Trio sonatas specifying flutes for both upper parts are rare among the works of Italian composers active around 1730. These three concise four-movement sonatas by the Venetian monk and proficient amateur composer Diogenio Bigaglia (c.1676–c.1745), probably written to order for a German visitor to his city, are some of the earliest known examples. Of moderate technical difficulty, they are delightful compositions, full of grace, euphony, wit and contrapuntal dexterity, and they also show great sensitivity towards the delicate sound of the baroque transverse flute (traverso). Interestingly, the particular instrument for which they were written was a short-lived version of the traverso, whose compass extended down to Middle C rather than the usual D. On a modern concert flute, which has the same lowest note, the parts present no problem; for ease of execution on an ordinary traverso, the editor has indicated a number of optional octave transpositions.
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: March 2021 Instruments: Two flutes, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.30' Series:Baroque Pages: xi/26 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 21 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 98 3 Code:HH511.FSP Price: £27.00 more information
Haydn’s Symphony No.100 was first performed on 31 March 1794 at the Hanover Square Rooms under the direction of Salomon as concertmaster with the composer himself at the fortepiano. The work was an instant success and was repeated a week later on 7 April,
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Hummel’s arrangement of the Piano Concerto in D major, K537, the fifth in the series to appear, was published in 1835. The lead-in (Eingänge) models that he provided are particularly valuable in the case of K537, which is among those concertos for which Mozart left no written-out examples. Equally importantly, Hummel might well have witnessed the work’s compositional process and first performance, and thus his own contributions could be considered as authoritative.Read full description
Editor:Leonardo Miucci |Gigliola Di Grazia Publication date: February 2021 Instruments: Flute, violin, violoncello, pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.33' Series:@Mozart Pages: xviii/45 + 3 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 97 1 ISBN: 978 1 910359 87 7 Code:HH487.FSP Price: £37.00 more information
Haydn’s Symphony No. 96 acquired its nickname through an unfortunate misunderstanding, originating in a colourful story reported by a contemporary biographer of the composer. The circumstances concern a different symphony entirely, but the attribution to No. 96 has persisted and the details are worth recounting: ‘When Haydn appeared in the orchestra [...] the curious audience in the parterre left their seats and crowded towards the orchestra the better to see the famous Haydn quite close. The seats in the middle of the floor were thus empty, and hardly were they empty when the great chandelier crashed down and broke into bits, throwing the numerous gathering into the greatest consternation. As soon as the first moment of fright was over and those who had pressed forward could think of the danger they had luckily escaped and find words to express it, several persons uttered the state of their feelings with loud cries of “Miracle! Miracle!”.’
The six Sonate a due violini e basso, of Baldassare Galuppi (1706–1785) are known to us from a single non-autograph manuscript preserved in Sweden. These are the composer’s only works in the genre, but their outstanding variety and elegance place them among his finest instrumental creations. In the present edition – the first to be published – the numerous errors in the Swedish manuscript have been corrected, and the editors, in their Introduction, have proposed a possible date for the collection, on the basis of their analysis of musical concordances with Galuppi’s works whose dates are established. A sample continuo realization is also included in the score. Read more
Composer:Baldassare Galuppi Editor:Fabrizio Ammetto |Alvise De Piero Publication date: January 2021 Instruments: Two violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.30' Pages: xv/21 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 19 2 ISBN: '978 1 910359 96 9 Code:HH509.FSP Price: £26.00 More information
ed. Fabrizio Ammetto & Alvise De Piero
HAYDN SYMPHONY No. 44 IN E MINOR (‘Trauer’) FOR PIANO
Symphony No. 44 in E minor is one of a number of Haydn’s mid-period works representing the Sturm und Drang (‘Storm and Stress’) style of melodramatic realism taken over from contemporary German literature and drama. The whole work is monotonal – each movement is in the same key, with contrast provided by excursions into the tonic major – and is pervaded by contrapuntal writing.
On the morning of Friday, 8 July 1791, at the University of Oxford, Haydn was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. That same evening his Symphony No. 92 was performed at the Sheldonian Theatre. Though not composed expressly for the occasion — it was one of a set of three (Nos 90, 91 and 92) commissioned by, and dedicated to, the Comte d’Ogny in 1788–89 — it would be difficult to disagree with H. C. Robbins-Landon that ‘Haydn was quite right to pick this Symphony for the concert [...] for it artlessly presents the greatest contrapuntal mind since J. S. Bach, embedded within the popular classical style.’
Diogenio Bigaglia (1678–1745) left only one chamber cantata scored for bass voice and continuo, but this work, Sudaste, alfin sudaste, is a masterpiece. Its poetic text takes the form of an imagined monologue by the crazed arsonist Herostratus, who has gone down in history as the person who burned down the famous Temple of Diana at Ephesus merely to gratify his eagerness for posthumous celebrity. Bigaglia captures brilliantly the demented exultation of Herostratus as he first lays his plan and then executes it. At the same time, this cantata reveals the great expressive power attainable by the bass voice when operating in the medium of the chamber cantata. Read more
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2020 Instruments: Bass voice and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.5' Pages: xii/10 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708185 12 3 ISBN: '978 1 910359 94 5 Code:HH501.FSP Price: £13.00 More information
Cantabile is one of a number of pieces that Adriano Cirillo wrote for his great friend the flautist Gabriele Betti, who died on 4 September 2020, one week before they were due to give the first performance. Read more
Composer:Adriano Cirillo Publication date: November 2020 Instrument: Flute and Piano Format: Full score and part Duration:c.3' Series:Contemporary Pages: iv/4 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708185 29 1 Code:HH519.FSP Price: £10.95 More information
Although Haydn’s Symphony No. 48 was long thought to have been written for, and performed in honour of, the state visit of Empress Maria Theresia to Eszterháza in 1773, eminent Haydn scholar H. C. Robbins Landon concluded that the piece should be redated to 1770. The accepted soubriquet may be mistaken, but, as Landon comments, the message is correct, for the work’s magnificence makes it a ‘Symphony for Queens and Emperors’. This excellent arrangement, made by German tenor, conductor and composer Carl David Stegmann (1751–1826) and newly edited by Sarah Jenner, makes a welcome addition to the piano transcription repertoire.
For nearly 150 years Bach’s ever-popular Concerto in D minor for harpsichord (BWV 1052) has been regarded as a transcription of a much earlier violin concerto. Numerous published reconstructions of this ‘lost original’ have appeared, as well as many modern recordings. However, previous violin reconstructions have proved unsatisfactory from both a musicological and a violinistic standpoint, and some leading scholars have even doubted that the violin was the original solo instrument. This latest reconstruction by late-Baroque specialist and violinist Fabrizio Ammetto, based on careful comparison of five surviving sources and close attention to the idiomatic solo writing (including full-length versions of the cadenzas for the outer movements), convincingly reaffirms the work’s status as a genuine violin concerto. The editor has added figured bass to the score for those who prefer to improvise a keyboard continuo, and the separate parts include a specimen cembalo realization. Read more
Composer:Johann Sebastian Bach Publication date: October 2020 Instruments: Violin, strings and continuo Format: Full score and solo part Duration:c.22' Pages: xiv/48 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708185 30 7 ISBN: '978 1 910359 95 2 Code:HH505.FSC Price: £26.00 More information Music example (pdf)
Jeremy Arden’s three Inventions — ‘Ahava’, ‘Pavane’ and ‘Farewell’ — were written in response to the 2020 pandemic. Locked down at home with no work but wishing to make music, he decided to create pieces he could play alone. The Hebrew word Ahava means ‘abounding love’ but also refers to an ancient Jewish mode, whose usage may be seen to connect a whole universe of music, from the song of the cantor to klezmer and jazz. The second piece celebrates the marvellously named Boddhisatva Wonder Sound, who appears in the Buddhist Lotus Sutra to remind us that all human beings, whatever their social status, have a Buddha nature. The final piece is dedicated to Jeremy’s good friend the composer Dimitri Smirnov, who was among those carried off by the Covid virus. Read more
Composer:Jeremy Arden Publication date: September 2020 Instruments: Piano solo Format: playing score Duration:c.15' Pages: v/19 ISMN: 979 0 708185 14 7 Code:HH504.SOL Price: £12.50 More information
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s Op. 20 sonatas for solo violin and basso continuo (1727) are the least known of all his sets of sonatas for one or more violins and accompaniment. These very fine works are written for a largely domestic and amateur market and are much more accessible technically than similar works published by the composer’s compatriots, all of whom were professional violinists (there is no evidence that Boismortier himself played the instrument). Even if his solo writing can be considered conservative, the sonatas are not devoid of technically challenging passages, and musically they are often far superior to those of his peers. Revealing the unmistakable influence of Corelli’s Op. 5 sonatas, they resourcefully combine sonata da camera dance forms with more ‘serious’ movements of the sonata da chiesa, including several in moto perpetuo style. With the appearance of this modern edition, it is hoped that these sonatas will at last gain the recognition they undoubtedly deserve. Read more
Haydn’s Symphony No. 85, ‘La Reine de France’, belongs to the set of six ‘Paris’ Symphonies, Nos. 82–7, composed in 1785–6 to a commission by the directors of the Concert de la Loge Olympique at the instigation of the Comte d’Ogny and were first performed by that society during the 1787 season. The soubriquet ‘La Reine’ was attached to the work soon after its first performance (and was included in the first edition of printed parts) reflecting its status as a favourite work of Marie Antoinette.
Among Vienna’s many composers and pianists of the time, Anton Eberl (1765–1807) was the one considered most worthy of comparison with Beethoven. His Sonata in F major, Op. 49, probably the first of seven sonatas with violin, was composed in 1792 and published posthumously in Vienna in 1808. Its model is Mozart’s keyboard and violin sonata in F major, K376 (1781), whose expressive world it inhabits. Significantly, however, in terms of its duration, formal and harmonic novelty, and lively relationship between violin and keyboard, Eberl’s Op. 49 looks forward to Beethoven, sharing much of the musical ambition and quality of Beethoven’s first contributions to the genre, namely his Op. 12 set of three sonatas with violin written in 1798. Read more
Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: August 2020 Instrument: Violin & pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.30' Series:@Beethowen Pages: xiv/29 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 27 8 ISBN: 978 1 910359 41 9 Code:HH426.FSP Price: £21.00 More information
This simple eight-part setting of a fifteen-century text has a timeless quality and is a fitting addition to the Christmas repertoire. The haunting melody captures the spirit of this ancient text, whilst lullaby patterns and cascading figures for the April dew place the composition firmly in the twenty-first century. It would make a beautiful addition to a Christmas concert or carol service, as well as providing a touching moment of spiritual reflection during Midnight Mass.
Composer:Emma Brown Publication date: August 2020 Instruments: SSAATTBB with optional solos Format: vocal score Duration:c.3' Pages: 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 13 0 Code:HH503.CHS Price: £2.90 More information
The eighteenth century saw a great increase in secular music for solo voice and continuo set to texts in Venetian, then a recognized literary language rather than a mere Italian dialect. Most of these compositions are short gondola songs or canzonettas, but a few are cantatas in several movements, indistinguishable from their counterparts with Italian texts except in language and subject matter, which favours contemporary themes treated in a comic manner. The two Venetian cantatas for soprano and continuo by Diogenio Bigaglia (1678–1745) published here – probably the first of their type ever to appear in a modern edition – are excellently crafted, revealing an unexpectedly racy side to the composer, a Benedictine monk. One is a set of shopping instructions given by a nun to her aged servant; the other is a woman’s catty description of the rise from rags to riches of one of her neighbours through prostitution. The edition comes with translations of the texts and a brief note on Venetian pronunciation.
Issued in Vienna in 1788 by Artaria, Haydn’s favoured publisher, this long-forgotten string quartet was, according to the title page, arranged by the composer himself from his Symphony No. 86 in D major. Circumstantial and musical evidence suggests that this may well have been the case. String quartets everywhere will welcome the appearance of the first modern edition of this notable work, which has largely been ignored for over 200 years.
The Venetian Benedictine priest and composer Diogenio Bigaglia (c. 1676–c. 1745), who was highly esteemed by his musical contemporaries, wrote the dramatic cantata Plutone e Proserpina around 1710. Scored for soprano, contralto, strings and continuo, it represents his vocal chamber music at its most ambitious and attractive. The twelve short movements comprise five solo arias, one aria for both voices singing in turn, a duet and five recitatives. The cantata’s subject – Proserpine’s gradual reconciliation to her kidnapping by Pluto, who wants her as his bride – is treated in masterly fashion by the author of the text, Antonio Ottoboni, who was a leading poet in Venice at the time. There is no better work through which to become acquainted with the fascinating but still little-known figure of Bigaglia.
Issued in Vienna in 1788 by Artaria, Haydn’s favoured publisher, this long-forgotten string quartet was, according to the title page, arranged by the composer himself from his Symphony No. 85 in B flat major (‘La Reine’). Circumstantial and musical evidence suggests that this may well have been the case. String quartets everywhere will welcome the appearance of the first modern edition of this notable work, which has largely been ignored for over 200 years.
Issued in Vienna in 1788 by Artaria, Haydn’s favoured publisher, this long-forgotten string quartet was, according to the title page, arranged by the composer himself from his Symphony No. 84 in E flat major (1786). Circumstantial and musical evidence suggests that this may well have been the case. String quartets everywhere will welcome the appearance of the first modern edition of this notable work, which has largely been ignored for over 200 years.
Boismortier’s numerous musical achievements include composing the first (and probably the only) concertos for two unaccompanied melody instruments, namely his Op. 38: VI Concerto pour 2 Flutes-traversieres ou autres Instrumens, sans Baße. These remarkable works date from 1732, by which time he had already written several sets of sonatas with the same scoring. But unlike the sonatas, which generally conform to the Italian sonata da camera and treat both instruments equally, the Op. 38 concertos are based on the Vivaldian three-movement concerto and tend to privilege the first flute, the second frequently relegated to providing a pseudo-bass accompaniment.
Vitali wrote nine cantatas for meetings of the Accademia dei Dissonanti in Modena, an intellectual talking-shop centred on Duke Francesco II's court. Many of these works are described as ‘accademia’, suggesting a distinct subgenre of cantata at this time. Six of them survive in a single source held in the Biblioteca Estense universitaria di Modena.
Boismortier’s Six Concerto pour les Flutes-Traversieres, Violons, ou Haubois; avec la Baße, Op. 21, were published in early 1728. They constitute the second set of concertos to be composed by a Frenchman, the first being the same composer’s VI Concertos pour 5 Flûtes-Traversieres ou autres Instrumens sans Baße, Op. 15, which had appeared the year before. While both sets demonstrate how Boismortier was able to refashion the Italian concerto for a minimum of instrumental resources, the brilliant Op. 21 concertos are much more Italianate in style. This is due not so much to their consistent fast–slow–fast movement scheme and a more extensive use of ritornello–da capo form, as to the character of their thematic material and its subsequent development.
In these two short piano pieces, Italian composer Adriano Cirillo (b.1951) has sought to capture in music the elusive qualities of nostalgia and melancholy that Charles Baudelaire designated as "Spleen" in his legendary late 19th-century collection of poems Les Fleurs du mal.
