Diving into musical genres from around the world, Barbara Snow has produced another colourful and eclectic collection of piano miniatures, with influences from blues, jump jive, ragtime, latin, disco, funk and classical music. Among the sixteen numbers, ‘Who’s Harry?’ transports us to Africa, with a Nigerian afrobeat groove; ‘Jump Jive Jellyfish’ has a catchy swing; the Cuban cha-cha-cha is gracefully danced by some Chickens; Penguins delight in a parade with a ragtime flavour; and in Brazil the holidaying Alpacas cavort to a jazzy samba. Young pianists will love the pieces in More Animal Jazz, which will surely enjoy the same success among players and teachers as Barbara’s first album (Edition HH, 2015).
Composer:Barbara Snow Publication date: October 2023 Instrument: Piano Format: Playing score Series:Contemporary Pages: v/16 ISMN: 979 0 708213 12 3 ISBN: 978 1 914137 60 0 Code:HH597.SOL Price: £9.50 More information
Born in or near Kassel, Frederick Fisher (1711/12–1760) lived for several years in Holland, teaching music from 1741 to 1745 at the university of Leiden, before emigrating to England. After spending about two years in London he settled permanently in Cambridge, where he taught music to members of the local music society. His Op. 1 set of trio sonatas, dedicated to the same society, epitomizes the ‘social’ character of the genre, where individual virtuosity yields its place to amicable interaction between the players. Fisher was a cellist as well as a violinist, and this background is evident in the rare eloquence of his bass lines. The diversity of movement types in these ordinarily three-movement sonatas is very attractive. They include powerful fugues, expansive movements in sonata form, languorous middle movements reminiscent of those in operatic overtures, and a selection of dance movements, all of which mix baroque, galant and classical elements in a convincing synthesis.
VOLUME 1
Composer:Frederich Ernest Fisher Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2023 Instruments: Two violins, violoncello and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: x/23 + 3 x 12 + 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 99 4 ISBN: 978 1 914137 49 5 Code:HH584.FSP Price: £30.00 more information
Composer:Frederich Ernest Fisher Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2023 Instruments: Two violins, violoncello and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: x/24 + 4 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708213 00 0 ISBN: 978 1 914137 50 1 Code:HH585.FSP Price: £31.50 more information
Stanley Sadie’s opinion (1963) that two of Fisher’s twelve trio sonatas — divided equally between Op. 1 (c. 1751) and Op. 2 (c. 1761) — were ‘among the finest of their time’, while some of the others were ‘remarkably inventive and original’, almost sells the composer short. Every single one of these works, scored for two violins, cello and harpsichord, is masterly and deserves a permanent place in the repertoire.
ed. Michael Talbot
* LIVERPOOL PREMIERE * Saturday, 28th October 2023, 7.30pm Great Hall, Hope University, Creative Campus
More Imaginary Folksongs for violin and orchestra is a companion piece to Stephen Pratt’s Three Imaginary Folksongs for clarinet and orchestra composed in 2017. Both were written to feature a member of the orchestra that commissioned the works – firstly, the principal clarinettist Jacqueline Thomas, and now the leader Leo Byrne. As before, the present pieces might be heard as coming from imaginary places, referencing elements of the styles of earlier folksong-inspired composers. The plaintive tone of the first folksong contrasts with the livelier, dance-like patterns of the second.
Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: September 2023 Instrument: Violin and orchestra Format: Study score Duration:c.13' Series:Contemporary Pages: iv/35 ISMN: 979 0 708213 08 6 Code:HH593.SSC Price: £18.00 More information
The Rotterdam-born cellist, composer and music engraver Alexis Magito (1711–1773) was a member of a well-known 18th-century Dutch family of musicians, fairground showmen and acrobats. He studied in Leiden and from 1763 was active in Cambridge, England, giving concerts with the Dutch violinist Pieter Hellendaal and the double bass player John Wynne, among others. The Six cello sonatas, Op. 1, were published by Wynne around 1759 and were probably engraved by Magito himself. He died in London, ‘a man very eminent in his profession, and generally respected’ (Cambridge Chronicle, October 1773). 2023 marks the 250th anniversary of his death.
VOLUME 1
Composer:Alexis Magito Editor:Elske Tinbergen Publication date: September 2023 Instruments: Violoncello and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/23 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708213 03 1 ISBN: 978 1 914137 53 2 Code:HH588.FSP Price: £23.00 more information
Magito is the five-times great-uncle of British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who discovered his long-forgotten ancestor during research for a programme in the BBC TV series Who Do You Think You Are? (Season 20, June 2023). The editor of the present edition played extracts of Magito's first sonata for him during the filming.
Henry Holcombe (1690–1756), born in Chester as the son of a silk weaver, was from 1720 until his death one of the leading English composers of small-scale vocal and instrumental works. His lifelong interest in Italian language and music led him to produce a charming set of twelve Italian canzonets, published in 1753, for high male or female voice. Unusually for the genre, the texts are drawn from arias in operatic librettos rather than from purpose-written poetry. Although these songs are well suited to both domestic and concert use, short sequences would prove ideal in solo recitals, while individual items would make excellent ‘encore’ material.
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Niccolò Piccinni (1728–1800) was one of the most significant figures in Italian and French opera during the second half of the 18th century. His Diane et Endymion, a three-act tragédie lyrique based on the mythological tale of love between a goddess and a shepherd, was first performed in Paris in 1784. The overture reveals the composer’s mastery in capturing both the grandeur and intimacy of the drama. After a stately introduction, graceful melodies and lively contrasting sections with vibrant orchestration set the tone for an enchanting and emotional musical journey. read more
Very few instrumental compositions by Antonio Lotti (1667–1740) have survived. Best known is an oboe d’amore concerto in A major, until recently his sole identified work in the concerto genre. Now another concerto by him has turned up (discovered in Lund, Sweden), this time for ordinary oboe. Although the manuscript parts are anonymous, Lotti’s authorship is beyond doubt: first, all three movements are arrangements of arias for soprano appearing in two of his operas written for Dresden; second, the use of da capo aria form for all three movements links the new concerto directly with the oboe d’amore concerto, which may well be a similar pasticcio. The new work, in G minor, is more lyrical than virtuoso in character and every bit as attractive as its A major counterpart. It deserves to become an essential part of the baroque repertoire for the oboe.
