SKU: A0.534483

This work was written in the first months of 1942 while Tailleferre was living in Grasse, in the socolled
« Free Zone » of occupied France during the Second World War and was completed just as
Tailleferre was forced to flee France with her daughter. As the wife of Jean Lageat, who had been the
secretary of the French socialist Léon Blum during the « Front Populaire » period just before the War
and who was at that time in the US working against the Vichy Government, and as someone who was
not unvocal about her political views, this could not have been a comfortable situation. Tailleferre left a
record of what she experienced during this period in an article written for the American music journal «
Modern Music » which she wrote shortly after arriving in America in the Spring of 1942 :
« Notwithstanding their staunch spirit of resistence, the people under German rule today are
increasingly bowed down under their burdens. By achieving the physical decline of the French, the
Nazis hope that spiritual collapse will ensue. However, after two years of quasi-famine, France remains
pround and great, although the necessity of liberation grows daily more urgent.....For an artist to work
under these conditions is almost impossible. The mere effort of subsisting wastes time and absorbs
energy ; The means to work are also lacking.....Musical composition is made practically impossible
through lack of music paper. For more than a year, I sought in vain to find paper in Lyon, Marseilles
and Nice on which to copy an orchestral score...Two years of experience under German rule have
taught me that all expressions of pride, dignity, spirit , aspiration of the human will can be made only
claudestinely. It is a historical truth that the human mind makes its greatest progress under freedom ».
Under such circumstances, it is a miracle that this work exists at all. The three movement work was
dedicated to the famous Marguerite Long, for whom Tailleferre had already written several short works
for piano solo, and François Lang, a pianist who was closely linked with the Group des Six and who
had performed in the première of the 1934 Concerto Grosso for Two Pianos, 8 Solo Voices, Saxophone
Quartet and Orchestra and for whom Tailleferre wrote two cadenzas for concerti by Mozart and Haydn.
The work opens with sunny, optimistism in a mood similar to the opening movement of the Concerto
Grosso, but quickly the mood changes to more dramatic themes. The second movement seems to
subjectively express a rupture with the past and a tragic melancholy. The final third movement is
extremely dramatic and almost frightening with it’s force.
When Tailleferre left France in the Spring of 1942, having been warned by a neighbor that she was
going to be arrested if she didn’t leave immediately, she left the score in a two-piano version, probably
due to the fact that there was no music paper to be had to copy the score. When she returned to France
in 1946, she learned that François Lang had been deported to Auschwitz where he died. Musical life in
France had been completely changed by the War years. Tailleferre put the work aside and forgot about
it, perhaps wanting to forget the hardships that she had lived through and the loss of many of her friends
associated with these years.
Tailleferre's version for two pianos is published by Musik Fabrik and the work may be performed in
that version. It is clear however, that the work was intended to be orchestrated and the editors hope that
the present orchestration will allow the work to finally be presented as Tailleferre conceived during
some of the darkest years of the Twentieth century.

SKU: A0.869351

Instrumentation: 3232-4331-timp-2perc-strings.

When I received the invitation from Jonathan Cohler to write a Concerto for Orchestra for the Brockton Symphony, I immediately thought of all the composers who wrote works inspired by Bartok’s seminal work of the same title: Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, Michael Tippett, Witold Lutoslawski, Joan Tower and, most recently, Jennifer Higdon.

My Concerto for Orchestra, opus 111, is in five movements. It will be heard without pause between movements.

I. Largo … Misterioso!
II. Allegro con moto … Evidence!!!
III. Adagio … Epistrophy!
IV. Andante … In Walked Bud!
V. Presto … Rhythm-a-ning!!!