Composer:Adriano Cirillo Publication date: January 2020 Instrument: Piano Format: Playing score Duration: 2 x c.3' Series:Contemporary Pages: iv/4 ISMN: 979 0 708185 05 5 Code:HH495.SOL Price: £7.95 More information
The sonatas of the Venetian composer and priest Diogenio Bigaglia (c.1676–c.1745) have long found favour among recorder players in particular. This group of three sonatas for violin (or alternative treble instrument) and continuo, dating from before 1716/17, when they were copied in Venice by the visiting Dresden violinist J. G. Pisendel, make an attractive addition to the catalogue. Relatively easy to perform, they are full of personality and conspicuous musical vitality.Read more
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: January 2020 Instrument: Violin & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration: 3 x c.12' Series:@Baroque Pages: xiii/15 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 98 8 ISBN: 978 1 910359 88 4 Code:HH489.FSP Price: £20.00 More information
There are good reasons for attributing the anonymous La canzona che volete to Agostino Steffani (1654–1728): not only is the chamber duet the form by which the Italian composer was best known, but the humorous text is redolent of his wit. This is a highly accomplished piece, displaying effortless counterpoint in the duet movement and technical ingenuity in the two solos, which are built on related ground basses.Read more
Composer:Agostino Steffani (attr.) Editor:Colin Timms Publication date: December 2019 Instrument: Soprano, alto & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration: 3 x c.7' Series:@Baroque Pages: x/9 + 3 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 80 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 75 4 Code:HH469.FSP Price: £13.00 More information
Antoine Favre (c.1670–c.1739) was a composer of rare ability whose few surviving collections, all published during the 1730s, have hitherto remained unknown not only to performers but also to the majority of scholars. His second book of sonatas for violin and basso continuo (the first is lost) contains six substantial five-movement works suited equally to concert performance and domestic enjoyment. Players will relish their idiomatic instrumental writing and variety of expression, embracing both the Italian and French styles, as well as their formal sophistication, harmonic resourcefulness and contrapuntal ingenuity.Read more
Composer:Antoine Favre Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2019 Instrument: Violin & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration: 3 x c.10' Series:@Baroque Pages: xii/45 + 20 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 89 6 ISBN: 978 1 910359 81 5 Code:HH478.FSP Price: £26.00 More information
Emma Brown’s setting of ‘Sweet was the Song’, simple yet utterly compelling, captures the Renaissance character of the text while imparting a fresh, modern twist. Suitable for choirs both professional and amateur, it would make a beautiful addition to a Christmas concert or carol service, as well as providing a touching moment of spiritual reflection during Midnight Mass.
Composer:Emma Brown Publication date: November 2019 Instruments: SATB a cappella Format: vocal score Duration:c.3' Pages: 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 99 5 Code:HH488.CHS Price: £1.70 More information
This set of six short two-movement keyboard sonatinas, or ‘lessons’ (in the traditional English manner), come from a hitherto overlooked 1755 publication by a composer already well known and appreciated for his slightly earlier oboe sonatas. Vincent’s melodic gifts and skill in musical construction, clearly evident in the wind sonatas, are here complemented by an obvious flair for effective keyboard writing and an ability to spring welcome musical surprises.
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Composer:Thomas Vincent Publication date: October 2019 Instrument: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:6 x c.8' Series:Classical Pages: x/22 ISMN: 979 0 708146 92 6 ISBN: 978 0 708146 82 2 Code:HH481.SOL Price: £12.95 More information
Sui · Gong The two-word title of Ming Wang’s recent composition points to the early Sui dynasty of China (581–618 CE) and its imperial court (Gong). The work is based on a touching piece of old Chinese music which, in a series of short picturesque scenes, tells a tale of yearning, love and passion within the Sui court’s harem. The pure pentatonicism of the part assigned to the medieval flute contrasts strongly with the total chromaticism and great virtuosity of the extremely complicated part for modern flutes, creating a striking balance between simplicity and complexity, nostalgia and modernity. The piece is dedicated to Walter Auer, principal flautist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and his wife Julia.Read more
Composer:Ming Wang Publication date: September 2019 Instruments: Flute (piccolo, alto) and medieval flute Format: Playing score Duration:c.10' Pages: vi/13 ISMN: 979 0 708146 91 9 Code:HH480.FSC Price: £14.00 more information
Boismortier’s Six Concerto pour les Flutes-Traversieres, Violons, ou Haubois; avec la Baße, Op. 21 were published in early 1728. They constitute the second set of concertos to be composed by a Frenchman, the first being the same composer’s VI Concertos pour 5 Flûtes-Traversieres ou autres Instrumens sans Baße Op. 15, which had appeared just the year before. While both sets demonstrate how Boismortier was able to refashion the Italian concerto for a minimum of instrumental resources, the brilliant Op. 21 concertos are much more Italianate in style. This is due not so much to their consistent fast-slow-fast movement scheme and a more extensive use of ritornello-da capo form, as to the character of their thematic material and its subsequent development.
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Composer:Joseph Bodin de Boismortier Publication date: September 2019 Instrument: Flute, violin, ripieno and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:3 x c.10' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/45 + 2 x 16 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 73 6 ISBN: 978 0 708146 70 9 Code:HH474.FSP Price: £36.00 More information
The Concerts Society of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral invited Stephen Pratt to write a work for their 2017 concert season marking the 50th anniversary of the cathedral’s opening. With his Three Imaginary Folksongs the composer not only celebrates this important Jubilee, but specifically highlights the much-admired talents of the cathedral orchestra’s principal clarinettist, Jacqueline Thomas.
Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: August 2019 Instruments: Clarinet and orchestra Format: Study score Duration:c.11' Pages: iv/49 ISMN: 979 0 708146 59 9 Code:HH452.FSP Price: £20.00
Antoine Favre (c.1670–c.1739), was a composer of rare ability whose few surviving collections, all published during the 1730s, have hitherto remained unknown not only to performers but also to the majority of scholars. His second book of sonatas for violin and basso continuo (the first is lost) contains six substantial five-movement works suited equally to concert performance and domestic enjoyment. Players will relish their idiomatic instrumental writing and variety of expression, embracing both the Italian and French styles, as well as their formal sophistication, harmonic resourcefulness and contrapuntal ingenuity.Read more
Composer:Antoine Favre Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: July 2019 Instrument: Violin & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration: 3 x c.10' Series:@Baroque Pages: xiii/33 + 2 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 87 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 80 8 Code:HH476.FSP Price: £26.00 More information
Among Vienna’s many composers and pianists of the time, Anton Eberl (1765–1807) was the one considered most worthy of comparison with Beethoven. His Sonata in B flat major, Op. 50, is probably the second of his seven sonatas with violin, and was published posthumously in Vienna the year after his death. The model for this work is Mozart’s Sonata in B flat major, K454 (1784), from which Eberl has borrowed many structural and stylistic features: the grand, slow introduction of the first movement; the song-like second movement with its rocking accompaniment opening; and the gavotte-like closing rondo.Read more
Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: June 2019 Instrument: Violin & pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.29' Series:@Beethowen Pages: xiii/34 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 84 1 ISBN: 978 1 910359 76 1 Code:HH473.FSP Price: £20.00 More information
Jeremy Arden’s Im Freygish was initially inspired by Rebecca Abrams’s book The Jewish Journey: 4000 Years in 22 Objects from the Ashmolean Museum (2017). Excited by the idea that traditions and objects, and – in the case of music – scales and melodic forms, are passed between the generations and have travelled with the Jewish diaspora across the world, the composer wanted to write a piece that reflects this complex and multilayered story. Each of the four movements is inspired by generalized characteristics that Jeremy associates with Jewish culture: a yearning for truth, a questioning of authority, a thirst for mystical connection and a talent for joyful celebration.Read more
Composer:Jeremy Arden Publication date: June 2019 Instruments: String quartet Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Pages: iv/28 + 4 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 88 9 Code:HH477.FSP Price: £28.00 More information
For his Concerto in E flat major for oboe, strings and basso continuo Wolff created three exceptionally spacious movements full of attractive musical ideas as well as rhythmic and contrapuntal invention. In the slow movement, marked ‘Adagio con affetto’, he had the happy idea of entrusting the accompaniment of solo passages to pizzicato strings, and his Allegro finale is a tour de force of energy and thematic concentration. This is an imposing composition in every respect.
Composer:Christian Michael Wolff Publication date: May 2019 Instruments: Oboe and strings Format: Full score Duration:c.15' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/28 ISMN: 979 0 708146 77 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 74 7 0 Code:HH468.FSC Price: £14.50
Recall an event, then ‘re-tell’ it in different ways: that is the raison d’être of Stephen Pratt’s Telling the Tale. As the piece progresses, the focus slips away from the original event to become a lens for other pertinent memories, yet the tale’s basic components are never far from the surface.
Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: April 2019 Instruments: Flute (piccolo, alto), clarinet (bass clarinet), percussion, violin, violoncello, piano Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Pages: iv/23 + 5 x 8 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 83 4 Code:HH472.FSP Price: £28.00 More information
This short four-part motet, O Lux Beata Trinitas, plays upon the idea of the Trinity by assigning each voice only three notes. Contemplative and deeply expressive in character, it is most suited to liturgical use, yet its austere beauty would enhance any concert programme of a cappella choral music.
Composer:Emma Brown Publication date: March 2019 Instruments: SATB a cappella Format: vocal score Duration:c.3' Pages: 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 82 7 Code:HH471.CHS Price: £1.65 More information
Wolff’s Concerto in C major for flute, strings and basso continuo has the customary three movements (Allegro Moderato, Affettuoso, Allegro), all of which are extended in form and poetic in expression, often using striking dynamic contrasts and orchestral unison writing in a way that prefigures the Sturm und Drang of the 1760s. The third movement is a true ‘applause finale’, putting the soloist through some challenging technical hoops.
Composer:Christian Michael Wolff Publication date: February 2019 Instruments: Flute and strings Format: Full score Duration:c.15' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/31 ISMN: 979 0 708146 76 6 ISBN: 978 1 910359 73 0 Code:HH466.FSC Price: £14.50
“Edition HH rightly have a reputation for attractive publications and this is another, produced with their usual care and attention to detail and complimented by Professor Michael Talbot’s exemplary scholarship. Early flute concertos of this quality are thin on the ground and this is a gem. I recommend it very highly.”
Among Vienna’s many composers and pianists of the time, Anton Eberl (1765–1807) was the one considered most worthy of comparison with Beethoven. His Sonata in A minor, Op. 10 No. 1, probably the third of his seven sonatas with violin, was published with an optional basse – doubtless intended to be a part for a cellist – which permitted performance as a piano trio. In its duration, formal and harmonic novelty, and in the lively relationship between violin and keyboard, this A minor sonata shares much of the musical ambition and quality of Beethoven’s early works in this genre.
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Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: January 2019 Instrument: Violin, [violoncello] & fortepiano Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.29' Series:@Beethowen Pages: xii/44 + 16 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 26 1 ISBN: 978 1 910359 40 2 Code:HH425.FSP Price: £28.00 More information
This compact sinfonia is an early example of a true chamber sinfonia: that is, an offshoot of the Italian-style operatic overture intended from the start to be a free-standing composition for use in either public or private concerts. Full of striking and effective contrasts of dynamics, mood and thematic content, the work anticipates in places the Sturm und Drang of middle-period Haydn and the finely sculpted melodic lines of C. P. E. Bach.
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Present Shadows is inspired by Old Hispanic liturgical chant preserved within manuscripts dating from as early as the eleventh century. It aims to convey a sense of stasis, which the melismatic structure of the original melodies evokes, and does so through the employment of cyclical devices, a slowly transforming harmonic backbone, and the establishment of central points of focus, forcing the music to continually return to the opening material.
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Composer:Litha Efthymiou Publication date: November 2018 Instruments: Flute, clarinet (bass clarinet), piano, violoncello, double bass Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.13' Series:Contemporary Pages: vi/24 + 4 x 8 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 68 1 Code:HH460.FSP Price: £20.00
Boismortier’s final surviving set of trio sonatas, the [IV] Sonates pour deux flutes traversieres avec la basse, Op. 78, dates from late 1739 or early 1740. With this set the composer has, in a sense, come full circle, as these works recall his very first ‘sonates en trio’, Op. 4, of 1724: both sets are scored for two flutes and continuo and all sonatas have four movements. But while the earlier works are outwardly French — French movement titles, dynamics and tempo indications, and use of French time signatures and the French violin clef — the Op. 78 pieces are ostensibly Italian.
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Composer:Joseph Bodin de Boismortier Publication date: November 2018 Instrument: Two flutes and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:4 x c.10' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/33 + 3 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 73 6 ISBN: 978 0 708146 70 9 Code:HH464.FSP Price: £28.00 More information
Cicada larvae live underground for years, creeping about slowly and peacefully in the darkness until that sudden, beautiful brief moment when, one warm, damp summer’s eve, they emerge, metamorphosed into a highly mobile life form. Gaily they dance in the sunshine, singing ardently to the trees in all their greenery — but only for a short while, for, just as suddenly, they are gone. The same process repeats year upon year. The "life cycle” of this string quartet resembles that of the cicada.
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Composer:Ming Wang Publication date: October 2018 Instruments: string quartet Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.10' Series:Contemporary Pages: viii/18 + 4 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 71 1 Code:HH462.FSP Price: £20.00
Towards the end of his long life the organist Christian Michael Wolff (1707–1789), resident in the Baltic port of Stettin (today, Szczecin in Poland), achieved a degree of fame as a composer through the successive collections of sonatas, songs, flute duets and chorale preludes he committed to print. But much earlier, around 1740, he had produced some exquisite compositions for orchestra. Wolff’s Concerto in G major for Flute, Strings and Basso Continuo encloses a wistful Largo in E minor between a stately Moderato and a sprightly, dance-like Allegretto. The solo instrument is treated throughout with great virtuosity and expressivity, representing the galant style at its very best.
Composer:Christian Michael Wolff Publication date: September 2018 Instruments: Flute and strings Format: Full score Duration:c.15' Series:Baroque Pages: x/26 ISMN: 979 0 708146 74 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 71 6 Code:HH467.FSC Price: £14.50
“Edition HH rightly have a reputation for attractive publications and this is another, produced with their usual care and attention to detail and complimented by Professor Michael Talbot’s exemplary scholarship. Early flute concertos of this quality are thin on the ground and this is a gem. I recommend it very highly.”
John Sheeles (1695–1765) published two books of harpsichord suites, in 1724 and c.1730 respectively. These basically follow in the tradition of Restoration composers such as Purcell and Croft, but more recent influences, such as those of Corelli, Handel and even Domenico Scarlatti, are also discernible. Sheeles has a distinct gift for melody and for developing musical motives intensively and inventively, while always treating the keyboard in a highly varied and idiomatic manner.
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Composer:John Sheeles Publication date: July 2018 Instrument: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:6 x c.8' Series:Baroque Pages: xvi/33 ISMN: 979 0 708146 72 8 ISBN: 978 0 708146 69 3 Code: HH463.SOL Price: £13.50 More information
The opera was commissioned by Johann Peter Salomon for the King's Theatre, Haymarket, London, in 1791. After arriving in London on 1 January of that year, Haydn commented in a letter to Prince Anton Esterházy: “The new opera libretto which I am to compose is entitled Orfeo, in 5 acts, but I shall not receive it for a few days. It will be completely different from that of Gluck. The prima donna is called Madame Lops from Munich – she is a pupil of the famous Mingotti. Seconda donna is Madame Capelletti. Primo hommo is the celebrated Davide. The opera contains only 3 persons, viz, Madame Lops, Davide, and a castrato, who apparently is not very special. Incidentally, the opera is supposed to contain many choruses, ballets and a lot of big changes of scenery.” Unfortunately, owing to political intrigue, the opera was never performed in the composer's lifetime.