OBOE SOLO
Composer:Antonio Lotti Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: July 2023 Instruments: Oboe, strings and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/13 + 5 x 4 ISMN: 979 0 708185 94 9 ISBN: 978 1 914137 43 3 Code:HH580.FSP Price: £18.00 more information
Boismortier’s Op. 29 may well have been the first set of sonatas written specifically for two oboes without bass ever to appear in print. Similar in style and form to the various sets of sonatas for two flutes without bass that the composer had already published prior to 1730, Op. 29 also drew inspiration from the relationship between the oboe and the military that had existed since the time of Lully. These virtually unknown sonatas are more than competently written for the baroque (and modern) instrument, and they constitute a hitherto neglected treasure within the sparse repertory of works intended for a pair of unaccompanied oboes.
‘Shine Perishing Republic’ is perhaps the most anthologized of all the works by American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962). Its Whitmanesque tone and rhetoric are here reflected in a sonata-like first movement form. Influenced by the paintings of Jackson Pollock, the composer wished to saturate his musical canvas with explosive, emotive events.
‘Evening Ebb’ is a nature scene. Musical metaphors – symmetrical chords, inversion structures and canons – are used to to suggest the qualities of sea and reflected sky described so beautifully in the poem. Paradoxically, in spite of these musical conceits, the music floats impressionistically, for the most part in stasis, only developing in a clear direction towards the end.
Composer:Timothy Raymond Publication date: June 2023 Instrument: Soprano and Piano Format: Full score Duration:c.16' Series:Contemporary Pages: xii/24 ISMN: 979 0 708185 98 7 Code:HH583.FSC Price: £15.00 More information
Henry Holcombe (1690–1756), born in Chester as the son of a silk weaver, became between 1720 and his death one of the leading English composers in small-scale forms, mainly vocal but also instrumental. His most substantial contribution in the second category was a set of six sonatas for violin and basso continuo published in 1745 alongside shorter sonatas for other instruments.
VOLUME 1
Composer:Henry Holcombe Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: June 2023 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/28 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 93 2 ISBN: 978 1 914137 45 7 Code:HH577.FSP Price: £26.00 more information
In these sonatas he betrays his Italian leanings and especially his debt to the Italian violinist Carbonelli, who was his friend and possibly also teacher. Mixed in with the Italian elements are ones taken from English song, where Holcombe excelled. The result is a fascinating stylistic synthesis and a valuable contribution to violin literature.
MOZART’S ‘Prague’ Symphony arranged for piano by HUMMEL
In early December 1786 Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro was performed at the National Theatre in Prague and was an immediate success. According to a Prague newspaper review, “No piece (so every one here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation as the Italian opera Die Hochzeit des Figaro, which has already been given several times here with unlimited applause.” Mozart was duly invited to the Bohemian capital, arriving on 11 January 1787 and lodging at the palace of Count Thun-Hohenstein, dedicatee of the “Linz” symphony. Six days later Figaro was performed in the composer’s presence, and on 19 January, at a benefit concert at the National Theatre, Mozart conducted the premiere of the present symphony, since universally known as the “Prague” (the score was completed the previous December). Hummel’s masterful arrangement is dedicated to “His Excellency Baron von Goethe”.
Editor:Sarah Jenner Publication date: May 2023 Instruments: Pianoforte Format: Playing score Duration:c.36' Series:@Mozart Pages: xiii/27h ISMN: 979 0 708185 80 2 ISBN: 978 1 914137 34 1 Code:HH565.SOL Price: £16.50 more information
Jean-Xavier Lefèvre’s Clarinet Method, published at the beginning of the 19th century, contains a number of sonatas that are significant stepping-stones to the more difficult clarinet masterworks of Mozart and Weber. They are also invaluable first pieces for those studying period performance on the classical clarinet. Lefèvre’s original notation for the instrument has been retained, and the bass lines are transposed down a tone so that the sonatas are playable on the B flat clarinet. The piano accompaniments, whose right-hand parts have been realized from a single, unfigured bass line probably intended for the cello, are stylistic, always complementary to the clarinet line, and satisfying (if occasionally challenging) to play. read more
VOLUME 4
Composer:Jean-Xavier Lefèvre Editor:Nicholas Cox Publication date: May 2023 Instruments: Clarinet and piano Format: Full score and part Series:Classical Pages: xiv/39 + 24 ISMN: 979 0 708185 77 2 ISBN: 978 1 914137 30 3 Code:HH562.FSP Price: £30.00 more information
The oboist Philip Peter Eiffert (d. 1793) was one of many German musicians who enriched London’s musical scene during the 18th century. Probably starting out as a military bandsman, he came to England in the 1740s and was soon to play a prominent role in the musical life of the capital, also contributing to the concerts of Oxford’s musical society. He left two published collections: six sonatas for cello (1761) and six for flute (1769). These exquisite works, written in an early Classical style not unlike that of Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach, in whose circle Eiffert moved, show a pronounced compositional flair and a deep understanding of the technique and character of each solo instrument.
VOLUME 1
Composer:Philip Peter Eiffert Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: April 2023 Instruments: Violoncello and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:@Mozart Pages: xii/32 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 87 1 ISBN: 978 1 914137 41 9 Code:HH572.FSP Price: £27.00 more information
Composer:Philip Peter Eiffert Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: April 2023 Instruments: Violoncello and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:@Mozart Pages: xiii/30 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 88 8 ISBN: 978 1 914137 42 6 Code:HH573.FSP Price: £27.00 more information
The cello sonatas, now published for the first time in a modern edition, are all in three or four movements. Bubbling with life, they have moments of great drama, particularly in the development sections of the sonata-form movements. The expressive depth of their slow movements is equally impressive. Ignored for too long, Eiffert deserves respect, recognition and, above all, a chance for his music to be heard again.
Galuppi’s secular vocal chamber music comprises at least around ten works, in varied vocal and instrumental combinations, and belongs mostly to his final creative period. These compositions are of great interest both on account of the intrinsic quality of their texts and through the artistic maturity of the composer. read more
The two cantatas published here, La scusa (1780) and La gelosia (1782) for alto/contralto and strings, are based on poetic texts by Pietro Metastasio. The arias in particular, highly representative of Galuppi’s style, are conspicuous for their melodic beauty and for the inventiveness of their orchestral accompaniments. In this edition, which comprises a score and separate parts, the editors have reconstructed a number of passages in which the composer failed to write in the viola part. A sample realization of the basso continuo is also provided.