My initial idea for the Concerto was contrast - contrast between the timbres and colors that the various sections in an orchestra provide. For example, the woodwinds would provide a sharp contrast against the brass; the percussion section against the strings, etc. I also was interested in writing a work where each movement would flow into the next without pause – thus providing another form of contrast, that of tempi and mood change. A third form of contrast would be the different styles and forms of music that I would come up with. And I had a lot of fun conjuring up the many possible scenarios and orchestral tableaux. I actually started with the second movement: the Allegro con moto. I wanted something that had a nice surging quality that the whole orchestra could jump into. When I finished that, I thought perhaps it would be too intense for the opening of the work. I thought, maybe I should begin with something slower, more brooding in nature before the explosive stuff.

I noticed that Carter’s Concerto began with a slow Introduction. It had a title: Misterioso. Being an avid fan of Thelonious Monk, aka Thelonious Sphere Monk, Misterioso brought to mind a Monk composition of the same title. That epiphany gave me the idea of naming each of the five movements after a Monk tune. Monk’s Misterioso is a blues with an insistent theme of 8th note patterns of rising 6ths; which has nothing to do with my first movement. My Misterioso features a solo for the bass clarinet in the midst of a shimmering atmosphere that is punctuated by accents in the bass. They are both mysterious, but divergently opposed in mood and substance. Monk’s Evidence is a tune with jabs and punches, irregularly placed within the measure – not unlike what I did in the second movement. This movement is perhaps the most Monk-ish of all. Monk’s Epistrophy is a tune constructed with a four-note pattern that is angular and twisted. I wrote a solemn brass choir movement that is an epistle in nature, a sermon of sorts. The title of Monk’s In Walked Bud refers, of course, to the amazing pianist Bud Powell. I took the word walk and translated it into an andante. What resulted was a silly, but jolly movement featuring the woodwinds. I wanted to end the work with a fast and furious finale. Inspired by the word rhythm in Monk’s Rhythm-a-ning, I began the last movement with a solo for the percussion section – timpani, tom-toms, bass drum!!! The orchestra eventually joins in the mayhem, breaking into a scherzo-like frenzy. It ends with a big bang!!!

Enjoy!!!

Audio link: https://thomasoboelee.bandcamp.com/album/concerto-for-orchestra-opus-111-2005

SKU: IZ.PDP300

9 x 12 inches.

Clarke worked on the Pieces for Two Violins and Piano during 1909, her last year at the Royal College, when Danse Bizarre gained her a scholarship. Clarke mentioned Danse Bizarre in her typescript memoir composed in the 1970s, and also discussed it with me in 1977 while helping me catalogue her compositions, but she said then that it was long lost, and made no mention of any related material. In the year 2000, however, Clarke's great-nephew Daniel Braden found.a box that Clarke had put in the back of a closet decades before and evidently forgotten, which turned out to contain a chaotic assortment of letters, papers, medical records, and music-manuscript sheets. When put in order, the latter yielded the missing inner leaf of an important viola piece and a number of previously unknown or presumed-lost arrangements and compositions, including ''Danse Bizarre and a Prelude, a Nocturne, and the beginning of a Finale for the same instruments, on the same paper, and bearing similar markings in Clarke's hand and in at least one other hand, which may well be Stanford's. The four movements were plainly developed as a suite, although there is nothing to suggest a sequence for the inner movements, and no compelling reason to believe that the Finale ever got beyond the extant eight pages. The manuscript of the Finale is noticeably rougher than those of the other movements, and several pencil-markings, apparently in another hand, suggest that some of its motivic material had not yet jelled. It seems entirely possible that Clarke had only begun this movement when a family crisis forced her to leave the College, and that she never returned to it. In any case, there is not enough of the Finale to make performance feasible, but the other movements stand quite magnificently on their own. They were recorded by Lorraine McAslan, David Juritz, and Ian Jones on Dutton CDLX 7132, released in 2003. The first public performance, by students at the Royal College under Jones's supervision, took place in May 2005 in the College's Concert Hall, where Clarke had last performed nearly a century before.