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In the winter of 2016, when Ming Wang was flying from her present home in Vienna to Taiwan, the country of her birth, she began to play around with a vivid poetic image that had crossed her mind quite spontaneously in connection with the present work: she saw herself as a migratory bird flying year after year the ten thousand kilometres from Austria, only to make the long return journey north the following spring. She tried to imagine what a migratory bird would espy during its traversal of the various countries and landscapes. The resulting “Song” brings together many contrasting sounds and musical elements that symbolize the diverse geographical regions. The Chinese arched zither, or zheng, represents an exotic bird that has landed by chance in a Western instrumental ensemble.
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Composer:Ming Wang Publication date: April 2018 Instruments: Ensemble Format: Full score Duration:c.10' Series:Contemporary Pages: x/42 ISMN: 979 0 708146 69 8 Code: HH461.FSC Price: £28.00 More information
John Sheeles (1695–1765) published two books of harpsichord suites, in 1724 and c.1730 respectively. These basically follow in the tradition of Restoration composers such as Purcell and Croft, but more recent influences, such as those of Corelli, Handel and even Domenico Scarlatti, are also discernible. Sheeles has a distinct gift for melody and for developing musical motives intensively and inventively, while always treating the keyboard in a highly varied and idiomatic manner. Read more
Composer:John Sheeles Publication date: April 2018 Instrument: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:7 x c.8' Series:Baroque Pages: xiv/30 ISMN: 979 0 708146 67 4 ISBN: 978 0 708146 68 6 Code: HH459.SOL Price: £13.50 More information
Scheibe’s three sonatas for flute (or violin) and obbligato harpsichord were published in the late 1750s but were probably composed much earlier – their copious and elaborate imitative writing is out of character with his later music. Though rooted in the tradition of similar works by J. S. Bach, C. P. E. Bach, and composers at Frederick the Great’s court in Berlin, Scheibe’s sonatas are more substantial, each having four movements, in the traditional slow–fast–slow–fast scheme.
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Composer:Johann Adolph Scheibe Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: March 2018 Instruments: Flute and keyboard Format: Playing score and part Duration:c. 3 x 15' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/48 + 24 ISMN: 979 0 708146 62 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 66 2 Code: HH455.FSP Price: £27.00 More information
La Libertà is the most original, and among the most attractive, of Maurice Greene’s secular vocal compositions on Italian texts. Strong circumstantial evidence indicates that he wrote it for the celebrated operatic mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni to sing as a grateful farewell to her English patrons and admirers just before her final departure from London in the summer of 1728.Read more
Composer:Maurice Greene Publication date: March 2018 Instruments: Soprano, violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.3' Series:Baroque Pages: ix/7 + 3 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 66 7 ISBN: 978 0 708146 67 9 Code: HH456.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
George Berg’s eight keyboard suites, Op. 5, were published in London around 1760, while the composer was travelling in Italy. They are his most varied and resourceful compositions, following generally in the tradition of Handel’s suites but adding stylistic elements culled from Italian, German and French music in a playfully eclectic manner. This is sparkling, idiomatic music, suitable equally for private enjoyment and concert use, but until now hardly known, even to specialists in the keyboard repertoire.continue reading
Composer:George Berg Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: February 2018 Instruments: Keyboard Format: Playing score Series:Classical Pages: xii/24 ISMN: 979 0 708146 61 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 65 5 Code: HH454.SOL Price: £9.95 More information
This atmospheric, sensitive piece for solo SATB (or small vocal ensemble) with optional string quartet was written by Timothy Raymond for the 2017 Lower Machen Festival. The contemporary harmonic language, with distant echoes of Britten, Holst and Howells, and the delicate, often sensuous textures combine to make a work of considerable expressive power that perfectly captures the essence of W. B. Yeats’s poem. Around six minutes long, it is a welcome addition to the rich repertoire of British vocal music.Read more
Composer:Timothy Raymond Publication date: February 2018 Instruments: Soprano, alto, tenor, bass (with string quartet ad libitum) Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.6' Series:Contemporary Pages: iv/9 + 4 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 66 7 Code: HH457.FSP Price: £18.00 More information | Listen
George Berg’s eight keyboard suites, Op. 5, were published in London around 1760, while the composer was travelling in Italy. They are his most varied and resourceful compositions, continue reading
Composer:George Berg Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: December 2017 Instruments: Keyboard Format: Playing score Series:Classical Pages: xii/25 ISMN: 979 0 708146 60 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 64 8 Code: HH453.sol Price: £9.95 More information
Among Vienna’s many composers and pianists and pianists of the time, Anton Eberl (1765–1807) was the one considered most worthy of comparison with Beethoven. His Sonata in B flat major, Op. 35, the last of seven sonatas with violin, was composed around 1805 and dedicated to the Princess Bretzenheim (Maria Walburga). This was one of the final pieces Eberl composed before his premature death, continue reading
Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: November 2017 Instruments: Violin and pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.20' Series:@Beethoven Pages: x/33 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 25 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 39 6 Code: HH424.FSP Price: £18.50 More information
Simon Balicourt (1706–1757), during a London career that lasted from 1735 (the year he arrived from the Continent) until his death, was a leading flautist and flute composer. Suitable for both educational use and concert performance, these pieces – now appearing for the first time in a modern critical edition – deserve a place at the forefront of the late baroque repertory for transverse flute.continue reading
Composer:Simon Balicourt Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2017 Instruments: Flute and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.10' & 10' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/15 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 54 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 59 4 Code: HH447.FSP Price: £14.50 More information
George Berg (1730–1775) was a London organist and harpsichord teacher. His sonatinas for harpsichord were a by-product of his teaching, appearing in three volumes between 1759 and 1762. Technically fairly simple, these are lively, inventive and finely polished works. continue reading
Composer:George Berg Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2017 Instruments: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:c.9' x 6' Series:Classical Pages: ix/15 ISMN: 979 0 708146 58 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 63 1 Code: HH451.SOL Price: £9.95 More information
Simon Balicourt (1706–1757), during a London career that lasted from 1735 (the year he arrived from the Continent) until his death, was a leading flautist and flute composer. Suitable for both educational use and concert performance, these pieces – now appearing for the first time in a modern critical edition – deserve a place at the forefront of the late baroque repertory for transverse flute.continue reading
Composer:Simon Balicourt Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2017 Instruments: Flute and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.10' & 10' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/14 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 53 7 ISBN: 978 1 910359 58 7 Code: HH446.FSP Price: £14.50 More information
Iberian Refractions was written in response to a piece of Old Hispanic medieval chant. Movement by movement, the chant melody gradually infiltrates all aspects of the works’s foreground melodic structure, its harmonic backbone and its core inner detail, intensifying as the piece unfolds.Read full description
George Berg (1730–75) was a London organist and harpsichord teacher. His sonatinas for harpsichord were a by-product of his teaching, appearing in three volumes between 1759 and 1762. Technically fairly simple, these are lively, inventive and finely polished works. continue reading
Composer:George Berg Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: September 2017 Instruments: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:c.9' x 6' Series:Classical Pages: x/14 ISMN: 979 0 708146 57 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 62 4 Code: HH450.SOL Price: £9.95 More information
Wild Wood was commissioned in 2013 by Ardingly ArtsFest and Fontanella Recorder Quintet. The unusual, boxy-looking Paetzold instruments for which it is written – fondly known by some as ‘IKEA recorders’ – immediately caused a stir at the premiere. Fontanella has since championed the piece throughout the UK, chalking up an unusually high number of repeat performances for a contemporary work. In 2014 the ensemble filmed a performance at the Lights Theatre, Andover, and this has now been viewed over 4000 times on YouTube. Read full description
Composer:Tim Coker Publication date: July 2017 Instruments: Descant recorder & 4 amplified Paetzold bass recorders Series:Contemporary Format: Full score and parts Pages: iv/7 + 5 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 50 6 Code: HH449.FSP Price: £15.00 more information
Simon Balicourt (1706–1757), during a London career that lasted from 1735 (the year he arrived from the Continent) until his death, was a leading flautist and flute composer. He left two sets of flute sonatas, published in 1750 and 1760 respectively, each containing eight beautifully polished and musically imaginative works that draw equally on his German background and on the French-influenced tradition of flute-playing in his adoptive country. Suitable for both educational use and concert performance, these pieces – now appearing for the first time in a modern critical edition – deserve a place at the forefront of the late baroque repertory for transverse flute.
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Composer:Simon Balicourt Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: July 2017 Instruments: Flute and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.9' & 10' Series:Baroque Pages: xiii/21 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 51 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 56 3 Code: HH444.FSP Price: £14.50 More information
Here, for the first time in modern edition, is the fourth in our series of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s superb arrangements of seven of Mozart’s piano concertos, the Concerto in C minor, K491.Read full description
Editor:Leonardo Miucci Publication date: June 2017 Instruments: Flute, violin, violoncello, pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Pages: xviii/45 + 3 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 44 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 51 8 Code: HH439.FSP Price: £39.00 more information
Ming Wang’s blend of Viennese compositional craft and eastern colour reaches full maturity in her sextet Vision, written especially for Ensemble Reconsil. Read full description
Publication date: May 2017 Instruments: Flute/alto flute, oboe/cor anglais, bass clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Series:Contemporary Pages: x/14 + 5 x 8 + 4 Duration: c.9' ISMN: 979 0 708146 46 9 Code: HH441.FSP Price: £32.00
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Simon Balicourt (1706–1757), during a London career that lasted from 1735 (the year he arrived from the Continent) until his death, was a leading flautist and flute composer. He left two sets of flute sonatas, published in 1750 and 1760 respectively, each containing eight beautifully polished and musically imaginative works that draw equally on his German background and on the French-influenced tradition of flute-playing in his adoptive country. Suitable for both educational use and concert performance, these pieces – now appearing for the first time in a modern critical edition – deserve a place at the forefront of the late baroque repertory for transverse flute.
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Composer:Simon Balicourt Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: May 2017 Instruments: Flute and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.10' & 10' Series:Baroque Pages: xiv/15 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 29 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 47 1 Code: HH438FSP Price: £14.50 More information
Simon Balicourt (1706–1757), during a London career that lasted from 1735 (the year he arrived from the Continent) until his death, was a leading flautist and flute composer. He left two sets of flute sonatas, published in 1750 and 1760 respectively, each containing eight beautifully polished and musically imaginative works that draw equally on his German background and on the French-influenced tradition of flute-playing in his adoptive country. Suitable for both educational use and concert performance, these pieces – now appearing for the first time in a modern critical edition – deserve a place at the forefront of the late baroque repertory for transverse flute.
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Composer:Simon Balicourt Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: April 2017 Instruments: Flute and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.6' & 11' Series:Baroque Pages: xi/20 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 47 6 ISBN: 978 1 910359 49 5 Code: HH442.FSP Price: £14.50 More information
Joseph Haydn’s two-act La Canterina (‘The Singing Girl’) was one of the composer’s earliest stage works, written in 1766 soon after Prince Nikolaus Esterházy had promoted him to first Kapellmeister. The libretto, based on the third act of Piccinni’s opera L’Origille (1760), was most likely adapted by Karl Friberth, a singer at the Esterházy Court. The first documented performance was in Pressburg (Bratislava) on 16 February 1767, but the piece may have been performed a year earlier at Eisenstadt. Lasting under an hour, this buffa-style work has no overture and was originally designed as two intermezzi, each with a final quartet, to be performed between the acts of an opera seria. The persona of each of the four characters is derived from the commedia dell’arte tradition, their individual arias parodying the contemporary world of opera and theatre. Haydn’s music skilfully enhances this comic critical vein, and he reserves his particular scorn for the singers.
Among Vienna’s many composers and pianists and pianists of the time, Anton Eberl (1765–1807) was the one considered most worthy of comparison with Beethoven. His Sonata in D major, Op. 20, the sixth of seven sonatas for violin and piano, was composed around 1803 and dedicated to the highly regarded pianist Dorothea Ertmann, who was the dedicatee of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 101, and who some believe was Beethoven’s ‘Immortal Beloved’. continue reading
Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: March 2017 Instruments: Violin and pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.20' Series:@Beethoven Pages: xiv/36 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 24 7 ISBN: 978 1 910359 38 9 Code: HH423.FSP Price: £18.50 More information
Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) was the reputed father of the instrumental concerto, yet he also composed sacred vocal music. Discovered in 2001, when the Berlin Sing-Akademie’s archive was returned from Kiev (where it had been hidden away since the Second World War), his three-movement Christmas motet Totus orbis, umbra canit (‘The whole world, the darkness sings’), scored for soprano, two violins and continuo, is a splendid example of its genre. continue reading
Composer:Giuseppe Torelli Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: February 2017 Instruments: Sopranoo, two violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Series:Baroque Pages: xiv/10 + 4 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 41 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 54 9 Code: HH435.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
Song and Dance was written for the 60th birthday of the composer’s friend and colleague James Wishart, and was first performed by Ensemble 10/10 in a celebratory concert in October 2016. At the outset a relaxed, slow song is intoned by a soprano saxophone (a favourite instrument of James) accompanied by vibraphone and strings. continue reading
Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: February 2017 Instruments: Soprano saxophone, vibraphone, violin, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.7' Series:Contemporary Pages: iii/7 + 5 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 43 8 Code: HH437.FSP Price: £18.00 More information
Occupying a special place among Boismortier’s almost 260 sonatas are the Six sonates à quatre parties différentes et également travaillées Op. 34 (1731), his sole surviving quartet sonatas, for three instruments and continuo. They contain some of his finest, most accomplished music. continue reading
Composer:Joseph Bodin de Boismortier Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: January 2017 Instruments: Three violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.36' Series:Baroque Pages: xii/35 + 4 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 31 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 44 0 Code: HH429.FSP Price: £26.95 More information
Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) was the reputed father of the instrumental concerto, yet he also composed sacred vocal music. Discovered in 2001, when the Berlin Sing-Akademie’s archive was returned from Kiev (where it had been hidden away since the Second World War), his five-movement motet O fideles, modicum sustinete tempus (‘O ye faithful, pause a short while’), for alto (contralto), two violins and continuo, is a splendid example of its genre. continue reading
Composer:Giuseppe Torelli Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: January 2017 Instruments: Alto, two violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Series:Baroque Pages: xiii/8 + 4 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 40 7 ISBN: 978 1 910359 53 2 Code: HH434.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
Giuseppe Torelli (1658–1709) was the reputed father of the instrumental concerto; what is not widely known is that he also composed sacred vocal music. Discovered in 2001, when the Berlin Sing-Akademie’s archive was returned from Kiev (where it had been hidden away since the Second World War), his four-movement motet Ite, procul abite, maestitiae (‘Go, begone, sadness’) for soprano, two violins and continuo is a splendid example of its genre. continue reading
Composer:Giuseppe Torelli Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: December 2016 Instruments: Soprano, two violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Series:Baroque Pages: xiv/13 + 4 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 39 1 ISBN: 978 1 910359 52 5 Code: HH433.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
At the Turn of the Year is a revised version (2016) of a set of four short piano studies sketched mostly between December 1991 and January 1992. The work is in four sections, all derived from the opening material; the first and fourth are similar, and the middle sections, newly reworked and expanded, are fast and scherzo-like in character. continue reading
Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: December 2016 Instruments: Piano Format: Playing score Duration:c.10' Series:Contemporary Pages: iii/9 ISMN: 979 0 708146 42 1 Code: HH436.SOL Price: £8.95 More information
The Sonate concertante in G major for flute and piano by Bohemian composer Joseph Lipavsky was published posthumously, as his ‘œuvre dernier’, in Vienna in 1810. The present edition is based on the printed copy in the Musikarchiv of the Stift Melk, Austria. The instrumental parts are of equal importance and moderate difficulty, continue reading
Composer:Joseph Lipavsky Editor:Martin Skamletz Publication date: November 2016 Instruments: Flute and fortepiano Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.18' Series:@Beethoven Pages: xii/32 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 23 0 ISBN: 978 1 910359 37 2 Code: HH420.FSP Price: £15.95 More information
Among the of surviving works by J. F. Schreivogel, a violinist active in Milan in the first half of the 18th century, is this impressive and forward-looking three-movement sonata for violin and continuo in E minor. Evidently composed during the mid-1710s, continue reading
Composer:Johann Friedrich Schreivogel Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Series:Baroque Pages: x/12 + 8 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 37 7 ISBN: 978 1 910359 50 1 Code: HH432.FSP Price: £10.95 More information
Among Vienna’s many composers and pianists of the time, Anton Eberl (1765–1807) was the one considered most worthy of comparison with Beethoven. His Sonata in D minor, the fifth of seven sonatas, Op. 14, for violin and piano, continue reading
Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: October 2016 Instruments: Violin and fortepiano Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.20' Series:@Beethoven Pages: xiv/38 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708146 23 0 ISBN: 978 1 910359 37 2 Code: HH422.FSP Price: £18.50 More information
Written in Salzburg, probably in 1755, Leopold Mozart’s Sinfonia pastorella was designed for performance at Christmastide. Much of its thematic content would have been familiar to an eighteenth-century audience continue reading
Composer:Leopold Mozart Editor:Frances Jones Publication date: October 2016 Instruments: Alphorn and strings Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.11' Series:@Mozart Pages: xi/10 + 4 + 4 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 32 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 43 3 Code: HH430.FSP Price: £16.50 More information
Among the of surviving works by J. F. Schreivogel, a violinist active in Milan in the first half of the 18th century, is this sparkling three-movement sonata for violin and continuo. Composed late in his career, continue reading
Composer:Johann Friedrich Schreivogel Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: September 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Series:Baroque Pages: x/12 + 8 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 33 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 46 4 Code: HH431.FSP Price: £10.95 More information
Occupying a special place among Boismortier’s numerous (almost 260) sonatas are the Six Sonates à quatre parties différentes et également travaillées Op. 34 (1731), continue reading
Composer:Joseph Bodin de Boismortier Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: September 2016 Instruments: Three violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.36' Series:Baroque Pages: xiii/33 + 4 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 30 8 ISBN: 978 1 910359 43 3 Code: HH428.FSP Price: £26.95 More information
The present sonata dedicated to Joseph Haydn is a model of classical clarity, and Cramer exploits the full range and sonority of the fortepiano, with exact indications of pedalling and dynamics. The first movement is on the ABRSM Grade 8 syllabus 2017 & 2018.
