Full Orchestra - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.869368 Composed by Thomas Oboe Lee. 20th Century,Baroque,Classical,Contemporary,Romantic Period. Score and parts. 126 pages. Thomas Oboe Lee #33643. Published by Thomas Oboe Lee (A0.869368). Instrumentation: 3232-4331-timp-2perc-pf-hp-strings. Program note. Nineteen ninety-eight marks the tenth anniversary of my plunge into the world of ballet. I continue to take classes three or four times a week. It's fun, athletic, and challenging. And I'm still working on the basic notion of spotting in my pirouettes ... So when Max Hobart of the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston agreed to premiere a new work of mine I knew it had to be a symphonic ballet. Coincidentally, I discovered that my favorite cartoonist, Edward Gorey, is also a balletomane. He lived in New York City between 1953 and 1986 and never missed a single performance of the New York City Ballet. Apparently his leaving New York to live permanently on Cape Cod was prompted by the death of George Balanchine in 1983. Among Edward Gorey's many books there is one, The Gilded Bat, about a young woman, Maud Splaytoe, and her adventures in the ballet world. She dies in the end when the plane she is in flies into a great, dark bird. Hmmm, I thought, The Gilded Bat would make a nice adagio movement. To complete the work, I found four other Gorey books that attracted me in mood and texture: The Nursery Frieze - dogs running across the edge of a nursery ceiling, barking out words whose sequence provides no sense or meaning, e.g., Archipelago, cardamon, obloquy, ignavia, samisen, bandages, wax, Gavelkind, ... ; The Raging Tide - a fantastical story about four creatures, Figbash, Hooglyboo, Naeelah and Skrump, who would not stop abusing each other; The Utter Zoo - an alphabet book of zoo animals of Edward Gorey's concoction, e.g., Ampoo, Boggerslosh, Crunk, Dawbis, Epitwee, ... ; and The Blue Aspic - a macabre story of a mad fan, Jasper Ankle, who stalks an opera diva, Ortenzia Caviglia. When he finally meets her at the stage-door after a performance, he stabs her in the throat and cries, J'ai trouvé Hortense! Symphony No. 2 ... A Phantasmagorey Ballet is in five movements: I. The Nursery Frieze, Con moto. II. The Gilded Bat Adagio: Pas seul for Mirella Splatova, aka Maud SplaytoeIII. The Raging Tide Presto: Pas de Quatre for Figbash, Hooglyboo, Naeelah and Skrump. IV. The Blue Aspic Allegro: Valzer alla Prokofiev ... Pas de deux for Jasper Ankle and Ortenzia Caviglia. V. The Utter Zoo Largo: Grand Funk Finale. This work is dedicated to my wife, Kristin Beckwith, whom I met ten years ago at the Boston Ballet, and who continues to be my one and only ballet teacher.Audio link: https://thomasoboelee.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-no-2-a-phantasmagorey-ballet-1998

Full Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1004734 Composed by Adrian Gagiu. 20th Century,Classical. Score and parts. 524 pages. Adrian Gagiu #6631587. Published by Adrian Gagiu (A0.1004734). Fourth Symphony in E flat major Homage to Beethoven (2003, revised 2021), a Neo-Classical symphony based on Beethoven's sketches for his Tenth Symphony, like a speculative reconstruction. In 1822-1827, the fascinating Tenth Symphony (Biamonti 838) was one of Beethoven’s relatively advanced projects, but still it was at the beginning of its elaboration. The material is not quite abundant, and many secondary features in the concept sketches could have been modified, according to his working habits, should he have lived a few years more. For a true reconstruction, the sketches are too scarce, but they are also too good to be left aside and very stimulating for a composer, especially for one whose formation is indebted to Beethoven and who is willing to pay him homage. I have chosen a Neo-Classical idiom, an approach analogous to Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss (after Tchaikovsky). For such a work, the thorough study of fundamental articles on Beethoven’s projects and sketches (by Barry Cooper, Sieghard Brandenburg, Robert Winter, Martin Staehelin, Nicholas Cook, and Lewis Lockwood) was a necessity. Then, in 2021, the symphony was heavily revised, mainly to make it terser and truer to the sketches and to Classical practices For this symphony, all the thematic material is Beethoven’s, and also the general outline, as much as the latter could be inferred from his sketches. In its revised version, I made use only of the sketches clearly identifiable as intended for the Tenth Symphony and dating from 1822 and later years (most of the themes of its corresponding movements), but also of a few other sketches, most of them contemporary or relatable, unused or intended for other compositions: in the continuation to the second subject group in the first movement, in the second strains of the Presto and of its Trio, and in the transitions and the episodes in the Finale. The symphony has 4 movements and is scored for a normal concert orchestra, including 3 trombones. The revised version makes use also of a contrabassoon, to support the double basses and suggesting a stronger presence of the winds like in the larger scale concerts in the Classical era (usually with doubled winds).Total duration: 34 min. Performing Rights Organization: SOCAN. The mp3 audio clip is a recording of the first movement (Andante-Allegro-Andante).

