SKU: A0.533592

Cerulean: Double Percussion Concerto (2004) for two solo percussionists and ensemble
was commissioned by the Carnegie Mellon School of Music for percussionists Cory Cousins,
Mike Perdue, and the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble, Walter Morales, director.
The work is dedicated to them and to Howard Stokar. The work is inspired by the ocean,
particularly its greatest depths.
The work is in two movements, played without break. The two movements explore the same
musical material (a specific collection of twelve pitches) in two very different ways. In the
first movement, the material is presented often in row forms -- and harmonies derived from it.
In the second movement, a more free approach is used to the material and it becomes more
motivic and gestural.
The first movement, Different Purposes, is inspired by the vast diversity of deep-sea life.
Musical objects interact with each other and ideas transform each other. Many of these deepsea
creatures live in very isolated and solitary environments at the ocean's lowest points.
They each exist and pursue their own purposes without any awareness of what else is
happening around them. However, despite this, they are all existing within a common
environmental system and are thus achieving goals together on a larger level.
The second movement, Different Porpoises, is inspired by porpoises and other sea-creatures
who surface, thus providing a link to human land-bound life. The marimba establishes a
rhythmic ostinato which (although passed around) remains steady throughout most of the
movement.

Instrumentation
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet in Bb
Bass Clarinet in Bb
Bassoon
Horn in F
Piano
2 Solo Percussion:
I: marimba, crotales, suspended cymbal, 2 spokes/bells
II: vibraphone (with motor), tubular bells, 3 bowls (indef. pitches),
medium-size water gong (i.e., gong with bucket of water),
3 roto-toms, conga, bass drum
(each percussionist needs two bows)
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
(All players except for the two solo percussion also play
oracle rods in addition to their instruments.)

The full score without the solo parts is also available for sale.. The parts are on rental from the publisher

SKU: A0.533591

Cerulean: Double Percussion Concerto (2004) for two solo percussionists and ensemble
was commissioned by the Carnegie Mellon School of Music for percussionists Cory Cousins,
Mike Perdue, and the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble, Walter Morales, director.
The work is dedicated to them and to Howard Stokar. The work is inspired by the ocean,
particularly its greatest depths.
The work is in two movements, played without break. The two movements explore the same
musical material (a specific collection of twelve pitches) in two very different ways. In the
first movement, the material is presented often in row forms -- and harmonies derived from it.
In the second movement, a more free approach is used to the material and it becomes more
motivic and gestural.
The first movement, Different Purposes, is inspired by the vast diversity of deep-sea life.
Musical objects interact with each other and ideas transform each other. Many of these deepsea
creatures live in very isolated and solitary environments at the ocean's lowest points.
They each exist and pursue their own purposes without any awareness of what else is
happening around them. However, despite this, they are all existing within a common
environmental system and are thus achieving goals together on a larger level.
The second movement, Different Porpoises, is inspired by porpoises and other sea-creatures
who surface, thus providing a link to human land-bound life. The marimba establishes a
rhythmic ostinato which (although passed around) remains steady throughout most of the
movement.

Instrumentation
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet in Bb
Bass Clarinet in Bb
Bassoon
Horn in F
Piano
2 Solo Percussion:
I: marimba, crotales, suspended cymbal, 2 spokes/bells
II: vibraphone (with motor), tubular bells, 3 bowls (indef. pitches),
medium-size water gong (i.e., gong with bucket of water),
3 roto-toms, conga, bass drum
(each percussionist needs two bows)
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
(All players except for the two solo percussion also play
oracle rods in addition to their instruments.)

The solo parts plus the full score are available for sale.  The parts are on rental from the publisher

SKU: A0.533672

Symphony No. 3, “Ave Maris Stella� (2005) was written for the Duquesne Contemporary
Ensemble and is dedicated to composer David Stock. Throughout his career, Stock has been
a tireless and generous advocate on behalf of new music and living composers. This work is
dedicated to him in tribute – as both an important American composer and a significant
contributor to America’s contemporary musical life.
The work’s basic source material is the plainchant Ave maris stella (“Hail, star of the sea�) –
appropriate because of Duquesne’s standing and history as a Catholic university. When the
composition of this work first began, the original plan was for a celebratory and vibrant piece.
As the planning progressed, however, personal circumstances intervened and began to change
the work’s tone – becoming substantially bleaker and more obsessive.
The title of the first movement, Pentimento, is defined as “an underlying image in a painting,
as an earlier painting, that shows through when the top layer of paint has become transparent
with age.� The melodic and harmonic material for the movement is entirely drawn from the
plainchant source, although it is completely transformed and covered up – as in a pentimento.
At various points, one can begin to hear the original plainchant “peek out� in subtle ways.
The opening section of the movement obsesses again and again on what sounds like a
“beginning� – as though it is trying to begin again and again. After a brief bassoon cadenza, a
fast and driving section starts, marked “sinister.� After driving through a series of
transformations on the plainchant material, a bridge passage leads to further attempts at the
“beginning� again. Finally, these attempts are given up, and the plainchant material (the
underlying layer) begins to show through quietly – in preparation for the next movement.
In the second movement, Interrupted Motet, the plainchant theme is used in a more
straightforward fashion. After the opening declamatory statements, the following sections
move between more free developmental techniques, based on the first movement’s
transformations, and “motet� sections – using cantus firmus methods and textures from
Renaissance music. The tone and palate is, however, much darker and more obsessive.
There is a brooding ponderousness to these contrapuntal developments. The final motet
section ends in a rageful shout, the plainchant material is presented again in full force, and the
pent-up energy dissipates to the close.