Composer:Johann Baptist Cramer Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: June 2016 Instruments: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:c.17' Series:@Haydn Pages: xii/15 ISMN: 979 0 708146 20 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 21 1 Code: HH383.sol Price: £9.95 More information
When Zinck's sonatas first appeared in print in 1783, the leading European critics praised them for “their interesting melodic style, highly developed turns of phrase, great diversity of musical ideas unified into one great sonata style far removed from the routine, and finally, very descriptive tone-painting, [which] elevate them and make them worthy of the approval of connoisseurs”. Zinck followed C. P. E. Bach in promoting the use of the clavichord, but his music works equally well on the piano or fortepiano. This G minor sonata would provide a welcome novelty either in a recital programme or as teaching material. The first movement is on the ABRSM Grade 8 syllabus 2017 & 2018.
Composer:Hardenack Otto Conrad Zinck Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: June 2016 Instruments: Keyboard Format: Playing score Duration:c.15' Pages: viii/12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 07 0 ISBN: 978 1 910359 22 8 Code: HH384.sol Price: £9.95 More information
Carl Fasch was notoriously reluctant to have his music made public and even asked for much of it to be destroyed. What remains supports the view that Fasch was the true successor to C. P. E. Bach, with whom he shared keyboard duties at Frederick the Great’s court. The present sonata, which appeared in print and was well regarded during the composer's lifetime, shows him to be a minor master and an eloquent advocate for the eclectic expressive style then current in Berlin. The third movement is on the ABRSM Grade 7 syllabus 2017 & 2018.
Solo Uno was completed in summer 2015 and first performed by Nicholas Cox in a July recital at the International Clarinet Festival in Madrid. It consists of three contrasting movements: a moderately paced first movement that shifts in character towards the end, a slow, meditative middle movement, and a brisk, folksy finale.
Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: May 2016 Instruments: Clarinet (A) Format: Performing score Duration:c.8' Pages: iv/8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 14 8 Code: HH397.SOL Price: £8.95 More information
Henricus Albicastro (pseudonym of Johann Heinrich Weissenburg, c.1660–1730), one of the most enigmatic yet musically capable violinist-composers of his era, succeeded in marrying the polyphonic art of the south German violin school with the melodic and structural innovations of the Italians. This unusually elaborate sonata, consisting of seven movements (or sections), survives uniquely in Leuven (Louvain), Belgium, where it forms part of the Di Martinelli family archive. Features such as ‘solo’ sections involving rapid figuration over a slowly moving bass (II and V), and the reappearance of two portions in a transformed state (II/V and III/VII), are somewhat old-fashioned for a composer of Albicastro’s generation. The third and last movements are notable for their complex double-stopping.
Composer:Henricus Albicastro Editor:Michael Talbot | Andrew Woolley Publication date: May 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Series:Baroque Pages: viii/13 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 19 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 35 8 Code: HH419.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
Den lille danserinnen (‘The Little Ballerina’) evokes a charming, gracious, light-footed dancer, while Nocturne makes the piano sing in the romantic tradition. Both these delightful short pieces would be ideal encores!
Composer:Christian Hartmannn Publication date: April 2016 Instruments: Piano Format: Performing score Duration:c.4' Pages: iii/4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 15 5 Code: HH398.SOL Price: £7.95 More information
Henricus Albicastro (pseudonym of Johann Heinrich Weissenburg, c.1660–1730), one of the most enigmatic yet musically capable violinist-composers of his era, succeeded in marrying the polyphonic art of the south German violin school with the melodic and structural innovations of the Italians. This four-movement sonata exemplifies the composer’s mastery of the Corellian style. The first movement is a composite (Adagio–Presto–Adagio), with an allemanda-like central section; the second, featuring suave Corellian counterpoint, is followed by a typically Albicastrian extended 3/2-time slow movement; and the final, giga-like movement is notated in common time but performed as if in compound time.
Composer:Henricus Albicastro Editor:Michael Talbot | Andrew Woolley Publication date: April 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.8' Series:Baroque Pages: viii/9 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 17 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 34 1 Code: HH418.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
The piano, the violin and the cello share an essential feature: their sound is generated by vibrating strings, or – to draw from the title of this piece – vibrating ‘wires’. As if stealthily climbing over each other, the instruments in A Highwire Act run the gauntlet of crossing and exploring the extreme regions of their strings. Nirmali Fenn’s music reminds us of the beauty and thrill of being on the edge.
Composer:Nirmali Fenn Publication date: March 2016 Instruments: Violin, violoncello, piano Format: Full score and parts Series:Contemporary Duration:c.10' Pages: iv/10 `3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708146 02 5 Code: HH388.FSP Price: £23.00 More information
Henricus Albicastro (pseudonym of Johann Heinrich Weissenburg, c.1660–1730), one of the most enigmatic yet musically capable violinist-composers of his era, succeeded in marrying the polyphonic art of the south German violin school with the melodic and structural innovations of the Italians. The present work consists of five movements, the first three performed without a break, and culminates in a magnificent French-style passacaglia. F minor is not a natural key for the violin and some of the semiquaver passage-work is challenging, but this is arguably the most substantial and rewarding of the four ‘London’ sonatas, both for the violinist and the continuo player.
Composer:Henricus Albicastro Editor:Michael Talbot | Andrew Woolley Publication date: March 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.8' Series:Baroque Pages: viii/13 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708146 16 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 32 7 Code: HH417.FSP Price: £10.95 More information
Henricus Albicastro (pseudonym of Johann Heinrich Weissenburg, c.1660–1730), one of the most enigmatic yet musically capable violinist-composers of his era, succeeded in marrying the polyphonic art of the south German violin school with the melodic and structural innovations of the Italians. The present sonata consists of four movements in the sequence slow–fast–slow–fast, the “classic” structure associated with Corelli in particular. The slow movements are lyrical, while the brilliant fast movements are clearly of Corellian inspiration. Especially characteristic of Albicastro is the extended third movement, with its modulations to various keys and its prominent Neapolitan chords.
Composer:Henricus Albicastro Editor:Michael Talbot | Andrew Woolley Publication date: February 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.8' Series:Baroque Pages: viii/9 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 16 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 32 7 Code: HH416.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
The Lotus Symphony embodies Jeremy Arden’s artistic response to the beautiful ideas and images contained in one of Buddhism’s most important texts, the Lotus Sutra (the “Wonderful Law of the Lotus Flower”). A mixed chorus recites, in Japanese, excerpts from two chapters of the sutra: the “Expedient Means” (2) and the “Life Span” (16). According to the composer: “Quite apart from the meaning of the words, it was the extraordinary sound of the recitation together with its rhythm of dynamic determination and joyful courage that was the starting point for this musical journey.”
Publication date: February 2016 Instruments: Flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass clarinet), horn, percussion, keyboard, strings & choir Format: Full score Series:Contemporary Duration:c.10' Pages: vi/20 ISMN: 979 0 708146 09 4 Code: HH393.FSC Price: £22.00 More information
Composed between December 2014 and November 2015, Moving On developed from an initial short concert piece, written at the request of the piano duo Lauryna Sableviciute and Nicholas Ashton, into a larger work of several related movements reflecting different types of forward motion. Some wander, with no sense of hurry; others – such as ‘fast forward’, a kind of frantic boogie-woogie that might accompany a short, speeded-up film of an old American railroad train – dash or are fleeting. As the composer admits, a future destination of Moving On might well be a piece with film…
Publication date: January 2016 Instruments: Two pianos Format: Two playing scores Series:Contemporary Duration:c.10' Pages: iii/31 + 30 ISMN: 979 0 708146 13 1 Code: HH396.FSP Price: £29.00 More information
Henricus Albicastro (pseudonym of Johann Heinrich Weissenburg, c.1660–1730), one of the most enigmatic yet musically capable violinist-composers of his era, succeeded in marrying the polyphonic art of the south German violin school with the melodic and structural innovations of the Italians. The present work belongs to a group of four violin sonatas by Albicastro included in a manuscript anthology by at least 15 different composers copied c.1705 in England. Two lyrical slow movements alternate with energetic, often suavely contrapuntal quicker movements, and such characteristic Albicastrian hallmarks as inter-movement quotation and harmonic experimentation reveal a composer of singular originality and interest.
Composer:Henricus Albicastro Editor:Michael Talbot | Andrew Woolley Publication date: January 2016 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: vii/12 + 8 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 06 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 29 7 Code: HH415.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
The chaconne was particularly dear to French baroque composers, not least Boismortier. In one of his most original works, the Quinque sur l’octave, ou espece de dictionaire harmonique (‘Quintet based on the octave, or a type of harmonic dictionary’), Boismortier employs a chaconne to illustrate and elaborate upon the règle de l’octave (‘rule of the octave’), a formula common in the eighteenth century for the harmonisation of diatonic scales. Using the C major scale as his ground bass, he proposes increasingly varied diminutions over alternative harmonisations, and in so doing he ‘redefines’ the original règle. Scored for four violins and basso continuo, the Quinque is technically accessible, making it an ideal work for amateur violinists and school string ensembles.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: December 2015 Instruments: Four violins, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/14 + 5 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 12 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 31 0 Code: HH395.FSP Price: £15.95 More information
Litha Efthymiou’s Tread Softly is one of those rare new works to receive several performances in quick succession, eliciting an enthusiastic response each time. Its inspiration derives from two contrasting sources: early medieval Spanish sacred music and Debbie Locke’s drawing ‘Retracing Your Steps – Bristol I’ (2013). Though separated by more than a millennium, these sources share a powerful sense of movement enclosed within a static form, manifesting in the characteristic extended melisma of the Spanish music and the seemingly mobile, web-like form of Locke's central image. Tread Softly explores the idea of movement within stasis through the use of a main melodic gesture that transforms very slowly, but constantly, throughout.
Composer:Litha Efthymiou Publication date: December 2015 Instruments: String quartet Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.10' Series:Contemporary Pages: iii/10 + 4 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 03 2 Code: HH389.FSP Price: £18.00 More information
Maurice Greene’s chamber (or ‘concert’) arias include a series of six ostensibly written for the great Venetian diva Faustina Bordoni during her visits to London in 1726–28. Among other features, they showcase her ‘trademark’ note – the E in the top space of the treble clef – which opera-goers found particularly thrilling. The obbligato violin part for each aria was probably intended for the violinist and composer Mauro D’Alay, Bordoni's constant companion and reputed lover. Full of character and expression, as well as melodiousness and contrapuntal finesse, these substantial works reveal a composer at the peak of his inspiration and ambition.
Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2015 Instruments: Soprano voice, violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: x/11 + 3 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 05 6 ISBN: 978 1 910359 29 7 Code: HH391.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
Commissioned by Ensemble Reconsil and included in their CD collection Exploring the world, this work conjures up a fantasy landscape by means of its symbolic musical language, its timbres and its quotations from the music of the country’s indigenous peoples as well as that of European newcomers.
A live performance by Ensemble Kontrapunkte will be given in Vienna Musikverein on 30 November.
These twelve piano miniatures, of increasing difficulty, are a magical distillation of Ming Wang’s long-desired encounter with the Alpine landscape.
Written mostly in the conventional manner but also incorporating playing techniques and sound effects frequently used in New Music, they are an ideal introduction to the composer’s sound world – a mixture of European contemporary language and Asian colour. Detailed performing instructions, with added fingering by pianist and teacher Przemek Dembski, help to make these brief, unique works a joy for pupil and teacher alike.
Publication date: October 2015 Instruments: Piano solo Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: iii/26 ISMN: 979 0 708146 00 1 Code: HH386.SOL Price: £9.95 more information
Maurice Greene’s chamber (or ‘concert’) arias include a series of six ostensibly written for the great Venetian diva Faustina Bordoni during her visits to London in 1726–28. Among other features, they showcase her ‘trademark’ note – the E in the top space of the treble clef – which opera-goers found particularly thrilling. The obbligato violin part for each aria was probably intended for the violinist and composer Mauro D’Alay, Bordoni's constant companion and reputed lover. Full of character and expression, as well as melodiousness and contrapuntal finesse, these substantial works reveal a composer at the peak of his inspiration and ambition.
Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2015 Instruments: Soprano voice, violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/10 + 3 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 04 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 28 0 Code: HH390.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
Here, for the first time in modern edition, is the third in our series of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s superb arrangements of seven of Mozart’s piano concertos, the Concerto in C major, K503.