Giuseppe Valentini (1681–1753) was one of the few Italian composers contemporary with Vivaldi who wrote concertos featuring wind instruments. Two oboe concertos by him have been known for a long time. In 2022 Michael Talbot discovered a hitherto unknown third concerto, in G minor. It is preserved anonymously in a Swedish collection, but Valentini’s authorship is evident from the fact that all its movements are skilful adaptations, clearly made by the composer himself, of individual movements from two of his string concertos published in Op. 7 (1710). The concerto is typically Roman in scoring, lacking a viola part, and is equally suitable for performance in ‘chamber’ fashion, with one instrument to a part, or in ‘orchestral’ fashion, with doubled string parts. It is highly characterful, with moments of great expressive power, and of only moderate difficulty for the soloist. read more
NEWLY DISCOVERED
Composer:Giuseppe Valentini Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: February 2023 Instruments: Oboe, two violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/15 + 4x4 ISMN: 979 0 708185 86 4 ISBN: 978 1 914137 40 2 Code:HH571.FSP Price: £18.00 more information
At the end of July 1783 Mozart returned to Salzburg (after an absence of nearly three years) to introduce his wife to his father and sister. On 31 October, during his return journey to Vienna with Constanze, Mozart writes to Leopold:
“When we reached the gates of Linz [...] we found a servant waiting there to drive us to old Count Thun’s, at whose house we are now staying. I really can’t tell you what kindnesses the family are showering on us. On Tuesday, November 4th, I am giving a concert in the theatre here and, as I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at breakneck speed, which must be finished by that time. Well, I must close, because I really must set to work.”
If we follow Mozart’s account literally – and there is no reason why we should not – it thus took him barely five days to compose, supervise the copying of the orchestral parts and (presumably) to rehearse the new symphony in time for its first performance in honour of his host.
As with his accomplished arrangements of Mozart’s piano concertos, Hummel’s mastery is evident on every page of the ‘Linz’ Symphony.
Editor:Sarah Jenner Publication date: February 2023 Instruments: Pianoforte Format: Playing score Duration:c.26' Series:@Mozart Pages: xi/30 ISMN: 979 0 708185 79 6 ISBN: 978 1 914137 33 4 Code:HH564.SOL Price: £16.50 more information
German-born Henri-Joseph Rigel (Heinrich Joseph Riegel, 1741–1799) fully deserved the high reputation he enjoyed as a composer, pianist and teacher in Paris from the mid-1760s to the end of his life. He composed in a wide variety of genres, winning great acclaim for his symphonies, string quartets, oratorios, operas, and keyboard music with or without accompanying instruments. He was a leading figure in the adoption of the piano in Parisian public concerts. Mozart, who visited Paris in 1778, may well have met him, and there are some striking parallels in the keyboard writing of the two composers. read more
Rigel’s keyboard music is a relatively neglected area within his oeuvre and deserves to be much better known, by players and listeners alike. The appearance of this new two-volume edition of his first published collection – a set of six sonatas for solo harpsichord or piano issued in 1767 – should help to remedy the lack of familiarity with this appealing repertoire. For these are highly idiomatic works, displaying the richness and pan-European character of the composer’s musical inheritance. In them we hear a blend of influences drawn from the Italian tradition of galant keyboard music, the drama-filled world of the German symphony and the intimate milieu of French pièces de clavecin.
MOZART’S ‘Haffner’ Symphony arranged for piano by HUMMEL
The ‘Haffner’ Symphony was composed at the request of Leopold Mozart for the ennoblement celebrations of Wolfgang’s childhood friend Sigmund Haffner on 29 July 1782 in Salzburg. Mozart was under considerable pressure at the time, occupied not only with preparations for the premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail on 16 July, but also with arrangements for his forthcoming marriage to Constanze on 4 August. It is unclear from the surviving evidence (the relevant correspondence between Wolfgang and Leopold for this period is incomplete) whether the work arrived at Salzburg in time for the Haffner event. The Symphony was first performed in Vienna, under Mozart’s direction, at the Hofburgtheater on 23 March 1783 in the presence of the Emperor.
Editor:Sarah Jenner Publication date: December 2022 Instruments: Pianoforte Format: Playing score Duration:c.23' Series:@Mozart Pages: xii/24 ISMN: 979 0 708185 75 8 ISBN: 978 1 914137 32 7 Code:HH560.SOL Price: £15.00 more information
Jean-Xavier Lefèvre’s Clarinet Method, published at the beginning of the 19th century, contains a number of sonatas that are significant stepping-stones to the more difficult clarinet masterworks of Mozart and Weber. They are also invaluable first pieces for those studying period performance on the classical clarinet. Lefèvre’s original notation for the instrument has been retained, and the bass lines are transposed down a tone so that the sonatas are playable on the B flat clarinet. The piano accompaniments, whose right-hand parts have been realized from a single, unfigured bass line probably intended for the cello, are stylistic, always complementary to the clarinet line, and satisfying (if occasionally challenging) to play. read more
VOLUME 3
Composer:Jean-Xavier Lefèvre Editor:Nicholas Cox Publication date: December 2022 Instruments: Clarinet and piano Format: Full score and part Series:Classical Pages: xiv/31 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708185 76 5 ISBN: 978 1 914137 29 7 Code:HH561.FSP Price: £24.00 more information
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755), sometimes referred to as the ‘French Telemann’, was perhaps the most prolific and experimental composer working in France during the period 1724–47. Ironically, until recently his posthumous reputation, like that of his German counterpart, suffered on account of his extensive output and from the fact that a considerable number of his compositions were written for amateurs. These are the very aspects that today play a part in the rediscovery of his music: not only are many works of value yet to be explored, but their not unreasonable technical demands make them accessible to a widely diverse group of musicians.read more
The first instrumental compositions Boismortier published were sonatas for two transverse flutes without bass, of which he wrote eight sets. They document both his development as a composer and the early evolution of the genre itself. The Six Sonates pour II Flutes traversieres Sans Baße Op. 47 (1733) — his last surviving set of such works — are ostensibly in the ‘Italian’ style. The dance-heavy format of the earlier ‘French’ sonatas has been abandoned, and structurally they reflect the influence of Telemann’s Sonates sans Basse à deux Flutes traveres [sic] (the second of their four movements is always a fugue). Set in tonalities comfortable for the baroque flute, these virtually unknown duets are expertly written for the one-keyed instrument and are richly rewarding to perform.
