, Scott Yoo

Catalogue Number MO148E

Copyright © 1999 by Mark O’Connor Music International

For more information on violinist and composer Mark O'Connor, O’Connor String Camps, Touring Ensembles, Discography, Bio, Repertoire and more, please visit

www.markoconnor.com

For information on the O’Connor Method.