Editor:Leonardo Miucci Publication date: September 2015 Instruments: Flute, violin, violoncello, pianoforte Series:@MOZART Format: Full score and parts Pages: xxii/52 + 3 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708041 83 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 26 6 Code: HH356.FSP Price: £39.00 more information
This sonata in B flat major was only recently identified as a sonata by Bitti, since its manuscript in Dresden lacks the name of the composer. Bitti’s authorship is not in doubt, however, especially since this sonata shares its fourth movement with the first of the ‘London’ sonatas. The sonata is in a style that mixes ‘church’ and ‘chamber’ elements. Particularly attractive is the second movement, an allegro in 6/8 metre with a distinctly ‘popular’ feel.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: September 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/9 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708146 01 8 ISBN: 978 1 910359 27 3 Code: HH387.FSP Price: £8.95 More information
Boismortier's Op. 28 trio sonatas are imbued with the kind of elegance, melodic and harmonic interest, and contrapuntal flair that characterise his earlier and later sets written in the ‘Italian style’, and they should greatly appeal to performers on the baroque and the modern oboe.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: August 2015 Instruments: Two oboes and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xii/23 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708041 08 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 19 8 Code: HH380.FSC Price: £25.00 More information
The twelfth sonata, in four movements, makes a fitting climax to the set. The corrente-like opening Vivace, with delicately traced passage-work, is followed by an Andante distinguished by interesting harmonic turns. An extended gavotte-like theme with two captivating variations forms the third movement, and the piece ends with a giga, a type of movement particularly favoured by this composer.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: August 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/12 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 42 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 25 9 Code: HH351.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
The eleventh sonata, in five movements, is one of the most elaborate in the set. Its first movement (A tempo giusto) is very ornate and makes attractive use of syncopation. The second movement (Vivace) is good-humoured and alludes slyly to academic counterpoint. There follow two movements resembling, respectively, a sarabanda and a giga. The sonata ends with variations on a minuet theme – in the 1720s a newly fashionable way to close a sonata.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: July 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/15 + 8 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 26 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 24 2 Code: HH350.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
‘Kalyani’ is a Melakarta raga in the southern Indian musical system, from which the main theme of this piece derives. Fragments of the raga are heard in various guises throughout the work, sometimes presented aggressively in a percussive context, at other times in a more serene and melancholy manner.
Title:Kalyani Publication date: May 2015 Instrument: Piano solo Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: iv/7 ISMN: 979 0 708059 29 5 Duration: c.6' Code: HH378.SOL Price: £9.95 more information
Fortunato Chelleri was a prominent member of the large diaspora of Italian musicians who played a leading role in northern European musical life in the eighteenth century. This delightful piece, a useful addition to the trio sonata repertoire for two oboes and continuo, offers a fitting introduction to Chelleri’s captivating style, which mixes Italian and German elements.
Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: May 2015 Instruments: Two oboes and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/8 + 3 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 18 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 20 4 Code: HH382.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
The tenth sonata of the group, in four movements, is classically ‘da chiesa’ in character. Its first movement (Largo) weaves fantastic arabesques in the violin part, while the second (Allegro) includes attractive contrapuntal interaction between violin and bass. The third movement (Adagio) has some of the qualities of the first, and the piece concludes with a vigorous, through-composed Allegro in corrente rhythm.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: May 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/10 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708059 59 2 ISBN: 978 1 910359 17 4 Code: HH348.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
In the Orbit of Venus aims to evoke key aspects of Venus as well as planetary motion in outer space. Repeated notes suggest satellite radio signals and movement, mythical names in Morse code, or simply a vague communicative presence. The first performance was given by Philip Mead during Scotland’s sound Festival 2014.
Title:In the Orbit of Venus Publication date: April 2015 Instrument: Piano solo Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: v/22 ISMN: 979 0 708092 02 5 Duration: c.11' Code: HH381.SOL Price: £13.50 more information
Boismortier's Op. 28 trio sonatas are imbued with the kind of elegance, melodic and harmonic interest, and contrapuntal flair that characterise his earlier and later sets written in the ‘Italian style’, and they should greatly appeal to performers on the baroque and the modern oboe.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: April 2015 Instruments: Two oboes and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xii/21 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 99 5 ISBN: 978 1 910359 18 1 Code: HH379.FSC Price: £25.00 More information
The ninth sonata of the group, in five movements, is one of Bitti’s most stylistically advanced and ambitious. Its second movement, in C minor, is a languorous Largo in siciliana rhythm, and the gavotte-like finale takes the form of a theme with five variations.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: April 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/18 + 2 × 8 ISMN: 979 0 708059 18 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 16 7 Code: HH348.FSP Price: £12.50 More information
The Medley Concerto by Richard Mudge, an eighteenth-century English clergyman and composer, belongs within the tradition of Handel and Geminiani. Scored for a concerto grosso string ensemble plus two horns in D, it successfully combines dance variation form with baroque concerto structure. This good-humoured, sometimes riotous, piece, would make the perfect conclusion to a concert.
Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: March 2015 Instruments: Two horns, strings and basso continuo Format: Full score Series:Baroque Pages: xii/19 ISMN: 979 0 708041 85 6 ISBN: 978 1 910359 13 6 Code: HH376.FSC Price: £13.50 More information
A new, octet version of Ming Wang’s original Schwebende Fragmente for alto flute, viola and cello (HH214.fsp), but now with even greater colour and depth. Fragments of dreams, memories and illusions arising in the borderland between life and death emerge abruptly out of the subconscious and disappear just as quickly as they came.
Title:Schwebende Fragmente II Publication date: March 2015 Instrument: Octet Series:Contemporary Format: Full score Pages: vii/15 ISMN: 979 0 708041 15 3 Duration: c.8' Code: HH375.FSC Price: £14.50 more information
The eight of Bitti’s twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, representing the composer’s late, galant style. A suave preludio is followed by an allemanda, a sarabanda and a giga, and the mood of the whole is both relaxed and genial.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: March 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: vii/9 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708059 592 ISBN: 978 1 910359 15 0 Code: HH347.FSP Price: £8.95 More information
The Zhuangzi, a 2000-year-old Daoist text by the Chinese philosopher ‘Master Zhuang’, is a large collection of anecdotes, allegories and fables, many of them picturesque and of great beauty. Verwandlung (‘Transformation’) is Ming Wang’s musical response to the book’s myriad magical images and their imagined meanings. Employing Western serialist principles in a characteristically ‘exotic’ way to aid musical shaping and structure, she exploits the multifarious sounds of the clarinet and the bass clarinet, notably the full spectrum of overtones, using both conventional and unconventional playing and breathing techniques. The result is a work of singular imaginative power.
Title:Verwandlung Publication date: February 2015 Instrument: Two bass clarinets, one clarinet in B flat (2 players) Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: ix/11 ISMN: 979 0 708041 28 3 Duration: c.10' Code: HH374.FSC Price: £12.95 more information
This is the seventh of Bitti’s twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, representing his ‘late’, galant style. In five movements it comprises three well-contrasted quick movements between which two slow movements are inserted. In the opening movement the bass, as well as the violin, tests the performer’s ability. The final movement, marked ‘Allegrissimo’, has some deft humorous touches, parodying the kind of imitation practised in the stile antico.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: February 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/11 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 75 7 ISBN: 978 1 910359 14 3 Code: HH346.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
A new album of modern, catchy piano miniatures in a mixture of styles — jazz, latin, classical — for young beginner pianists. The pieces will be great fun to play and to teach, and parents will love them too. Barbara Snow is an inspiration!
Title:Animal Jazz Publication date: January 2015 Instruments: Piano Format: Playing score Series:For children Pages: vi/16 ISMN: 979 0 708092 96 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 07 5 Code: HH371.SOL Price: £8.95 More information
Third in the series of Op. 13 string quartets by Czech-born composer and violinist Václav Pichl (1741–1805), this edition was completed just before Christopher Hogwood died in 2014. Like its predecessors, the quartet exploits each instrument equally and offers an attractive alternative to the standard, and better-known, Viennese works of the period.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: January 2015 Series:@Haydn Instruments: Two violins, viola and violoncello Format: Full score and parts Pages: xiii/13 + 4 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 67 4 ISBN: 978 1 905779 87 1 Code: HH196.FSP Price: £29.00 more info
This is the sixth of Bitti’s twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, representing his ‘late’, galant style. The second and fourth movements are dance-like, and the two slow movements have the finely chiselled elegance that is the composer’s hallmark.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: January 2015 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/7 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 84 9 ISBN: 978 1 910359 11 2 Code: HH345.FSP Price: £8.95 More information
While the trio sonata for two violins and continuo tends to be associated with Italy, that for flute, violin and continuo was largely the province of German composers such as Telemann, Bach and Handel. How surprising, then, that one of the first collections for this particular scoring was composed by a Frenchman, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755), whose Op. 41 sonatas (1732) were intentionally written in the ‘Italian style’. Modelled on the works of Corelli, they also bear the influence of Vivaldi, yet individual sonatas reveal a French character too, thanks to Boismortier’s rich harmonic language, his many typically ‘French’ melodic lines and the occasional presence of French agréments.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: December 2014 Instruments: Flute, violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xiii/27 + 3 × 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 98 8 ISBN: 978 1 910359 05 1 Code: HH373.FSP Price: £25.00 More information
Bitti’s twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, presented to Cardinal Ottoboni, represent the ‘late’, galant Bitti, full of lovingly sculpted ornamental detail for the violin but with the same resourceful harmony and perfectly proportioned forms as before. The fifth sonata of the group is a pure sonata da chiesa, none of its four movements containing repeats or conforming to a recognizable dance type. The fast movements test the violinist’s agility, while the arabesques of the slow movements highlight lyrical expression.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: December 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: viii/11 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 29 0 ISBN: 978 1 910359 10 5 Code: HH344.FSP Price: £9.95 More information
The manuscript of Haydn’s opera Lo Speziale (’The Apothecary’) was partly destroyed by fire in 1779. For much of the 20th century the work was performed in a one-act German-language arrangement, but revivals since the 1980s have returned to the original three-act version, revised and completed. Now, at long last, a practical performing edition has been released — score, vocal score and hire parts — based on the revival at the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt in 2001. Opera companies around the world will find this attractive, and future performances will surely win new admirers for one of Haydn’s most popular operas.
Publication date: November 2014 Instruments: Soprano, mezzo soprano, two tenors, orchestra Format: Full score Series:@HAYDN Pages: ix/178 ISMN: 979 0 708059 11 0 ISBN: 978 1 914229 90 2 Code: HH405.FSC Price: £72.00
Format: Vocal score Pages: vi/136 ISMN: 979 0 708092 47 6 Code: HH405.VOC Price: £28.00 More information
Bitti's twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, presented to Cardinal Ottoboni, are typical of the composer’s late, galant style, with lovingly sculpted ornamental detail for the violin, resourceful harmony and perfectly proportioned forms. The fourth sonata mixes church and chamber elements, and the last two of its four movements have the character of a corrente and a giga, respectively. The tone of the whole work remains elegant and melodious.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: November 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/9 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708059 10 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 09 9 Code: HH343.FSP Price: £8.95 More information
While the trio sonata for two violins and continuo tends to be associated with Italy, that for flute, violin and continuo was largely the province of German composers such as Telemann, Bach and Handel. How surprising, then, that one of the first collections for this particular scoring was composed by a Frenchman, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755), whose Op. 41 sonatas (1732) were intentionally written in the ‘Italian style’. Modelled on the works of Corelli, they also bear the influence of Vivaldi, yet individual sonatas reveal a French character too, thanks to Boismortier’s rich harmonic language, his many typically ‘French’ melodic lines and the occasional presence of French agréments.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: October 2014 Instruments: Flute, violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xiii/31 + 3 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 97 1 ISBN: 978 1 910359 04 4 Code: HH372.FSP Price: £25.00 More information
Bitti's twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, presented to Cardinal Ottoboni, represent the ‘late’, galant Bitti, full of lovingly sculpted ornamental detail for the violin but with the same resourceful harmony and perfectly proportioned forms as before. The third sonata of the group, in four movements, is a radically updated new version of the first ‘London’ sonata (published as HH328). Each of its four movements lavishly decorates and/or paraphrases the material of the earlier model, producing what is, in effect, a new composition that breathes the air of the 1720s.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: October 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/8 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 07 0 ISBN: 978 1 910359 08 2 Code: HH342.FSP Price: £8.95 More information
Entfaltung (“Unfolding”), a septet commissioned by the Viennese ensemble Auer's Flutery, fuses the sound worlds of the historical and the modern flute, the two instruments engaging in a dialogue with the more powerful strings. The idea is that an immense organism can develop out of a tiny seed — the note D. Above this central point is built a complex tonal system, one that conforms to the basic scale of the medieval pipe yet is naturally suited to the string instruments.
Publication date: September 2014 Instruments: Flute, medieval pipe, two violins, viola, violoncello, double bass Series:Contemporary Format: Full score and parts Pages: ix/29 + 5 x 12 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708059 11 0 Duration: c.10' Code: HH367.FSP Price: £36.00 More information
Bitti's twelve “Cambridge” sonatas, presented to Cardinal Ottoboni, represent the composer’s late, galant style, full of lovingly sculpted ornamental detail for the violin but with the same resourceful harmony and perfectly proportioned forms seen in earlier works. This second piece of the group — a classic sonata da camera consisting of a preludio, allemanda, corrente and giga — is particularly interesting for being an elaborate reworking of the seventh “London” sonata, in which silky written-out ornamentation and harmonic enrichment are wrapped round the “Doric columns” of the earlier version (published as HH334).
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: September 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/9 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 81 0 ISBN: 978 1 910359 06 8 Code: HH341.FSP Price: £8.95 More information
Hoamat — the Bavarian pronunciation of the word Heimat (“Home”) — was commissioned by the Municipal Music School in the Upper Bavarian city of Burghausen for their Lokalklang Festival. The ten movements, which make use of a rich variety of ensembles, are all playable by non-professional musicians and, as the first performance proved, can be hugely enjoyable for an audience!
Publication date: August 2014 Instruments: speaker, soloists, ensembles, orchestra and choir Series:Contemporary Format: Conducting score Pages: vi/63 ISMN: 979 0 708092 87 2 Duration: c.40' Code: HH354.FSC Price: £55.00 more info
Performance Material (Vocal scores and intrumental parts) is available as a digital download (pdf)
Bitti's twelve ‘Cambridge’ sonatas, presented to Cardinal Ottoboni, represent the composer’s late, galant style, full of lovingly sculpted ornamental detail for the violin but with the same resourceful harmony and perfectly proportioned forms seen in earlier works.
Editor:Michael Talbot | Antonio Frigé Publication date: August 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/11 + 2 × 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 60 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 02 0 Code: HH340.FSP Price: £8.95 more information
This second volume in the series of his Op. 13 quartets exploits each instrument equally — even the viola is allocated elaborate solo passages — and offers an attractive alternative (as Haydn realised at the time) to the standard Viennese works of this period.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: July 2014 Series:@Haydn Instruments: Two violins, viola and violoncello Format: Full score and parts Pages: xii/16 + 16 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 66 7 ISBN: 978 1 905779 86 4 Code: HH195.FSP Price: £27.95 more info
A prayer addressed to Our Lady of Consolation, Memorare evokes images of flight and our basic human need for escape and protection. The subtle colours of Timothy Raymond’s musical language and his fine judgement of instrumental timbre combine to produce a work of immense transcendental power.
Publication date: July 2014 Instruments: Flute, viola and harp Series:Contemporary Format: Full score and parts Pages: iv/14 + 3 × 12 ISMN: 979 0 708059 64 6 Duration: c.7' Code: HH370.FSP Price: £24.00 more information
This previously unpublished Concerto a quadro presumably started life as a concerto for the standard Baroque forces of flute, strings and continuo. Not preserved in its original form, it survives in a version for flute, violin, viola and cello in a set of manuscript parts apparently copied by an amateur musician in Sweden and now part of Christopher Hogwood’s collection.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: June 2014 Series:Baroque Instruments: Flute, violin, viola and violoncello with optional basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: ix/9 + 8 + 3 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 88 7 ISBN: 978 1 910359 03 7 Code: HH369.FSP Price: £14.75 more info
This A major sonata could be regarded as the summation of Bitti’s craft as a composer of violin sonatas, and reveals a particular closeness to Corelli’s musical style.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Antonio Frigé Publication date: May 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/12 + 8 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 57 3 ISBN: 978 1 910359 01 3 Code: HH339.FSP Price: £9.95 more information
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s [VI] Sonates en Trio Pour deux Violons avec la Baße Op. 18, which appeared in 1727, are veritable gems of high baroque French instrumental music.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: May 2014 Instruments: Two Violins, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: xiii/28 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 95 7 ISBN: 978 1 905779 86 4 Code: HH365.FSP Price: £25.00
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“It sounds well, and is attractive to listeners [...] useful for both public and private use.”click here to read the review in Early Music Review
Previously, the parts for this recently discovered flute concerto have been available for rental only. Now, after premieres in many countries around the world – from Italy to Peru, and most recently in Austria – we have decided to publish the parts as a digital download. Each part can be printed in two formats: as single sheets or as a booklet.