Flute
Oboe
Clarinet in Bb
Bass Clarinet in Bb
Bassoon
Horn in F/Bb
Trumpet in C
Trombone
Percussion (1 player):
tubular bells, vibraphone
(Percussionist needs one rosined bow for vibraphone.)
Piano
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Contrabass
(single strings)

This is the score only.  The complete parts and each seperate part are also available as seperate items.

SKU: A0.1326090

A piece of fantasy music perfect for all seasons.

Featuring:
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet
Percussion Instruments (Bass Drum, Triangle, Cymbals)
Timpani
Tubular Bells
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
Celesta or Keyboard Synth
Harp or Keyboard Synth
Violins I and II
Viola
Cello
Contrabass.

SKU: A0.1025352

Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra: Far and Away
Oboe, Violin I & II, Solo Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass
*Optimized for 8 1/2 x 11 in paper

An intermediate level piece suitable for college level or advanced high school orchestras. 

Far and Away is a semi-thematic piece.  The first movement is pastoral in nature with a gentle melody and strong call and response between the oboe and the orchestra.  The driving second movement, The Adventure, is true to its name with a constant string ostinato keeping the listener on the edge of their seat.  The Journey Home, the third movement, is light and jovial with some emotional surprises for the audience. 

Duration: 19 minutes.  First movement 9 minutes.  Second and third movements each approximately 5 minutes.

Publisher: Montana Knites Publishing ASCAP

Facebook: @jameyaston
Twitter: @JameyAston
www.montanaknites.com

I would love to hear you play this!  If you do, please contact me at jamey.aston@montanaknites.com and let me know where I can see your performance!



    

SKU: A0.1025353

Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra: Far and Away
Oboe, Violin I & II, Solo Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrabass
*Optimized for 9 x 12 in paper

An intermediate level piece suitable for college level or advanced high school orchestras.

Far and Away is a semi-thematic piece. The first movement is pastoral in nature with a gentle melody and strong call and response between the oboe and the orchestra. The driving second movement, The Adventure, is true to its name with a constant string ostinato keeping the listener on the edge of their seat. The Journey Home, the third movement, is light and jovial with some emotional surprises for the audience.

Duration: 19 minutes. First movement 9 minutes. Second and third movements each approximately 5 minutes.

Publisher: Montana Knites Publishing ASCAP

Facebook: @jameyaston
Twitter: @JameyAston
www.montanaknites.com

I would love to hear you play this!  If you do, please contact me at jamey.aston@montanaknites.com and let me know where I can see your performance!

SKU: A0.922640

Original by Johann Strauss II
Reduction to String Orchestra by Aaron Meier

Part: *Optional Percussion (snare drum, triangle, cymbals)

True to the original work by Strauss, this reduction for string orchestra features the ornaments and mystical writing that defines Strauss' polkas. There are optional percussion parts to be added at the discretion of the ensemble, however even without percussion the ensemble will sound full (the percussion acts as an ornament).

Difficulty: Intermediate-advanced - advanced (best-suited for advanced student ensembles)
---

Performance Notes:

• Approximate length: 3:30 minutes
• 1st Violins: In m. 1, trill a half step from a Dâ™­ to a Dâ™® 
• 2nd Violins:
 - At m. 42, divide players by 3, with 2 players playing line A and the remaining player playing line B
 - At m. 72-75, emphasize the E♭ in the div.
• Snare Drum: The buzz roll needs to be quieter than how it is played in the midi recording (*see YouTube link ↓)

History:

The Olga-Polka itself owed its creation to a Russian royal wedding which took place in St. Petersburg on 28 August 1857. On that day, amid accompanying splendour, the music-loving Grand Duke Michail Nikolaievich (1832-1909), youngest brother of Tsar Alexander II, married Princess Caecilie of Baden (1839-91), daughter of Archduke Leopold of Baden. Johann Strauss, who at that time was giving a summer season of concerts in nearby Pavlovsk, used the opportunity occasioned by the event to enhance his already enviable popularity with the Russian royal family and composed the Caecilien-Polka in honour of the lovely young bride. Indeed, it is clear from a letter which Johann wrote in late July 1857 to Carl Haslinger, his publisher in Vienna, that the new polka had been prepared well in advance of the wedding (the fair copy of the full orchestral score made for the publisher's engraver is dated 9 August) and was enjoying success even before the royal couple's official engagement on 16August 1857. Sometime after performing the Caecilien-Polka in Pavlovsk, Johann despatched the work to the Austrian capital where his brother Josef conducted its Viennese première, together with that of Johann's waltz Telegraphische Depeschen (op. 195, Volume 28), at his own benefit concert in the Volksgartenon Sunday 18 October 1857. The Wiener Allgemeine Theaterzeitung (16.10.1857) remarked that both works have caused a sensation in St. Petersburg and are truly genial Viennese sounds full of verve and melody.

Since tradition demanded that the German Princess Caecilie adopt a Russian name - Olga Feodorovna - before her marriage, so Johann's Caecilien-Polka also underwent a change of identity. On 8 December 1857 Carl Haslinger announced the publication of Strauss's Olga-Polka, on the title page of which is the inscription: Dedicated to her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga, née Princess of Baden. It was under this title, too, that Johann himself first conducted the work in Vienna at a concert in the Volksgarten on 1 November 1857, shortly after his return from Russia. Reporting on this event, the Wiener Allgemeine Theaterzeitung (3.11.1857) observed: The 'Olga-Polka' is a most delightful, fragrant musical bouquet, full of fine, gracious rhythms.
[excerpted from NAXOS Records]
Kemp, Peter. Program Notes - About this Recording. NAXOS, 1993, www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.223232&catNum=223232&filetype=About%20.......... Accessed 5 June 2020.