Small Ensemble - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.533673 Composed by Carson Cooman. Contemporary,Sacred. Score and parts. 134 pages. Musik Fabrik Music Publishing #3037307. Published by Musik Fabrik Music Publishing (A0.533673). Symphony No. 3, “Ave Maris Stella” (2005) was written for the Duquesne ContemporaryEnsemble and is dedicated to composer David Stock. Throughout his career, Stock has beena tireless and generous advocate on behalf of new music and living composers. This work isdedicated to him in tribute – as both an important American composer and a significantcontributor 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 thecomposition 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 changethe 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 transparentwith age.” The melodic and harmonic material for the movement is entirely drawn from theplainchant 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, afast and driving section starts, marked “sinister.” After driving through a series oftransformations 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 (theunderlying 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 morestraightforward fashion. After the opening declamatory statements, the following sectionsmove between more free developmental techniques, based on the first movement’stransformations, and “motet” sections – using cantus firmus methods and textures fromRenaissance music. The tone and palate is, however, much darker and more obsessive.There is a brooding ponderousness to these contrapuntal developments. The final motetsection ends in a rageful shout, the plainchant material is presented again in full force, and thepent-up energy dissipates to the close.FluteOboeClarinet in BbBass Clarinet in BbBassoonHorn in F/BbTrumpet in CTrombonePercussion (1 player):tubular bells, vibraphone(Percussionist needs one rosined bow for vibraphone.)PianoViolin IViolin IIViolaCelloContrabass(single strings)This is the complete set of parts. The full score and the individual parts are avaialbe as seperate items.