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This expressive four-movement sonata in G minor opens with an Adagio in the style of a slow cantata aria, complete with an introductory ritornello for the continuo. An Allegro in perpetuum mobile style follows, then an Adagio characterized by violin double- and triple-stopping, and finally a powerful fugue with ingenious contrapuntal writing.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Antonio Frigé Publication date: May 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: ix/10 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 52 8 ISBN: 978 1 910359 00 6 Code: HH338.FSP Price: £8.95 more information
Here, for the first time in modern edition, is the second in our series of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s superb arrangements of seven of Mozart’s piano concertos, the Concerto in B flat, K456.
Editor:Leonardo Miucci Publication date: April 2014 Instruments: Flute, violin, violoncello, pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Pages: xix/55 + 2 x 12 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708092 86 5 ISBN: 978 1 905779 22 20 Code: HH355.FSP Price: £39.00 more infomation
“An arrangement such as this requires neither the space nor the expense of an orchestra, but more significantly, this is a contribution to the frequently overlooked repertoire for the early 19th-century music room.”click here to read the review (of K466) in The Consort
This powerful sonata in D major is one of Bitti’s most Corelli-like creations. It opens with a composite movement in which slow sections alternate with cadenza-like quick ones. Its second movement is what the English of the time called a “double-stopped” fugue, where the single violin mimics the contrapuntal interplay of the two violins in a trio sonata. An almost comic movement follows, beginning as an Adagio, in which a “walking bass” partners deliberately mechanical scale progressions on the violin, before suddenly transmuting into a sparkling perpetuum mobile. The final two movements are more conventional: a stately Adagio in a broad, sarabande-like style and a vigorous gigue-like Allegro.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Antonio Frigé Publication date: April 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: x/14 + 6 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 51 1 ISBN: 978 1 904229 60 5 Code: HH337.FSP Price: £12.50 more information
“The earliest string quartets” was how the great musicologist Edward Dent described Alessandro Scarlatti's set of four sonatas, published here for the first time in their original scoring. All in minor keys, these works are unique for the energy of the fugal writing, the passionate chromaticism of the slow movements and the playful, asymmetrical phrasing of the final Minuets. The scoring leaves open a range of performance possibilities, from one to a part, with or without continuo, to orchestral performance. This new edition provides a valuable opportunity to discover the music of an innovative genius whose extensive output remains largely unexplored.
Editor:Rosalind Halton Publication date: March 2014 Instruments: Two Violins, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Pages: xiv/33 + 4 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708092 09 4 ISBN: 978 1 905779 51 2 Code: HH361.FSP Price: £28.00 more info
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s [VI] Sonates en Trio Pour deux Violons avec la Baße Op. 18 appeared in 1727. Each consists of four or five movements, at least one being a dance; most of the slow movements feature the familiar Corellian “walking bass”, while one of the fast movements in each sonata is fugal or based on imitative entries. Though adhering to Italian models, the sonatas also display certain French elements, along with characteristics of Boismortier’s own individual style, and their harmonic language is especially rich. These expertly crafted works — veritable gems of high-baroque French instrumental music — deserve to become part of the repertoire of all period instrumental groups.
Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: March 2014 Instruments: Two Violins, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: xiii/28 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 94 0 ISBN: 978 1 905779 58 1 Code: HH364.FSP Price: £25.00 more info
This sonata by Bitti is unusual in having only three movements – all of them quick or quickish movements in C major. However, the movements are nicely contrasted. The first is a euphonious dialogue between violin and bass, while the second allows the violin to show off dexterity of bowing and extrovert playing. The third movement is a spirited gavotte that takes time out to poke fun at textbook counterpoint.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Antonio Frigé Publication date: March 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/8 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708041 50 4 ISBN: 978 1 904229 59 9 Code: HH336.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
Commissioned by Slovak virtuoso accordionist Milan Osadsky, Nirmali Fenn’s The Edge of Self homes in on one of the instrument’s most characteristic features — its unique capacity for producing sustained notes and note clusters. Marked by passages of extreme stillness and others that shake with anticipation of intense activity, the piece begins highly compressed, expands in the middle to form extremely dense chords, and finally retreats, compressing to one note.
Publication date: February 2014 Instruments: Accordion solo Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: iv/7 ISMN: 979 0 708024 93 4 Duration: c.10' Code: HH366.SOL Price: £13.50 more info
This Sonata in A major was published by John Walsh in April 1704 as the second piece by Bitti presented in a series of violin sonatas by different composers delivered to subscribers in twelve monthly instalments. An extrovert work, well suited to public performance, it was played in London by the Cremonese violinist Gasparo Visconti. In the Allegro movement, playful imitations between violin and bass eventually give way to violin acrobatics, and the slow movement is a model of continuously evolving melody.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: February 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/8 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708024 91 0 ISBN: 978 1 904229 43 8 Code: HH335.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
In A minor, the seventh London sonata is serious and noble in tone, while displaying a dance-like character in its final three movements. It constitutes the perfect marriage between energetic and lyrical expression — the ‘happy medium’ that English players and audiences prized so much around 1700 and identified with the school of Corelli, whose style Bitti does not imitate directly, but whose aesthetic he shares in so many respects.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: January 2014 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/7 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708024 92 7 ISBN: 978 1 904229 37 7 Code: HH334.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
This piece is a poetic representation of the ice phenomenon “diamond dust”. Its light, ponderous beginning exploits the guitar’s delicate timbral qualities, while the second, more aggressive section is quite percussive in texture, depicting the full gamut of elements that constitute this elusive state of ice.
Composer:Litha Efthymiou Publication date: December 2013 Instrument: Guitar Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: iv/4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 89 6 Code: HH363.SOL Price: £7.25 more info
D major could be described as the great “extrovert” key in late Baroque string music, and Florentine composer Martino Bitti’s four-movement sonata, in the classic slow–fast–slow–fast configuration, does not disappoint in this respect. In particular, the second movement, an allemande-like Allegro, tests the player’s ability to execute broken-chord figures neatly. Bitti’s artistic personality always shines through, however, and the music never loses its poise, melodic beauty remaining its highest goal.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: December 2013 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/7 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 92 6 ISBN: 978 1 905779 07 9 Code: HH333.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
Florentine composer Martino Bitti’s Sonata in D minor captures the serious-minded, plaintive mood traditionally associated with this key. The corrente-like fast second movement in triple metre, with its tiny, insistently repeated musical figure, is reminiscent of Vivaldi. In the other three movements, the composer shows a more typical side of his style, where the free spinning-out of melody — always exquisitely shaped — takes precedence over strict repetition.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2013 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/7 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 91 9 ISBN: 978 1 905779 06 2 Code: HH332.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
Inspired by American poet Clayton Eshleman’s reflections on the drawings of Henri Michaux, Nirmali Fenn creates a subdued yet highly expressive sound world in her latest work. The solo viola’s open strings, of which the top and bottom are detuned, trapping the music within a tritone pair, act like outer voices, as in counterpoint. They are, in the composer’s words, “like balloon strings”, limiting the melody lines on other strings and generating an acute sense of elasticity as the relationship between the lines is stretched to the extreme.
Publication date: October 2013 Instruments: Viola solo Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: iv/3 ISMN: 979 0 708092 87 2 Duration: c.5' Code: HH352.SOL Price: £12.00 more info
This Sonata in A major belonging to the ‘London’ group was published by John Walsh in January 1704 as the opening work in a series of violin sonatas by different composers delivered to subscribers in twelve monthly instalments. It is also preserved in the manuscript in the British library containing seven violin sonatas by Bitti. It is an extrovert work well suited to public performance — we know that the Cremonese violinist Gasparo Visconti played it at Drury Lane Theatre. The structure follows a pattern that recalls a sonata da camera by Corelli: a prelude-like movement followed in turn by a corrente, a slow, triple-time movement resembling a sarabanda, and a giga.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2013 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/7 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 90 2 ISBN: 978 1 905779 85 7 Code: HH331.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
Haydn’s first set of Lieder, adapted for the English market by William Shield, who was to become his close friend, were an instant commercial success, with the most popular of them reissued separately not only in England but also in Ireland and America. Generously illustrated with facsimiles from the original publications, which were notated on two staves, the new edition, the first in 200 years, uses three staves to clarify the voice and keyboard parts, and includes an Introduction and full Critical Commentary.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: September 2013 Series:@Haydn Instruments: Voice & keyboard Format: Full score Pages: xviii/28 ISMN: 979 0 708059 70 7 ISBN: 978 1 905779 99 4 Code: HH192.FSC Price: £14.50 more info
Chants du Printemps is an expanded version of a smaller work, completed in 2010, for two oboes, cor anglais, harp and percussion. The earlier piece, Canto di Primavera, included a couple of oblique references to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, which Stephen Pratt, during the centenary year of this iconic masterpiece, decided to develop in his recomposed work. The final movement, a celebration rather than a sacrifice, concludes with the clearest references to the original — a collage of three distorted snippets from Part I of Le Sacre. Despite such borrowings, it is hoped that the listener will enjoy Chants du Printemps in its own right (no pun intended).
“Stephen Pratt’s homage to Stravinsky, Chants du Printemps, was a fearless attempt to harness the brute energy of The Rite of Spring, like a rodeo rider clinging to a particularly implacable bull.” The Guardian
Publication date: September 2013 Instruments: Chamber Orchestra Series:Contemporary Format: Study score (A4) Pages: vi/82 ISMN: 979 0 708092 88 9 Duration: c.18' Code: HH362.SSC Price: £42.00 more info
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704) was unusual among his French contemporaries in setting a significant number of Italian texts, of which two of the most substantial are a pair of pastoralette. ‘Cupido perfido dentr’al mio cuor’ is scored for four solo voices, two treble instruments and continuo, this work may also involve choral forces if desired. As in the companion work ‘Amor vince ogni cosa’ (HH323.FSC), Charpentier incorporates innovative Italian features into his essentially French musical style.
Editor:Shirley Thompson Publication date: September 2013 Instruments: Four voices, two Treble Instruments, Basso continuo Format: Full score Pages: xiv/24 ISMN: 979 0 708092 76 6 ISBN: 978 1 905779 95 6 Code: HH324.FSC Price: £19.95 more info
The three groups of violin sonatas by leading Florentine violinist-composer Martino Bitti (1655/56–1743) are sadly neglected. Unusually for Bitti’s earlier sonatas, the Sonata in G minor belonging to the London group features only three movements: a prelude-like slow opening movement full of melodic eloquence, followed by a generously proportioned and rhythmically interesting Allemanda and, to conclude, a sparkling giga-like movement.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: September 2013 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/5 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 84 1 ISBN: 978 1 905779 98 7 Code: HH330.FSP Price: £7.95 more info
This unique volume brings together side by side the two distinct versions
of Vivaldi’s unusually titled concerto Il Proteo ò il mondo al rovverscio (“Proteus, or The World Turned Upside-Down”), both dating probably from the mid-1720s. Not only are we able to glimpse the fascinating creative process involved in the conversion of one concerto into the other, but the
two works are differently scored, providing equally valid alternatives for performance.
Editor:Paul Everett Publication date: August 2013 Instruments: Violin solo, violoncello solo, strings, basso continuo (RV 544)
Two flutes, two oboes, violin solo, violoncello solo, harpsichord, strings, basso continuo
(RV 572) Format: Full score Pages: xxii/53 ISMN: 979 0 708024 90 3 ISBN: 978 1 904229 36 0 Code: HH056.FSC Price: £32.00 more info
Any performer of Mozart's piano concertos must have wondered how those sparsely notated sections would have been realized at the time. No one is better placed to provide an answer than the composer's own pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Here now, for the first time in modern edition, is the first of the series of Hummel’s superb arrangements of seven concertos — K466 in D minor. Not only will these scores throw light on the problem mentioned, but they will provide a unique opportunity for pianists to perform Mozart’s masterpieces with just a handful of friends or colleagues rather than with full orchestra, or even play them as solo works in their own right.
Editors:Costantino Mastroprimiano | Leonardo Miucci Publication date: August 2013 Instruments: Flute, violin, violoncello, pianoforte Format: Full score and parts Pages: xi/53 + 12 + 2 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708092 78 03 ISBN: 978 1 905779 97 0 Code: HH327.FSP Price: £35.50 more info
“An arrangement such as this requires neither the space nor the expense of an orchestra, but more significantly, this is a contribution to the frequently overlooked repertoire for the early 19th-century music room.”click here to read the review in The Consort
The three groups of violin sonatas by leading Florentine violinist-composer Martino Bitti (1655/56–1743) are sadly neglected. Typically for Bitti’s earlier sonatas, the Sonata in C minor belonging to the London group features four movements in the standard configuration for chamber sonatas of the time: a prelude-like slow opening movement followed by three further movements of either implicit or explicit dance character. This sonata features a particularly eloquent third movement having the character of a sarabande, while the concluding giga-like movement exhibits irrepressible verve.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: August 2013 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/5 + 2 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 84 1 ISBN: 978 1 905779 98 7 Code: HH329.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
The three groups of violin sonatas by leading Florentine violinist-composer Martino Bitti (1655/56–1743) are sadly neglected. Typically for his earlier sonatas, the Sonata in B flat major that heads the London group features four movements in the standard configuration for chamber sonatas of the time: a prelude-like slow opening movement followed by three further movements of either implicit or explicit dance character. This sonata has a particularly interesting second movement (Allemanda), where Bitti displays his considerable rhythmic finesse.
Editor:Alessandro Borin | Michael Talbot Publication date: July 2013 Instruments: Violin, basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/7 + 2x4 ISMN: 979 0 708092 80 3 ISBN: 978 1 905779 96 3 Code: HH328.FSP Price: £8.95 more info
Ming Wang's piano quintet embodies two totally contrasting musical conditions: one type of passage characterized by chromatic lines and chords, which forcefully knock and grate against one another, creating a mood of hypertension, can unexpectedly flip over into a sound world of reassuring, transparent pentatonicism. This contrast evokes a dark landscape suddenly lit up when it reflects light coming from outside.