The oboist Philip Peter Eiffert (d. 1793) was one of the many German musicians who enriched the London musical scene during the eighteenth century. He probably started out as a military bandsman and came to England in the 1740s, soon winning an important place in the capital’s musical life and also contributing to the concerts of Oxford’s musical society. He left two published collections, containing six sonatas for cello (1761) and flute (1769), respectively. These twelve exquisite works, written in an early Classical style not unlike that of Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach, in whose circle Eiffert moved, show a pronounced flair for composition and a deep understanding of the technique and character of each solo instrument. read more
VOLUME 1
Composer:Philip Peter Eiffert Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: October 2022 Instruments: Flute and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:@Mozart Pages: xv/29 + 16 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 73 4 ISBN: 978 1 914137 26 6 Code:HH558.FSP Price: £32.00 more information
The flute sonatas, now published in a modern edition for the first time, are all three-movement works. They bubble with life and have moments of great drama, particularly in the development sections of the sonata-form movements. The expressive depth of their slow movements is equally impressive. Ignored for too long, Eiffert deserves respect, recognition and, above all, a chance for his music to be heard again.
CHOIR DIRECTORS:
A NEW ADVENT MOTET AND A SET OF RESPONSES FOR CHORAL EVENSONG
This simple, short four-part setting of Rorate caeli — the introit for the Fourth Sunday of Advent — captures both the hope and intimacy traditionally associated with this particular season of the Church Year. With its haunting, cascading phrases, it is a valuable addition to the Advent repertoire. The introit can be sung liturgically but would also make a beautiful contribution to an Advent or a Christmas concert, its warm harmonies leading the listener from darkness to the light-filled spirit of Christmas.
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RORATE CAELI
Composer:Emma Brown Publication date: September 2022 Instruments: SATB Format: choral score Duration:c.2' Pages: 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 78 9 Code:HH563.CHS Price: £1.80 More information
These vibrant Preces and Responses, including the Lord’s Prayer, are a refreshing addition to the Anglican choral evensong repertoire. The composer has approached the text as prayers, sometimes highlighting exultation, sometimes vulnerability. The scoring for SATB divisi is not too challenging, and the cantor's part can be sung either in the standard chanted rhythm or in the suggested metrical rhythm (depending on the singer’s ability). College and cathedral choirs in particular will welcome Emma Brown’s fine new setting.
This substantial trio sonata, the only one of its type that Mascitti published (and perhaps wrote) was included in his Op. 6 collection (Paris, 1722), where it was preceded by fourteen ordinary violin sonatas. It takes its place among a small but musically very distinguished group of late baroque sonatas for the same combination, which includes examples by Torelli, Vivaldi and Leclair. The constant dialoguing between high and middle registers that is inherent in the scoring produces a fascinating kaleidoscope of sound. read more
TRIO SONATA
Composer:Michele Mascitti Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: August 2022 Instruments: Violin, violoncello (bass viol) and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/13 + 3 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 68 0 ISBN: 978 1 914137 22 8 Code:HH553.FSP Price: £23.00 more information
The ‘divertissement’ Psiché, a ten-movement suite for violin and basso continuo by Michele Mascitti (1663/4–1760), the Neapolitan violinist who did more than anyone else to acclimatize the Italian sonata to a French setting, is unique among his works in having a programmatic basis. It depicts episodes from the famous romantic story of Psyche and Cupid as related in the Latin novel generally known by the name The Golden Ass by the second-century author Apuleius. At the same time, this is Mascitti’s most overt homage to his adoptive country, since several movements in it go further in the direction of the French style than anything else from his pen. It expresses among other things Cupid’s rage at Psyche’s discovery of his identity, her airborne travel powered by the winds and the tenderness between the two lovers after their reconciliation. This is a very original and immediately attractive work.
Anton Stadler’s works for solo clarinet are collected into a single volume for the first time and include hitherto unpublished music. Three Caprices and three Fantaisies are selections of popular contemporary tunes, laced together with virtuoso clarinet writing. Sets of variations, also based on popular themes, display a compendium of classical clarinet technique. These solos offer the modern player a challenging workout in the instrumental idioms of Mozart’s friend and clarinettist. read more
SOLOS
Composer:Anton Stadler Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: July 2022 Instruments: Clarinet solo Format: Playing score Series:@Mozart Pages: xiv/37 ISMN: 979 0 708185 65 9 ISBN: 978 1 914137 20 4 Code:HH550.SOL Price: £19.50 more information
Composer:Anton Stadler Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: July 2022 Instruments: Two clarinets Format: Full score and parts Series:@Mozart Pages: xiii/54 + 2 x 60 ISMN: 979 0 708185 66 6 ISBN: 978 1 914137 21 1 Code:HH551.FSP Price: £56.00 more information
Anton Stadler’s duos for clarinet are collected into a single volume for the first time and include hitherto unpublished music. Six Duettinos afford the opportunity for clarinettists to perform a range of short movements in different tempos and styles, with the distinction between first and second clarinet writing being consistently maintained. The six Duo Concertantes are more democratic in their treatment of the two instruments, with equal distribution of solos and accompaniments. These duos offer a window onto the instrumental idioms and musical language of Mozart’s friend and clarinettist.
“Anton Stadler’s Solos for Clarinet and and Duos for Clarinet, edited by Martin Harlow, are excellent contributions to the clarinet’s repertoire. They include four impressive and technically challenging solos and two musically attractive sets of duos, by the most outstanding clarinettist of the late eighteenth century. The introduction, editing, and textual notes are accurate and scholarly—both editions are highly recommended to all clarinetists.
Albert R. Rice, clarinettist and author.
“Martin Harlow offers some important new insights into the vicissitudes of freelance performers during Mozart’s lifetime. The cultural milieu of Anton Stadler’s small-scale compositions is particularly well caught, offering an inspirational context for today’s performers of these editions.”
Colin Lawson, clarinettist, author and educator
Published together in 2016, Christian Hartmann’s two piano miniatures have been among our best-selling and greatly appreciated scores. Reviewing them in Pianodao, Andrew Eales wrote: “I love these two little pieces, and I am sure many late intermediate players will enjoy them equally.
They are traditional in the best sense, while the harmonies of the Nocturne in particular have a more contemporary flavour that will nicely appeal to today’s students and players.”
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Barbara Snow’s piano collection for beginner pianists, originally published in 2015, is another best-seller. Andrew Eales (Pianodao) writes: “What impresses me most with this collection is the way in which the composer is able to introduce so much character to each of these highly accessible pieces, but without adding unnecessary complexity in the process.
I can highly recommend ‘Animal Jazz’ as a thoroughly charming collection of jazzy pieces, and suspect my own younger students are going to love it!”