Full Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1277133 Composed by Adrian Gagiu. 21st Century,Christian,Classical,Latin. 128 pages. Adrian Gagiu #868819. Published by Adrian Gagiu (A0.1277133). Missa Solemnis in B major, op. 27 (conductor's score). Based on its Neo-classical style, this setting of the Roman Catholic mass text could possibly work as a festive mass (missa solemnis) with trumpets and timpani, and its duration would fit such a solemn service. However, its intense and sometimes dramatic treatment and universal addressability due to its well-known and rather concentrated text, yet also due to eliminating the „Filioque� (which would still fit the rhythm of the repeated „qui ex Patre�, should any Catholics ever wish to perform this as a mass) make it rather a „liturgical oratorio for all nations�, more appropriate in the concert hall. The work has had a long gestation: imagined in 1984 after the composer’s first contact with Beethoven’s masterpiece, then sketched first in 1987-1989, and many of its themes date back from those years. Its working out is quite polyphonic, discretely modal and cyclical, and also full of centuries-old musical symbols traditionally associated with the setting of the mass text: e.g. unisons for the more dogmatical parts, Baroque dotted rhythms at the Nativity (the first coming of the  King of Kings), „rex caelestis� and also at his Passion (whose setting is discretely inspired by folkloric Romanian laments), the „anabasis� gesture at „Gloria in excelsis Deo�, „et ascendit in caelis�, „in remissionem peccatorum� and the resurrection, a flute trill standing for the Holy Spirit who has come ’like a dove’ at „et incarnatus est�, a cross-shaped texture at „crucifixus�, and some word-painting (hushed sonorities at „et invisibilium�, anticipations between orchestra and chorus at „et exspecto� etc.). Moreover, certain symbolic roles are assigned to the instrumental groups when alone (the organ represents God the Father and transcendence, the winds and/or solo voices represent God the Son and humanity, and the strings represent the Holy Spirit). „Kyrie� is restrained and soft, besides the powerful chords opening the respective sections of its tripartite, simple structure, and it leans towards Palestrina’s serene modality and counterpoint. „Gloria� begins with a colorful orchestral introduction depicting discretely the shepherds who kept watch over their flocks right before the Nativity, and then gradually the bright revelation. „Credo� has an orchestral introduction as well, but powerful, recurring and based on the beginning of the plainchant hymn „Pange lingua�, made famous by Mozart’s last symphony and by other Classical composers. Both „Gloria� and „Credo� end with extended, powerful and elaborate fugues („in gloria Dei Patris� and „et vitam venturi saeculi�, respectively) with dramatic modulations and sometimes with enthusiastic syncopations at odds with the words’ accents, a la Stravinsky. The same sections plus „Agnus Dei� end with soft quartal harmonies suggesting transcendent appeasement (similar harmonies appear powerfully at the beginning of „Sanctus�). „Judicare� quotes the beginning of the well-known „Dies irae� plainchant tune, and the Consecration between the „Sanctus� and „Benedictus� sections is represented by a contemplative prelude for solo organ, quoting Lutheran chorales, too. Another long orchestral introduction, suggesting the Last Judgment and based on traditional Byzantine hymns, opens „Agnus Dei�, which includes another quotation (the famous ’Dresden Amen’ at „qui tollis peccata mundi� and „dona nobis pacem�). In the final section, with its refined simplicity, the choral voices enter in descending order, and the „Kyrie eleison� theme is briefly remembered, then it ends softly and peacefully. Total duration: 50 min. Performing Rights Organization: SOCAN. The mp3 audio clip is Kyrie.