Publication date: July 2013 Instruments: Two violins, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Pages: vii/33 + 4x8 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708041 12 2 Code: HH353.FSP Price: £27.95 more info
Czech-born composer Václav Pichl (1741–1805) spent much of his working life in Vienna, where the Empress Maria Theresa preferred him to Mozart. His compositions were performed at Eszterháza by Haydn, who had a set of Pichl's "new quartets" copied in 1780 (he wrote over 30 quartets in all). Op. 13, the present set of stylish and skilfully contrasted works, were dedicated to Dittersdorf, one of his early employers. They exploit all four instruments equally (even the viola is allocated elaborate solo passages) and offer an attractive alternative to the standard Viennese works of this period.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: July 2013 Instruments: Two violins, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Pages: xiii/17 + 16 + 3x12 ISMN: 979 0 708059 58 5 ISBN: 978 1 905779 17 8 Code: HH187.FSP Price: £24.95 more info
In his day, Carl Fasch was regarded as the true successor to C. P. E. Bach. This final (third) volume of the composer's complete keyboard works includes his four sets of extended variations, containing some impressive displays of virtuosity, and a variety of shorter pieces, the majority previously unpublished. The whole three-volume keyboard cycle provides the modern player with remarkable, high-quality new repertoire for performance on the clavichord, harpsichord, or fortepiano.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: June 2013 Instruments: Clavichord, Harpsichord, Fortepiano, Piano Format: Playing score Pages: xxv/48 ISMN: 979 0 708092 51 3 ISBN: 978 1 905779 90 0 Code: HH302.SOL Price: £24.95 more info
“This edition is both practical and elegant [...] my belief in this brilliant edition’s imminent popularity.” Volume 1 reviewed in The British Clavichord Society Newsletter
This anthology celebrates the life and work of Mabel Dolmetsch (1874–1963) on the fiftieth anniversary of her death. It brings together timeless melodies such as Belle qui tiens ma vie and Heartsease, sixteenth-century dances from the Medici Manuscript in the Dolmetsch Library, and examples from the French viol repertoire, including Récit de la viole seule et Sarabande from the Sonate for eight instruments by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and pieces by Sainte-Colombe, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray and Marin Marais.
Editor:Marguerite Dolmetsch Publication date: May 2013 Instruments: Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord Format: Full score and part Pages: x/47 + 24 ISMN: 979 0 708092 79 7 ISBN: 978 1 905779 93 2 Code: HH322.FSP Price: £24.95 more info
“There is plenty of proof of the love and care with which this volume has been prepared for publication, and it is well worth purchasing at the price of £24.95.”
(The Consort)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier was unusual among his French contemporaries in setting a significant number of Italian texts, of which two of the most substantial are a pair of pastoralettes, ‘Amor vince ogni cosa’ and ‘Cupido dentr’al mio cuor’.
Editor:Shirley Thompson Publication date: May 2013 Instruments: Five voices, two Treble Instruments, Basso continuo Format: Full score Pages: xvi/40 ISMN: 979 0 708092 75 9 ISBN: 978 1 905779 94 9 Code: HH323.FSC Price: £19.95 more info
Performance Material (Vocal score and parts in PDF format) Code: HH323.IPT Price: £19.95 more info
“The blend of Italian and French elements makes this music particularly attractive. [...] It is to be hoped that with the appearance of this edtion, the piece will be more widely performed and recorded.”click here to read the review in The Consort
The second volume of keyboard music by the reclusive Carl Fasch contains two unpublished sonatas (one in the unusual key of B flat minor) and his considerable output of “character pieces”, short descriptive works which justify contemporary opinion that he was the true successor to C. P. E. Bach. These individual vignettes are ideal for playing on either the clavichord or the fortepiano and provide an expressive foil to the first volume’s more extended and extrovert sonatas.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: April 2013 Instruments: Clavichord, Harpsichord, Fortepiano, Piano Format: Playing score Pages: xxiv/65 ISMN: 979 0 708092 50 6 ISBN: 978 1 905779 89 5 Code: HH301.SOL Price: £32.00 more info
“This edition is both practical and elegant [...] my belief in this brilliant edition’s imminent popularity.” Volume 1 reviewed in The British Clavichord Society Newsletter
OFFBEAT REPERTOIRE FOR TUBA PLAYERS!
Hong Kong composer Chi-Hin Leung has written a daring new work for a quartet of tuba players – Utmost Attack. Portraying the actual moment of shooting an arrow from a crossbow – the finger on the trigger, the release of the arrow, and the attack on the enemy – it features powerful dynamic contrasts, constant shifts of mood, tempo, rhythm, texture and sonority, all to striking dramatic effect.
Publication date: March 2013 Instruments: Tuba quartet Series:Contemporary Format: Full score and parts Pages: iv/8 + 4×8 ISMN: 979 0 708092 70 4 Duration: c.5' Code: HH326.FSP Price: £18.00 more info
Entre Nous, written for the outstanding Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard, is one of a proposed series of three related works, all featuring solo cello. The title reflects the sense of collaboration at the heart of the project, and is, in this first piece of the set, a starting point for the music itself. In effect, two “voices” can be heard in dialogue through the work’s three movements — “Talking it over”, “Just …”, “… saying” — one gradually becoming more animated while a more lyrical and reflective voice attempts to keep things calm.
Publication date: February 2013 Instruments: Violoncello solo Series:Contemporary Format: Playing score Pages: iii/9 ISMN: 979 0 708092 94 2 Duration: c.9' Code: HH321.SOL Price: £12.50 more info
The present work, which has been realized and edited by the well-known British clarinettist Nicholas Cox, will be particularly suitable for reasonably advanced students of both modern and classical clarinets.
Editor:Nicholas Cox Publication date: February 2013 Instruments: Clarinet and keyboard Series:@MOZART Format: Full score and instrumental part Pages: xii/17 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 69 8 ISBN: 978 1 905779 71 0 Code: HH259.FSP Price: £13.50 more info
The premise underlying The Clash of Icicles against the Stars is the Chinese concept of qi. Qi means ‘breath’, ‘air’ or ‘gas’ and signifies the energy flow or life force that is the fundamental sustaining element of existence. The piece explores the various air chambers of the three instruments for which it is written, with the accordion compressing and expanding its chamber to manufacture sound, while the sheng, China’s oldest wind instrument and the ancestor of the accordion, uses reed vibration in contrast to the reedless flute, whose embouchure hole provides the basis for timbral experimentation. The I Ching provides a symmetrical structural base, while Rimbaud’s poem ‘Barbarian’, with its highly emotional imagery, evokes the spatial range and temporal pace of The Clash of Icicles against the Stars.
Publication date: January 2013 Instruments: Flute, accordion, sheng Series:Contemporary Format: Full score and instrumental parts Pages: iv/9 + 3x12 ISMN: 979 0 708092 71 1 Duration: c.20' Code: HH320.FSP Price: £29.00 more info
Active in Gloucester and Birmingham during the mid-18th century, Barnabas Gunn was a composer and performer of sacred and secular music. His violin sonatas of 1745, here published for the first time in modern edition, reveal him to have been more than just a competent provincial musician, however. Their style varies from Corellian brilliance to English Galant sophistication, the instrumental writing for each players is as challenging as it is stimulating, and the music will surprise and delight performers and listeners alike.
Editors:Martin Perkins and Chloe Werner Publication date: December 2012 Instruments: Violin, violoncello, harpsichord Format: Full score and instrumental parts Pages: ix/32 + 24 + 20 ISMN: 979 0 708092 72 8 ISBN: 978 1 905779 92 5 Code: HH319.FSP Price: £24.95 more info
Edited by Christopher Hogwood using the recently discovered autograph, and now published for the first time in full score with parts, this “symphony quintetto” adaptation of one of Haydn’s favourite works was made by John Peter Salomon, the composer’s concert-master. The keyboard contribution is optional, though effective, and the ingenuity with which the strings and flute accommodate Haydn’s full orchestral writing is a genuine tribute to Salomon’s skill. A significant addition to the repertoire of sociable Hausmusik, this fine arrangement will also be a delight for professionals in concert.
Editor:Christopher Hogwood Publication date: November 2012 Instruments: Flute, string quartet, piano ad lib. Series:@HAYDN Format: Full score and instrumental parts Pages: xvi/54 + 8 + 4x12 + 14 ISMN: 979 0 708092 43 8 ISBN: 978 1 905779 83 3 Code: HH296.FSP Price: £37.00 more info
“As always, HH has produced an interesting and well edited publication.” Early Music Review
Un sogno a tre for flute, viola and harp was written in 1990 for a trio of young instrumentalists and first performed in the USA. In the enigmatic words of the composer (who died in October this year): “the piece has no beginning, no middle and no end … simply three musicians telling each other something and dreaming a little … sound is arising and that is enough …”. Pitch and rhythm are strictly organized, but dramatic development has been consciously avoided. Yet, such is the composer’s mastery of her craft that an overall sense of structural unity is never in doubt. An essential addition to the chamber trio repertoire.
Ming Wang's A Child's Universe is a strikingly novel and versatile set of ensemble pieces intended to introduce young instrumentalists of beginner–intermediate level to the world of contemporary music. Immediately accessible in style, attractive, tuneful and rhythmically uncomplicated, the twelve pieces are divided into four groups — one each for winds, guitars, and strings, all with percussion ad lib., together with a final group for all the instruments combined. Imbued with a playful and childlike spirit, A Child's Universe is an exciting new addition to the contemporary musical repertoire for young players.
“The pieces from Ming Wang’s A Child’s Universe pass directly through the ear into the child’s inner world, where the sounds and images are transformed into huge imaginative landscapes... They therefore succeed brilliantly in performance.” Helmut Lorenz, Head of the renowned Musikschule der Stadt Burghausen
„Die Stücke aus dem Kinderuniversum von Ming Wang finden sehr schnell über das Gehör in die Innenenwelt der Kinder. Dort wachsen sie als Klänge und Bilder zu großen Vorstellungen... Entsprechend beeindruckend gelingen die Aufführungen.“ Helmut Lorenz, Schulleiter, Musikschule der Stadt Burghausen
Ming Wang hat ein verblüffend neuartiges Werk geschrieben: Kinderunsiversum besteht aus einer Reihe vielseitiger Ensemblestücke, die junge Spieler eines Musikinstruments mit der Welt moderner Musik bekannt machen wollen. Die 12 Stücke sind stilistisch leicht zugänglich, attraktiv, melodiös und unkompliziert im Rhythmus, sie sind in vier Gruppen untergeteilt — je eine für Bläser, Gitarre und Streicher, und eine letzte Gruppe für alle Instrumente zusammen (alle mit Schlagzeug ad.lib). In seiner spielerischen Kindlichkeit zählt das Kinderuniversum zu einer spannenenden Erweiterung des modernen Musikrepertoires.
Rolla’s appealing Concertino for viola, cello and bassoon, dating from the early 1780s, was written to be played by the composer and two of his fellow virtuosos in the orchestra of the ducal court of Parma when touring in northern Italy. Though classical in its harmonic and melodic language, and in the structure and number of its movements, the work features several solos that exploit the higher registers of the instruments, particularly the cello and bassoon, in a somewhat ‘un-classical’ manner. This is an unusual and most welcome addition to the chamber repertoires of all three instruments.
Arrange 9 squares in 3 rows and 3 columns, matching the beginning and end of each piece of music. Looks easy?
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The flautist, bassoonist, composer and teacher François Devienne became known as the “French Mozart” because of the stylistic grace, formal balance and brilliance of his music. His sonatas for solo instrument and bass date from between 1788 and 1803 (the year of his death) became very popular and were used as teaching material at the newly established Paris Conservatoire. Following on from Op. 70/1 in the same series, the present work, realized and edited by the well-known British clarinettist Nicholas Cox, will be particularly suitable for reasonably advanced students of both modern and classical clarinets.
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music has chosen an Andante from this attractive and varied collection as one of the pieces in its Grade 6 piano syllabus. The collection was reviewed in The Consort and The British Clavichord Society Newsletter, click here to read the reviews.
The Sonata Op. 61 ‘Élégie harmonique’ was written after the death of Dussek's patron, Prince Ferdinand of Prussia, at the battle of Saalfeld on 10 October 1806. First published by Pleyel in Paris the following year, the sonata is infused with a spirit of lament and conveys great intensity of emotion. With its almost exclusive focus on minor keys and its increasingly relentless pace, the work stands out among the sonatas of the classical period.
Some Words, with its theme of transformation and transcendence, was inspired by a set of four poems by Australian poet Judith Wright. Nirmali Fenn expresses in music the spatial allusions and metaphors of the opposing forces that struggle against each other in the endless creative process. The work is for soprano, flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, violoncello and percussion. Duration: c.30 minutes
The “Chor der Dänen” is the first of three surviving pieces from the incidental music Haydn wrote for a production of John William Cowmeadow’s play Alfred, König der Angelsachsen (“Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons”) at Eisenstadt in September 1796. A subject such as Alfred the Great's victory over the Vikings in the year 878 would have been popular in the war-torn Europe of Haydn’s time, and the composer's thrilling setting captures all the power and drama of the text. It is scored for a chorus of soprano, tenor and bass, and an orchestra of strings, two oboes, two bassoons, two trumpets and timpani.
Solo keyboard adaptations of Handel's orchestral music were common during the 18th century, although few have matched the idiomatic command and interest achieved by the present text. Dating from the mid-1780s, the unnamed arranger has shown enterprise and imagination when producing these highly effective keyboard versions. Organists, harpsichordists and fortepianists will here find substantial, rewarding and attractive repertoire additions, fully attuned to late 18th-century English keyboard practice.
The problems of ornamenting a slow movement were as apparent in the 18th century as they are to players today: even Charles Burney admitted that it was an area “in which performers of great powers of execution often fail”. Carlo Zuccari comes to the rescue with a dozen sample adagios printed with both the simple line and a decorated alternative. There are no written rules in his collection — simply teaching by the direct method, and applicable to all melodic instruments (violin, flute, oboe, cello etc.). This facsimile edition contains a list of original misprints to be corrected and a full introduction.
Giovanni Vitali's set of twelve sonatas Op. 5 for various combinations of strings and continuo, published in 1669, was the Bolognese composer's most ambitious collection of chamber music to date. He most likely wrote it as an application piece for membership of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica, for each sonata has a dedicatory subtitle bearing the name of one of the city's noblemen. This third volume contains three works – the sonatas for two violins, viola, violone and organ/harpsichord continuo.
An ideal companion piece to Bartók's ‘Contrasts’. The title derives from the French proverb se méfier de l’eau qui dort, meaning ‘be wary of the water which sleeps’, or, as we might say in English, ‘still waters run deep’. The message, therefore, is to be careful, because things are seldom as they appear. In performance, the players should embrace the spirit of the water: overwhelming and sensuous.
Celebrated string virtuoso Alessandro Rolla (1757–1841), Paganini’s teacher, is also known for his chamber music. These two delightful quartets, if technically unchallenging for the flautist, display the composer’s characteristic concertante writing, especially in the outer movements of both works, where the solo episodes are largely given to the violin and the viola.
Narváez’s Seys libros del Delphín, published in Valladolid in 1538, contains the earliest purely instrumental sets of variations – diferencias – in the history of music. In this critical edition, all of Narváez’s solo works are transcribed into staff notation for the guitar, the majority of the pieces appearing here for the first time. The easy-to-read score, which is entirely faithful to the original tablature, will open up this magnificent early repertoire to a new generation of performers and teachers.
Giovanni Vitali’s set of twelve sonatas Op. 5 for various combinations of strings and continuo, published in 1669, was the Bolognese composer's most ambitious collection of chamber music to date. He most likely wrote it as an application piece for membership of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica, for each sonata has a dedicatory subtitle bearing the name of one of the city’s noblemen. This second volume of Martin Perkins’s scholarly performing edition contains four works – the sonatas for two violins, violone and basso continuo.
On Reflection is a companion piece to the earlier sextet The Miraculous Mandolin (2007), for a similar combination of instruments. But it is somewhat more introspective, as implied by the title, which also refers to the technical processes employed. The first section sets up a contrast between busy linear material and ‘frozen’ chordal passages, both emanating from a single source. The first part of the final section largely develops the quick character, but the piece ends with a chorale-like reworking of the chords. At the centre is a slow section, which perhaps reflects the title most aptly.