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Jean-Xavier Lefèvre’s Clarinet Method, published at the beginning of the 19th century, contains a number of sonatas that are significant stepping-stones to the more difficult clarinet master works of Mozart and Weber. They are also invaluable first pieces for those studying period performance on the classical clarinet. Lefèvre’s original notation for the instrument has been retained, and the bass lines are transposed down a tone so that the sonatas are playable on the B flat clarinet. The piano accompaniments, whose right-hand parts have been realized from a single, unfigured bass line probably intended for the cello, are stylistic, always complementary to the clarinet line, and satisfying (if occasionally challenging) to play. read more
VOLUME 1
Composer:Jean-Xavier Lefèvre Editor:Nicholas Cox Publication date: June 2022 Instruments: Clarinet and piano Format: Full score and part Series:Classical Pages: xiv/31 + 20 ISMN: 979 0 708185 54 3 ISBN: 978 1 914137 11 2 Code:HH539.FSP Price: £24.00 more information
Composer:Jean-Xavier Lefèvre Editor:Nicholas Cox Publication date: June 2022 Instruments: Clarinet and piano Format: Full score and part Series:Classical Pages: xii/29 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708185 70 3 ISBN: 978 1 914137 23 5 Code:HH555.FSP Price: £22.50 more information
It is not often that previously unknown instrumental compositions by Albinoni (1671–1751) turn up, but Michael Talbot recently found two violin sonatas – one from the very start of his career and the other from the period of his maturity – among the anonymous manuscripts of the Este Collection in the Austrian National Library. Both sonatas originate from the collection of Niccolò Sanguinazzo, an amateur musician resident in Padua, and one of them may well have been written for the court of Mantua. Talbot’s attribution of the sonatas to Albinoni, which draws on his very extensive knowledge of this highly individual composer, is based on contextual, structural and stylistic criteria. The probably earlier work, in G minor, is similar in character to some four-part balletti in the same collection and is particularly interesting for some cantata-like features in its opening movement. The other sonata, in B flat major and resembling the works published in Albinoni’s Op. 6 (1712), is noteworthy for the finely chiselled melodic lines of its slow movements and sparkling passage-work in the quick ones. Both sonatas are attractive additions to the Albinonian canon.
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Composer:Tomaso Albinoni Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: May 2022 Instruments: Violin and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xii/20 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 62 8 ISBN: 978 1 914137 18 1 Code:HH547.FSP Price: £16.00 more information
Henry Burgess (1718–1786) takes credit for being the first English composer to publish a set of concertos for a keyboard instrument (organ or harpsichord) in the wake of Handel’s Op. 4 set of 1738 (those by Burgess appeared five years later). This fact has long been recognized, yet, strangely enough, until recently there has been no detailed investigation of the composer’s life or music. Even more surprising, given the originality, variety of expression and sheer enjoyability of Burgess’s concertos, is the lack of a modern edition. This void is now being filled, bringing into the public arena music that is eminently practical: relatively simple to play — albeit brilliant in effect — and performable with or without accompanying orchestra (in the latter case with or without a separate continuo player), and with a choice of organ (manuals only) or harpsichord as solo instrument. read more
Composer:Henry Burgess, Junior Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: May 2022 Instruments: Harpsichord or organ, strings and basso continuo Format: Full score Series:Baroque Pages: xii/31 ISMN: 979 0 708185 61 1 ISBN: 978 1 914137 17 4 Code:HH546.FSC Price: £16.00 more information
Henry Burgess (1718–1786) takes credit for being the first English composer to publish a set of concertos for a keyboard instrument (organ or harpsichord) in the wake of Handel’s Op. 4 set of 1738 (those by Burgess appeared five years later). This fact has long been recognized, yet, strangely enough, until recently there has been no detailed investigation of the composer’s life or music. Even more surprising, given the originality, variety of expression and sheer enjoyability of Burgess’s concertos, is the lack of a modern edition. This void is now being filled, bringing into the public arena music that is eminently practical: relatively simple to play — albeit brilliant in effect — and performable with or without accompanying orchestra (in the latter case with or without a separate continuo player), and with a choice of organ (manuals only) or harpsichord as solo instrument. read more
Composer:Henry Burgess, Junior Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: April 2022 Instruments: Harpsichord or organ, strings and basso continuo Format: Full score Series:Baroque Pages: xii/36 ISMN: 979 0 708185 60 4 ISBN: 978 1 914137 16 7 Code:HH545.FSC Price: £16.00 more information
For the first movement of his Symphony No. 63 ‘La Roxelane’ Haydn reworked the overture to his opera Il mondo della luna, originally written for the 1777 season at Esterháza; he reduced the instrumentation and made some necessary structural adjustments to suit the new symphonic setting. The second movement, headed ‘Roxelane Allegretto’, is a set of variations on the French melody ‘La Roxelane’; it is an early example of the composer’s favoured double-variation form of contrasting major- and minor-key sections. Roxelane herself is the leading female character in Les trois sultanes, a stage play by Charles-Simon Favart performed in German translation at Esterháza in that same year, most likely with incidental music by Haydn. The symphony’s Menuetto and concluding Finale Presto were (as far as we know) newly composed rather than making use of recycled theatrical music.