SKU: HX.459443

About Hal Leonard E-Z Play Today

For organs, pianos, and electronic keyboards. E-Z Play Today is the shortest distance between beginning music and playing fun. Now there are more than 300 reasons why you should play E-Z Play Today. * World's largest series of music folios * Full-size books - large 9 x 12 format features easy-to-read, easy-to-play music * Accurate arrangements... simple enough for the beginner, but accurate chords and melody lines are maintained * Eye-catching, full-color covers * Lyrics... most arrangements include words and music * Most up-to-date registrations - books in the series contain a general registration guide, as well as individual song rhythm suggestions * Guitar Chord Chart - all songs in the series can also be played on guitar.

SKU: A0.1121127

Please contact me by email at jfries@ptd.net to make a special request or to find out all that I have to offer and to express your comments or concerns.  You can also type John Fries in the searchbar to see all I have to offer.  But Not for Me is a popular song originally written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin for the musical Girl Crazy (1930) and sung by Ginger Rogers. Ella Fitzgerald's 1959 version of But Not for Me, which appeared on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance.

SKU: A0.1138633

Please contact me by email at jfries@ptd.net to make a special request or to find out all that I have to offer and to express your comments or concerns.  You can also type John Fries in the searchbar to see all I have to offer.   But Not for Me is a popular song originally written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin for the musical Girl Crazy (1930) and sung by Ginger Rogers. Ella Fitzgerald's 1959 version of But Not for Me, which appeared on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance.

SKU: A0.534375

To You for Baritone, Tenor Saxophone and piano is dedicated to the American Baritone Kurt Ollmann, who has done much for the promotion and performance of American music both in the United States and abroad.

Whitman’s poem speaks of seeing a stranger and feeling love for this person. In contrast to Poe’s To Helen, which treats a similar subject of a chance meeting of a stranger that the poet loves, Whitman does not idealize his subject but rather pointedly and brutally describes how he sees this person and what feelings (both negative and positive) this contemplation provokes in the poet’s mind In order to reflect this musically, there is an alternation between more introspective and brooding sections which are then followed by more ecstatic outbursts. The piece ends with the poet watching the stranger leave, expressing what the composer felt to be acceptance and release.

As in any chamber music with voice, it is important that the two instruments allow the voice to predominate, regardless of the dynamics marked in their parts. The saxophonist should try as much as possible to match colour with the voice,in order to allow the contrapuntal exchanges between the voice and the saxophone to blend evenly. The pianist should play the passages at rehearsal marks E, G and K in a more soloist manner, always taking care not to cover the voice..

To You

Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walks of dreams,
I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and hands,
Even now your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners,
troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you,
Your true soul and body appear before me.
They stand forth out of affairs, out of commerce, shops, work,
farms, clothes, the house, buying, selling, eating, drinking,
suffering, dying.
Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my poem,
I whisper with my lips close to your ear.
I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.
O I have been dilatory and dumb,
I should have made my way straight to you long ago,
I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted nothing
but you.
I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you,
None has understood you, but I understand you,
None has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself,
None but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection in you,
None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never consent
to subordinate you,
I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God,
beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself.
Painters have painted their swarming groups and the centre-figure of all,
From the head of the centre-figure spreading a nimbus of gold-color'd light,
But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nimbus
of gold-color'd light,
From my hand from the brain of every man and woman it streams,
effulgently flowing forever.
O I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you!
You have not known what you are, you have slumber'd upon yourself
all your life,
Your eyelids have been the same as closed most of the time,
What you have done returns already in mockeries,
(Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in
mockeries, what is their return?)
The mockeries are not you,
Underneath them and within them I see you lurk,
I pursue you where none else has pursued you,
Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the
accustom'd routine, if these conceal you from others or from
yourself, they do not conceal you from me,
The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure complexion, if these
balk others they do not balk me,
The pert apparel, the deform'd attitude, drunkenness, greed,
premature death, all these I part aside.
There is no endowment in man or woman that is not tallied in you,
There is no virtue,.