Carl Fasch, regarded by a contemporary writer on music as the true successor to C. P. E. Bach (with whom he shared keyboard duties for Frederick the Great), was notoriously reluctant to have his music made public, even asking that much of it should be destroyed. In this first volume of his complete keyboard works, the six sonatas, which appeared in print and were well regarded during the composer's lifetime, show him to be a minor master and an eloquent advocate for the eclectic expressive style then current in Berlin. Two further volumes will present his sets of variations, his unpublished sonatas and an intriguing sequence of “character pieces”, all suitable for performance on the clavichord or the fortepiano.
These two short sonatinas for oboe and piano by 19th-century English composer Thomas Walmisley, now remembered almost exclusively for his church music, offer an early Romantic view of classical form and exploit both instruments ingeniously and with originality. Since the pieces were also published as flute works after the composer’s death, and appear in manuscript for the clarinet, this appealing – and rare – repertoire will be available not only to oboe players, but will successfully meet the programming needs of other wind recitalists.
Composed for St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium, this dramatic organ piece was inspired by a plainchant melody in a manuscript compiled there in 1481, and by the colourful pantheism and cosmic symbolism of the cathedral’s famous fifteenth-century altarpiece, the Van Eyck brothers' Adoration of the Sacred Lamb. Atmospheric, mysterious and fluid textures alternate with energetic, toccata-like passages, reflecting and transforming the pitch structures and temporal proportions of the chant – a meditation on the Trinity. The latest recital performance of Caritas Pater est is scheduled to take place in Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati, USA, in November.
“Silent Thunder” is an intriguing zoological phenomenon: elephants are able to communicate with each other ultrasonically, using frequencies that are wholly inaudible to us. Members of the same troop can perceive and react to these deep oscillations even at a distance of 20 km. This mysterious faculty possessed by animals awakened in the composer's mind a musical association linked to the wide sound spectrum of the piano. The resulting 10-minute soundscape demonstrates once again Ming Wang's fine creative imagination and supreme aural and technical skills.
BRIDGE THE GAP!! A true Grand Duo for cello and piano to provide a much-needed connection between the first sonatas for this combination – by Beethoven – and the later 19th-century repertoire. Eberl’s heroic style provides a masterly alternative to the over-familiar works, with the balance of power between the two players scrupulously maintained throughout, and ingenious formal innovations. The Rhapsodie finale in particular, with sections in varying metres and moods, resolves in an elegant Pastorale, an entirely new format for this combination. The composer thoughtfully provided an adaptation of the cello line for the violin. Both parts are included in this publication, and players will be interested in the many differences between them.
How do we think in terms of wholes? Unifying Divisions is a social experiment where 17 saxophones divide into groups of 5 solo characters and 4 quartets, uniting to give the illusion of 1 instrument. The unification is achieved through the magnification of a single voice.
All twelve of these highly original, mostly four-movement, sonatas contain a judicious mixture of dance-inspired and ‘abstract’ music. The violinistic technique, though advanced, is always placed at the service of musical expression, and the composer’s handling of counterpoint, his thematic invention and his command of musical form are consistently outstanding. According to editor Michael Talbot: “These sonatas represent the best music in terms of sheer quality that I have ever edited – and I don't exclude Vivaldi and Albinoni from the comparison.”
All twelve of these highly original, mostly four-movement, sonatas contain a judicious mixture of dance-inspired and ‘abstract’ music. The violinistic technique, though advanced, is always placed at the service of musical expression, and the composer’s handling of counterpoint, his thematic invention and his command of musical form are consistently outstanding. According to editor Michael Talbot: “These sonatas represent the best music in terms of sheer quality that I have ever edited – and I don't exclude Vivaldi and Albinoni from the comparison.”
The final instalment of the three-volume collection of Zinck’s complete keyboard music contains his sets of variations (one on the tune made popular by Mozart, “Lison dormait”, and the other a surprisingly virtuoso set on a simple children‘s song) and a sequence of his very individual miscellaneous pieces, including the atmospheric setting for keyboard solo of “Das Traumschiff” (complete with nautical illustration). Many of his teaching pieces are published here for the first time from a manuscript source in the Royal Library, Copenhagen, and include original fingering from the composer. All the works in this volume would be effective on either the clavichord or fortepiano.
The second instalment of the three-volume collection of Zinck’s complete keyboard music contains the printed sonatas which followed his enormously successful 1783 set, together with the first appearance in print of two sonatas from a manuscript source in the Royal Library, Copenhagen. The published sonatas show Zinck’s mastery of the styles of both C.P.E. Bach (his teacher) and Haydn, while the manuscript works are simpler in their technical demands, but include original fingering from the composer. All the sonatas in this volume would be effective on either the clavichord or the fortepiano.
Giovanni Vitali’s set of twelve sonatas Op. 5 for various combinations of strings and continuo, published in 1669, was the Bolognese composer's most ambitious collection of chamber music to date. He most likely wrote it as an application piece for membership of the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica, for each sonata has a dedicatory subtitle bearing the name of one of the city’s noblemen. This first volume of Martin Perkins’s scholarly performing edition contains five works – the sonatas for two violins and basso continuo.
After first performing his quintet for piano and winds in 1784, Mozart described it to his father as “the best work I have ever composed”. But, mysteriously, it was not published for several years and then in the form of a quartet for piano and strings — and with a bogus ending. The present edition presents this excellent transcription in Urtext form, and at the same time explains the strange circumstances that surrounded the disappearance and rediscovery of the manuscript. For the curious, both the “bogus” ending and a more Mozartian version are given.
A new Bach concerto for the same instrumental combination as the ever-popular Pachelbel Canon! This arrangement of a work originally for three harpsichords was made for the Academy of Ancient Music. Dispensing with the orchestral tuttis and including a new (optional) viola part, the new version will be suitable for smaller chamber ensembles with a continuo section of cello, double-bass and keyboard. The textures are very similar to those of Vivaldi's Op. 3 concertos (L'Estro Armonico) and the three violin parts require a similar brilliance of technique.
This sonata in B flat, by Wolfgang Amadeus's father, a prominent musician in his own right, is part of a group of three sonatas that the publisher J. H. Haffner included in a 1756 collection of contemporary sonatas. Though originally written for harpsichord, the piece is equally suited to performance on the fortepiano.
This short quartet, lasting a mere eight minutes in performance, consists of three sections that can be played aleatorically. Ideally, the piece should be performed more than once in a concert, as the 'points of fracture' (Splitterungen) appear to have quite divergent causes, leaving the listener with very different impressions when the order is changed.
All twelve of these highly original, mostly four-movement, sonatas contain a judicious mixture of dance-inspired and ‘abstract’ music. The violinistic technique, though advanced, is always placed at the service of musical expression, and the composer’s handling of counterpoint, his thematic invention and his command of musical form are consistently outstanding. According to editor Michael Talbot: “These sonatas represent the best music in terms of sheer quality that I have ever edited – and I don't exclude Vivaldi and Albinoni from the comparison.”
The 5 Steps is a music theatre piece steeped in ritual, where music and dance converge to express a correlation between the generative and degenerative processes within nature and human life cycles. The choreography is determined by the 5 Chinese characters that represent the 5 elements of Taoism - Wood (木), Fire (火), Earth (土), Metal (金), and Water (水).No element exists by itself, but is determined by how each one operates as a part within a holistic system.
These four pieces for piano and cello, combining the personal and the poetic, were finally realized in 2009 after a long period of gestation. The central movements were inspired by Jeremy Arden’s memories of his encounter with Russian composers (husband and wife) Dmitri Smirnov and Elena Firsova in 1989. Their personalities and their music, contrasted yet belonging together, are echoed in the mood of contemplative joy and impassioned struggle expressed in the outer movements.
This is the first modern edition, and reconstruction, of a concerto for transverse flute by Vivaldi with the exotic title ‘Il Gran Mogol’, recently discovered in the Scottish National Archives. Closely related to this work is the composer's concerto RV 431, of which only the first and last movements survive. Using a transposed version of the slow movement of ‘Il Gran Mogol’, the editor Andrew Woolley has been able to complete RV 431, and the two works are conveniently presented together in this exciting new publication. Performers should seize the opportunity to play these concertos, originally created for the ‘amateur’ market.
The ‘dreamcatcher’, a fascinating Native American mystical object, was the inspiration behind this Piano Trio, which is a perfect example of the composer's finely judged, evocative musical language. The piece comprises four sections, which, like the various images in dreams, change quickly and unexpectedly, without apparent relation, even though in reality they follow a “red thread” on an invisible plane.
No arranger was named on the 1793 first edition of this piano version of the slow movement from Mozart’s last chamber work for strings, but Alfred Einstein was so impressed by the adaptation that in his Mozart biography he ventured, “it is so masterly that one might even imagine the hand of Mozart to be present”. The many dynamic, tempo and articulation markings added by the arranger not only make this fine music particularly suitable for fortepiano or clavichord, but will also be of interest to modern string players performing the original version.
The two-movement quartet for oboe and string trio by Alessandro Rolla was presumed lost, but the autograph score of the work has in fact been held at the Royal Library in Copenhagen since 1929. Thoroughly Classical in terms of its musical language and structure (in spite of some unexpected virtuoso episodes for the violin), the work is a welcome addition to the sparse repertoire of compositions for oboe and strings emanating from early nineteenth-century Italy.
These cantatas show the full range of Albinoni's style, which ranges from the slyly humorous to the deeply impassioned, from music of folk-like simplicity to intricate coloratura and rich chromatic harmony. Those who know only Albinoni's instrumental music may be surprised at the adventurousness of his vocal writing. The edition, which addresses the needs of both performers and scholars, includes a preface, a transcription of the poetic texts with English and German translations, and a critical report.
The second volume of the Fitzwilliam Handeliana series is largely made up of hitherto unfamiliar - and in some cases previously unidentified - 18th-century keyboard arrangements of Handel's music contained in the manuscript collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Viennese composer Luna Alcalay continues to enrich the solo instrumental repertory, on this occasion with a short piece for flute in which she exploits, with her customary mastery, the instrument's rich expressive potential. Skilfully judged variations of dynamics, phrasing, attack and tone colour, often in close succession – en passant ("in passing"), as the title suggests – all combine to create an eight-minute journey full of shifting light and atmosphere.
The Symphony in F minor by Ignaz Pleyel, a pupil of Joseph Haydn and one of the most performed composers of his day, was published in Paris in 1787. Though clearly indebted to Haydn’s “Sturm und Drang” music of the late 1760s and early 1770s, it is nevertheless a work of character, contrasts and individuality, especially the enchanting Minuet, and the Andante grazioso with its muted strings and gently rocking accompaniment.
Haydn appears to have had a particular regard for Celia’s aria “Ah, come il core mi palpita” from his opera La fedeltà premiata, submitting it, with only minor changes, to the Viennese publishing house Artaria, who issued a score and full set of parts in 1782. The title “Cantata”, which Artaria used for the first edition, was the one Haydn chose in his letter recommending separate publication, and it underlines the fact that this is not “merely an aria” from a larger work, but an independent work of art. Indeed, Ah, come il core mi palpita is a remarkable self-contained composition and merits inclusion in any serious concert.
This set of three contrasted sonatas by the German pianist, composer and teacher Johann Baptist Cramer, or "Glorious John", as he was affectionately known in England, was dedicated to Haydn and first published in Vienna in 1799. All three works are models of classical clarity, and Cramer exploits the full range and sonority of the fortepiano, with exact indications of pedalling and dynamics. This new edition also includes useful extracts from his Instructions for the Piano Forte, which explain his ornamentation and markings and even distinguish between the grand piano and the smaller, square piano.
The major inspiration behind this composition is the extraordinary variety of sounds produced by the flute, which numerous contemporary composers and players have exploited, to magical effect, in recent decades. The wide range of harmonics and multiphonics, the varied elements of breath and noise, the special ways of playing the instrument and the inexhaustible possibilities of tone colour are all brought into play in Ming Wang’s strikingly original new work.
Debussy's Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, one of the most profound and frequently performed works of the cello repertoire, is now available for the first time in a highly accomplished transcription for flute and piano. Displaying the composer's characteristic skill in the use of modes, whole-tone and pentatonic scales and brilliant coloration, the Sonata, in this new version prepared by a master executant, loses none of its original impact or integrity and will undoubtedly be attractive to all concert flautists. A significant addition to the chamber music repertoire.
Written for the Wirral Schools' Concert Band in 1987, Strong Winds, Gentle Airs is built, as the title suggests, from two types of material – one forceful and rhythmic, the other more relaxed, with slow-moving, almost static harmonies. In revising the piece for publication, the composer has endeavoured to retain as much of the original character as possible. A performance will take place on 26 November at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
“Duo Economique” calls for two violinists, each with their own bow but reduced to playing on a single fiddle! This unique piece, composed by a colleague of Mozart – Christian Ernst Graaf – has two consolingly melodious movements and requires a certain intimacy between the performers (the score’s Introduction explains all). To watch an amusing performance on YouTube click here
Christian Schwencke’s arrangement of Mozart's Partita, K.361 for a chamber group including piano is one of the most popular works in our @MOZART series. In response to concerns about the frequent page-turns when the pianist plays from the score, we have now issued this piano part.
The five three-part (SSB) and nine four-part (SSTB) dances in this edition represent the complete surviving consort music of Maurice Webster. Webster, a skilled composer with a distinctive style, appears to have been the main catalyst for introducing the 'string quartet' scoring in dance music to England in the 1620s. The development of this idiom had a significant impact on the music of his contemporaries such as Simon Ives, Charles Coleman and William Lawes, who fully embraced it by the 1630s.
A new discovery for cellists - an attractive and lyrical Barcarolle for solo cello with string orchestra and harp by the famous operetta and ballet composer André Messager. The autograph score recently came to light in the USA and is the composer's own adaptation of a Barcarolle for violin and piano he published in 1897. This is a welcome rediscovery for violinists too, for the original version is also included as part of the new edition. Both cellists and violinists will therefore have a choice of either piano or orchestral accompaniment. Messager's Barcarolle represents a substantial addition to the instrumental legacy of a sadly neglected French master.
Ignaz Pleyel was one of the most popular and prolific composers in western Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century. This Symphony in C major was written when he was 21 years old, after he had completed five years of study with Joseph Haydn.
A notable new edition comprising three hitherto unkown harpsichord suites by the French composer Charles Dieupart (c.1667-c.1740). Most of Dieupart's keyboard output is contained in his Six Suittes de Clavessin published in 1701, but alternative versions of a number of pieces in this collection, as well as diverse movements not found elsewhere, exist in two important manuscript sources - one Austrian, the other British. Although Dieupart's harpsichord music is largely French in style, it is clear that the composer was also influenced by German music of the time.
"By producing this edition, harp repertoire has recovered a glorious piece. Well worthy of a place in a concert programme, or as study material for those interested in rediscovering the developing technique that Bochsa was so instrumental in creating, the music is a delight, and this well thought out edition makes it both accessible and legible."
“This flute concerto, the latest in Edition HH's enterprising and rewarding classical series, with its dazzling and uncompromising virtuosity, is a typical example of Devienne's free and ebullient writing. ... This is terrific practice material for any flautist, and would make an impressive competition piece. Jennifer Caesar's edition is beautifully clear, with a minimum of editorial interference.”
“… challenging, but very rewarding to play… this is another exemplary edition from Edition HH, this time of a fascinating re-working of a masterpiece which merits attention in a whole range of contexts.”
“Idiomatic and laudable, with keen attention paid to changes in texture and register ... this version of the concerto has genuine scholarly value and offers insights into the dissemination of Mozart's works. ... It certainly has appeal as a chamber music novelty, or as a very useful alternative means of getting to know the original from the inside.”
Music example Sonata 1 (pdf)
Music example (pdf) 