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Francesco Antonio Pistocchi (1659–1726) was a renowned singer, composer and pedagogue mainly active in Bologna. His extensive output comprises works in many different genres, but the cantatas in particular were appreciated in his day for their high artistic merit, combining qualities such as dexterous imitative part-writing, the use of rigorous counterpoint, expressive arioso writing and the exquisite sensitivity with which the composer depicted the meaning of the poetic texts. The cantata Pallidetta viola, dating from around the turn of the 17th century and preserved in five non-autograph manuscript sources (the musical text has a somewhat complex transmission), is a notably experimental and unusual composition. It will be the task of today’s performers to restore this splendid work to the wide appreciation it enjoyed during Pistocchi’s lifetime. read more
These previously unnoticed chamber duets for various pairs of voices and basso continuo are among the most original compositions from the pen of Diogenio Bigaglia (1678–1745), the Venetian monk who was also a skilled and imaginative composer. They are set to texts taken from the famously chromatic madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo published over a century earlier. The purpose of this choice was not to commemorate Gesualdo but to assemble a homogeneous group of short poems suitable for Bigaglia’s evident main aim, which was to produce a cycle of vocal duets imitating the structural layout and musical processes of the contemporary trio sonata. The result demonstrates his absolute mastery of all the elements of music: melody, harmony, counterpoint, modulation, form and (because this is vocal music) word-painting. read more
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: March 2022 Instruments: Two altos and basso continuo | alto, bass and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/24 + 2 x 12 + 8 + 4 ISMN: 979 0 708185 58 1 ISBN: 978 1 914137 14 3 Code:HH543.FSP Price: £26.00 more information
The Quartet for flute and strings in C major (c. 1827) by itinerant flute virtuoso Louis Drouët (1792–1873) belongs to a genre that had seen its heyday in the late 1770s and early 1780s, yet the work shares few characteristics with its Classical predecessors. Fundamentally it is a light-hearted showpiece for the flute in which the strings are relegated to an accompanying role. Set in four movements — the first a sonata-allegro; the second a relatively brief adagio; the third ostensibly a minuetto and trio but in reality a scherzo; the fourth a rondo — the quartet is very much a product of its time, when musical considerations frequently took second place to instrumental technique and bravura. However, the piece’s deceptively demanding flute part also features episodes that reveal the composer’s undeniable melodic gifts, with the result that this work is both rewarding to perform and most enjoyable to listen to. read more
Composer:Louis Drouët Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: February 2022 Instruments: Flute, violin, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Series:Classical Pages: xii/28 + 20 + 2x12 + 16 ISMN: 979 0 708185 63 5 ISBN: 978 1 914137 19 8 Code:HH548.FSP Price: £33.00 more information
The texts of Jeremy Arden’s four settings are taken from the Exeter Book, a 10th-century collection of poetry in Old English that is generally acknowledged to be one of the great works of the English Benedictine Revival. Included within the anthology are more than ninety riddles and kennings, the latter belonging to an ancient tradition of learning through memorable metaphor, a technique much valued in the Anglo-Saxon world. The kennings presented here, scored for three soprano/treble voices and piano, include an element of theatre. On occasion a singer is required to play a few notes on a violin, or must strike a bell to imitate a six-o’clock chime; the violin part is simply a means of providing a clue (no precision necessary!), the singer-player waving the bow and helping the audience ‘guess my name’. Read more
Composer:Jeremy Arden Publication date: February 2022 Instruments: Three sopranos (treble voices) and piano Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.12' Pages: vi/13 + 2x4 + 2 ISMN: 979 0 708185 67 3 Code:HH552.FSP Price: £13.00 More information
Mater tenera (‘tender mother’) is an intimate six-part motet which would enhance any Advent or Christmas service or choral programme, and would also be suitable for Marian Feasts. The piece is characterized by haunting, lullaby-like motives and harmonies, evoking light coming out of darkness.
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Composer:Emma Brown Publication date: January 2022 Instruments: SSATBB Format: choral score Duration:c.7'30'' Pages: 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 64 2 Code:HH549.CHS Price: £3.90 More information
These previously unnoticed chamber duets for various pairs of voices and basso continuo are among the most original compositions from the pen of Diogenio Bigaglia (1678–1745), the Venetian monk who was also a skilled and imaginative composer. They are set to texts taken from the famously chromatic madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo published over a century earlier. The purpose of this choice was not to commemorate Gesualdo but to assemble a homogeneous group of short poems suitable for Bigaglia’s evident main aim, which was to produce a cycle of vocal duets imitating the structural layout and musical processes of the contemporary trio sonata. The result demonstrates his absolute mastery of all the elements of music: melody, harmony, counterpoint, modulation, form and (because this is vocal music) word-painting. read more
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: January 2022 Instruments: Soprano, alto and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/24 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 57 4 ISBN: 978 1 914137 13 6 Code:HH542.FSP Price: £26.00 more information
These sonatas by English Baroque composer and flautist Lewis Granom are notable not only for their melodic writing, which shows great independence of thought, but also for their technical advances — Granom pushed the boundaries of flute technique further than ever before. The freedom and brilliance evident in the virtuoso, highly ornamented solo part is unique in English flute sonatas of the period; and the range of notes required is exceptional — for the first time, flute players in England were required to venture up to g'''.
Composer:Lewis Granom Editor:Helen Crown Publication date: December 2021 Instruments: Flute & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/53 + 28 + 24 ISMN: 979 0 708185 50 5 ISBN: 978 1 914137 10 5 Code:HH536.FSP Price: £34.00 more information
These previously unnoticed chamber duets for various pairs of voices and basso continuo are among the most original compositions from the pen of Diogenio Bigaglia (1678–1745), the Venetian monk who was also a skilled and imaginative composer. They are set to texts taken from the famously chromatic madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo published over a century earlier. The purpose of this choice was not to commemorate Gesualdo but to assemble a homogeneous group of short poems suitable for Bigaglia’s evident main aim, which was to produce a cycle of vocal duets imitating the structural layout and musical processes of the contemporary trio sonata. The result demonstrates his absolute mastery of all the elements of music: melody, harmony, counterpoint, modulation, form and (because this is vocal music) word-painting. read more
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: December 2021 Instruments: Two sopranos and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/24 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 55 0 ISBN: 978 1 914137 12 9 Code:HH540.FSP Price: £26.00 more information
To mark Stephen Pratt's fiftieth year of teaching at Liverpool Hope University, a concert of his works was held in June 2021 as part of the University’s Angel Field Festival, to which Stephen was honoured and delighted to contribute a new piece, In Hope. The premiere was given by the outstanding Pixels Ensemble — musicians, friends and colleagues with whom the composer has enjoyed many past collaborations and to whom the piece is dedicated.
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Composer:Stephen Pratt Publication date: November 2021 Instruments: Flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass clarinet), marimba (glockenspiel), violin, violoncello, piano Format: Full score and parts Series:contemporary Pages: vi/16 + 4 x 4 + 2 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 53 6 Code:HH538.FSP Price: £20.00 more information
These previously unnoticed chamber duets for various pairs of voices and basso continuo are among the most original compositions from the pen of Diogenio Bigaglia (1678–1745), the Venetian monk who was also a skilled and imaginative composer. They are set to texts taken from the famously chromatic madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo published over a century earlier. The purpose of this choice was not to commemorate Gesualdo but to assemble a homogeneous group of short poems suitable for Bigaglia’s evident main aim, which was to produce a cycle of vocal duets imitating the structural layout and musical processes of the contemporary trio sonata. The result demonstrates his absolute mastery of all the elements of music: melody, harmony, counterpoint, modulation, form and (because this is vocal music) word-painting. read more
Composer:Diogenio Bigaglia Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: November 2021 Instruments: Two sopranos and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/25 + 2 x 12 + 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 48 2 ISBN: 978 1 914137 09 9 Code:HH535.FSP Price: £25.00 more information
True Self is a monothematic composition in three movements. The title was inspired by various sources: the words of the Buddha, who proclaimed ‘true self’ as one of the four noble qualities along with purity, eternity and happiness; the Delphic Maxim ‘know thyself’, inscribed above the door to the temple of Apollo and put into the mouth of Socrates by his disciple Plato; and the rationalist philosophers of the European Enlightenment who established the idea of the individual possessing an interior truth.
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Composer:Jeremy Arden Publication date: October 2021 Instruments: Violin, violoncello, piano Format: Full score and parts Series:contemporary Pages: vi/37 + 8 + 12 + 24 ISMN: 979 0 708185 51 2 Code:HH537.FSP Price: £29.50 more information
On 3 April 1827 a service was held in Vienna’s Augustinerkirche to commemorate the death of Beethoven eight days earlier. This occasion, which included a performance of Mozart’s Requiem, presented an opportunity for the Viennese musician Ignaz von Seyfried (1776–1841) to provide a specially written ‘Libera me’, which was one of the Requiem Mass texts that Mozart did not set. Seyfried’s offering was perfectly suited to Mozart’s unfinished work: it is in the same key of D minor, is scored for similar SATB forces, and matches Mozart’s distinctive orchestral sonority. This ‘Libera me’ setting was widely used in nineteenth-century Vienna, both in its original version for voices and instruments, and for voices and organ alone. The present edition allows for both types of performance.
Ignaz Pleyel’s numerous chamber compositions include a set of three quintets for the infrequently encountered ensemble of flute, oboe, violin, viola and cello/bass. First published in 1788 as the composer’s Op. 18, the quintets were quickly taken up by various publishers throughout Europe. Today they are all but forgotten.
As one might expect of music by Pleyel, the Op. 18 quintets are imbued with appealing melodies and pleasing harmonies. They are also surprisingly inventive in terms of their combination of instrumental timbres, despite the limits imposed by the reduced scoring. Technically, they are not especially difficult, although a number of solo episodes for the flute, oboe, violin and viola are not without challenge.
These works are highly suitable for programmes featuring mixed wind and string chamber music, and would make perfect companion pieces to Classical quartets or quintets by, for example, Mozart, Haydn, Boccherini or Cambini.
Composer:Ignaz Pleyel Editor:Michael Elphinstone Publication date: September 2021 Instruments: Flute, oboe, violin, viola, violoncello/bass Format: Full score and parts Series:@HAYDN Pages: xv/53 + 2 x 16 + 3 x 20 ISMN: 979 0 708185 28 4 ISBN: 978 1 910359 99 0 Code:HH518.FSP Price: £48.00 more information
The Six Trio Sonatas of the Italian composer and violinist Michele Mascitti (1663/4–1760), published alongside eight violin sonatas in his Op. 4, are four- or five-movement works that felicitously mix the ‘church’ and ‘chamber’ styles in various configurations. This is the most ‘social’ music imaginable and will give great enjoyment in both a recreational and a concert setting.
Composer:Michele Mascitti Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: September 2021 Instruments: Two violins & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xi/24 + 3 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 36 9 ISBN: 978 1 914137 04 4 Code:HH527.FSP Price: £29.50 more information
These sonatas by English Baroque composer and flautist Lewis Granom are notable not only for their melodic writing, which shows great independence of thought, but also for their technical advances — Granom pushed the boundaries of flute technique further than ever before. The freedom and brilliance evident in the virtuoso, highly ornamented solo part is unique in English flute sonatas of the period; and the range of notes required is exceptional — for the first time, flute players in England were required to venture up to g'''.
Composer:Lewis Granom Editor/reconstruction:Helen Crown Publication date: August 2021 Instruments: Flute & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: ix/55 + 32 + 24 ISMN: 979 0 708185 35 2 ISBN: 978 1 914137 03 7 Code:HH524.FSP Price: £35.00 more information
Anton Eberl’s Sonata in B flat major, Op. 10 No. 2 is the first known Viennese sonata with keyboard in which the clarinet is offered as the first-named alternative to the violin (both instrumental parts are included in this edition). The present work, probably the fourth 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.
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Composer:Anton Eberl Editor:Martin Harlow Publication date: August 2021 Instrument: Clarinet (violin), violoncello, fortepiano Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.30' Series:@Beethoven Pages: xi/37 + 2 x 16 + 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 45 3 Code:HH528.FSP Price: £30.00 More information
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. As in the sonatas in the first volume of this edition (published in January 2021), the numerous errors present 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: August 2021 Instruments: Two violins and basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.30' Pages: xvi/23 + 16 + 2 x 12 ISMN: 979 0 708185 20 8 ISBN: '978 1 910359 97 6 Code:HH510.FSP Price: £27.50 More information
ed. Fabrizio Ammetto & Alvise De Piero
SUPERB RECONSTRUCTIONS OF ‘LOST’ VIVALDI CONCERTOS
Preserved in the library of Venice’s Conservatorio di Musica is an elegant leather-bound volume containing the violin part of 31 virtuoso violin concertos, 26 of them by Vivaldi. The collection represents the personal repertoire of the Venetian composer’s most gifted pupil at the orphanage where he worked, the famous ‘Anna Maria della Pietà’, who also played the viola d’amore, mandolin, theorbo and harpsichord. Twenty of the Vivaldi works exist in other manuscript sources and are familiar to us in their complete versions. The remaining six — three for violin and three for violin and organ — are unique to the ‘Anna-Maria Partbook’, and, because they are incomplete, have not hitherto been part of the Vivaldi performing canon. Now, as a result of Federico Maria Sardelli’s rigorous musicological research and painstaking work of reconstruction based on many concordant sources, we are at last able to enjoy these six concertos in startlingly persuasive realizations. Volume 1 was pulished in June 2021.
Composer:Antonio Vivaldi Editor/reconstruction:Federico Maria Sardelli Publication date: July 2021 Instruments: Violin, organ, strings & basso continuo Format: Full score Series:Baroque Pages: xii/51 ISMN: 979 0 708185 34 5 ISBN: 978 1 914137 02 0 Code:HH523.FSC Price: £20.00 more information
Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 – ‘The 12th that I have composed in England’, as Haydn proudly inscribed on the autograph score – was first performed on 4 May 1795 at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, London, directed by the composer himself during a benefit concert in his honour. The occasion, unsurprisingly, was a huge success, with an ecstatic reception for the new symphony in particular. Haydn subsequently recorded in his notebook: ’The whole company was thoroughly pleased and so was I. I made four thousand Gulden on this evening. Such a thing is only possible in England.’
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Preserved in the library of Venice’s Conservatorio di Musica is an elegant leather-bound volume containing the violin part of 31 virtuoso violin concertos, 26 of them by Vivaldi. The collection represents the personal repertoire of the Venetian composer’s most gifted pupil at the orphanage where he worked, the famous ‘Anna Maria della Pietà’, who also played the viola d’amore, mandolin, theorbo and harpsichord. Twenty of the Vivaldi works exist in other manuscript sources and are familiar to us in their complete versions. The remaining six — three for violin and three for violin and organ — are unique to the ‘Anna-Maria Partbook’, and, because they are incomplete, have not hitherto been part of the Vivaldi performing canon. Now, as a result of Federico Maria Sardelli’s rigorous musicological research and painstaking work of reconstruction based on many concordant sources, we are at last able to enjoy these six concertos in startlingly persuasive realizations.
Composer:Antonio Vivaldi Editor/reconstruction:Federico Maria Sardelli Publication date: July 2021 Instruments: Violin, organ, strings & basso continuo Format: Full score Series:Baroque Pages: xi/46 ISMN: 979 0 708185 33 8 ISBN: 978 1 914137 01 3 Code:HH522.FSC Price: £20.00 more information
Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 was first performed on 23 March 1792 at London’s Hanover Square Rooms under the direction of Salomon as concertmaster with the composer himself at the fortepiano. The work was an instant success and soon became – and remains – one of Haydn’s most popular symphonies. The soubriquet ‘Surprise’, attached to the work very early on, was prompted by the unexpected forte chord in bar 16 of the Andante. Because of the timpani stroke reinforcing this unanticipated effect, the symphony has traditionally been known in German-speaking countries under the nickname ‘Mit dem Paukenschlag’.
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This remarkable collection of 10 Passagagli, the only known composition by the Neapolitan string teacher Gaetano Francone (fl. 1688–1717), is a unique example of a virtuoso school for the cello, as well as an extraordinary source of knowledge on improvisation for scholars and for performers, on both baroque and modern instruments. Although the term ‘violoncello’ appears in the work’s title, the music indicates that the composer was writing for a non-standard instrument, one tuned a tone lower than the modern cello. To perform these works with the original left-hand position, today’s players should either adopt the Bb1–F–c–g tuning or transpose each work one tone higher. Francone’s method stands as precious testimony to the advanced technical level of cello playing in 17th-century Naples.
A programme of moods and characters runs through Bayo’s Way. On a hot summer’s night, Bayo, the eponymous hero, tumbles and floats his way through a wild, jazz-fuelled pilgrimage. Imagine the bustle of Ronnie Scott’s club in London’s Soho morphing into an all-night party. Bayo glides through it all, spreading happy chaos and appreciative joy as he goes.
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Composer:Jeremy Arden Publication date: May 2021 Instruments: Piano Format: Playing score Duration:c.11'40'' Series:Contemporary Pages: v/15 ISMN: 979 0 708185 42 0 Code:HH530.SOL Price: £10.50
The Six Trio Sonatas of the Italian composer and violinist Michele Mascitti (1663/4–1760), published alongside eight violin sonatas in his Op. 4, are four- or five-movement works that felicitously mix the ‘church’ and ‘chamber’ styles in various configurations. This is the most ‘social’ music imaginable and will give great enjoyment in both a recreational and a concert setting.
Composer:Michele Mascitti Editor:Michael Talbot Publication date: May 2021 Instruments: Two violins & basso continuo Format: Full score and parts Series:Baroque Pages: xii/32 + 12 + 2 x 16 ISMN: 979 0 708185 36 9 ISBN: 978 1 914137 04 4 Code:HH525.FSP Price: £29.50 more information
Next in the series of C. D. Stegmann’s piano arrangements of Haydn symphonies is the celebrated ‘Drumroll’, whose successful orchestral premiere took place in London on 2 March 1795. As The Morning Chronicle reported: ‘Another new Overture [Symphony], by the fertile and enchanting HAYDN, was performed; which, as usual, had continual strokes of genius, both in air and harmony. The Introduction excited the deepest attention, the Allegro charmed, the Andante was encored, the Minuets, especially the Trio, were playful and sweet, and the last movement was equal, if not superior to the preceding.’
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Nicolas Mori’s arrangement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony was published in the 1820s by Elizabeth Lavenu, widow of the London violinist and publisher Lewis Lavenu, who died in 1818. She married Mori, a virtuoso violinist, in 1819 and together they took over her late husband’s business. The scoring for flute and string sextet is highly accomplished, the violas often pairing the flute to complete the parts originally assigned to the winds. The fresh dimension this arrangement brings to Beethoven’s timeless masterpiece will be a revelation to chamber groups and audiences alike.
Composer:Ludwig van Beethoven Arranger:Nicolas Mori Editor:Simone Laghi Publication date: April 2021 Instruments: Flute, two violins, two violas, violoncello, double bass Format: Full score Duration:c.38' Series:@Beethoven Pages: viii/107 ISMN: 979 0 708185 38 3 ISBN: 978 1 914137 06 8 Code:HH526.FSC Price: £47.00 more information
Format: Instrumental parts Duration:c.38' Series:@Beethoven Pages: 3 x 24, 4 x 28 ISMN: 979 0 708185 46 8 Code:HH526.IPT Price: £47.00 more information
No sooner had Ming Wang completed her apocalyptic chamber work Das siebente Siegel (“The Seventh Seal”) than the global Coronavirus pandemic erupted. Individuals and families succumbed to panic: they began to hoard food and other items, to self-isolate within the apparent safety of their own four walls and wait for the catastrophe to end or even perhaps for a miracle. In the Old Testament book of Genesis we learn that Noah built an ark to save his family and every species of animal from the Flood. This biblical story resonated with Ming, inspiring her to build her own ark — in sound. She chose certain chords to act as the vessel’s scaffolding and then sought to depict, alternately, the massive waves outside the ark and the powerless, fearful humans and animals sheltering within.
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Composer:Ming Wang Publication date: April 2021 Instruments: Clarinet, trombone, piano, accordion, viola, violoncello Format: Full score and parts Duration:c.9' Series:Contemporary Pages: viii/24 + 4 + 12 + 4 x 8 ISMN: 979 0 708185 31 4 Code:HH520.FSP Price: £30.00
Haydn’s Symphony No. 101 was first performed on 3 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 soon became, and remains to this day, one of Haydn’s most popular symphonies.
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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?
Just try it!
Ask your friends to try it.
You'll be addicted.
Don’t give up ... it can be solved!
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 hist
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Music example Sonata 1 (pdf)
Music example (pdf) 
