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Print: $5.65 Fairy Tales
INSTRUMENTATION: Solo piano
Fairy Tales was commissioned by the Renée B. Fisher Foundation for their thirtieth annual Renée B. Fisher Competition for Young Pianists. The music seeks to capture the mysterious magic of fairy tales without referencing any particular stories. The piece is essentially a rondo, whose refrain continually evolves throughout the piece, often borrowing material from the preceding episodes. The piece offers some contemporary challenges to talented young players, including tonal ambiguity, complex rhythms, shifting meters, use of the sostenuto pedal, and one instance where the pianist may elect to play an optional additional three measures.
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Print: $6.15 A setting of Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" for baritone and string quartet.
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Print: $7.35 Peter Pan Suite
INSTRUMENTATION: Chamber Orchestra [Wind Quint. (standard doublings), harp, celesta, 2 Perc. + Timp./Perc. 3, String Quintet (2:1:1:1)]
Peter Pan Suite is a ballet for chamber orchestra in eleven short movements. The text and music are based upon JM Barrie's Peter and Wendy (1911). The full score is about 30 minutes long, but it may also be performed in an abridged version (playing 6 of the 11 movements), lasting about 15 minutes.
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Print: $5.70 Hatikva
INSTRUMENTATION: Symphony Orchestra
2+Picc, 2 (1 doubling Eng. Hn.), 2 + B. Cl., 2 • 3:3:3:1 • Timp. • 2 Perc. (sd, susp cymb., chms., glock., crash cymb.) • Hp • Str.
This arrangement of Hatikva is written for community or youth orchestras. In addition to a lower level of technical demand, the orchestral size has been reduced to winds by twos (with added piccolo, oboe doubling on Eng. Hn., and added bass clarinet), one less horn than is traditionally employed (3), and the following optional substitutions, in case orchestras do not have the requested instrumentation:
Bass Clarinet: Bassoon II
Harp: Piano or Marimba
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Print: $5.63 Córdoba
INSTRUMENTATION: Solo oboe
Each movement of "Córdoba" marked with a reference to a different, but similarly themed, poem. The first movement references Lorca’s poem, Canción de jinete, as translated by Susana Cavallo; this is also the origin of the title, Córdoba. The second movement makes reference to Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The final movement references C.P. Cavafy’s Walls, as translated by Elena Spilioti. To the best of my knowledge, these texts have never been grouped together before, separated as they are by time, country, and language. Yet their juxtaposition may strike the listener as surprisingly natural. The poems are drawn together here by their common literary themes, their shared observations of a human nature which transcends nationalist boundaries, and by the embodiment of human isolation in the pathos of a solo oboe.
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SpellSpell (book)
Print: $5.80 Spell
INSTRUMENTATION: Violin & 2 cellos
While Spell is not truly programmatic, the music and movement titles are meant to create a loose story of sorcerers casting a spell. In the first movement (“Spell”), the casting of the spell starts in the violin and is echoed and expanded upon by the second cello. The second movement (“Pagan Dance”) starts as an extension of the first, but gradually builds into a raucous and chaotic dance. The energy continually increases until it is finally suspended at a high point: the spell is ending; dawn in approaching. In the final movement (“Embers”), the fire begins to die. Various motives and themes return and are subject to increasing fragmentation. Though the spell and the fire are dying, the magic only fades from view. The movements are played without pause.
Performance notes for atypical notation are provided within the context of the score. The movements are to be played attacca.
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Print: $5.63 Fantasia for Piano
INSTRUMENTATION: Solo piano
Fantasia for Piano uses minimal thematic material in an exploration of mysterious, thin textures on the piano. This piece is intended for performance by advanced young or student pianists.
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Print: $5.63 Hibakusha
INSTRUMENTATION: Solo flute
Following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many survivors were plagued with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. These survivors are known as Hibakusha. This piece seeks to capture their state of shock, sometimes described as a 'frozen dream,' as they were ever-haunted by their devastating past. While this was first envisioned as a larger ensemble piece, there is something profoundly isolating about the condition of Hibakusha, which suggested the solo instrumental treatment adopted here.
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Print: $6.10 INSTRUMENTATION: Symphony Orchestra (3333 4331 T+3 Hp Str. Fl3 doubles picc; Cl3 plays B Cl throughout.)
DURATION: ca. 6 minutes
NOTES: While researching the Romantic sublime, I came across a chapter in a book by Scott Lankford, titled “Everest and the Impossible.” It struck me that, for the climber even more than for the average onlooker, Everest possesses a certain awesome quality that takes hold of the imagination. Despite moments of awe, pride, and raw excitement, only those who were single-minded in their determination would endure the early, treacherous climbs. In this piece, I have attempted to represent the vicissitudes of the climb, while unifying the music carefully through the opening four-note motive and a short harmonic progression which soon follows... (continued in the score)
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Print: $5.88 A comic art song for high voice & piano
DURATION: ca. 5 1/2 minutes
For more information, please visit:
http://www.aaronalon.com/works/allrights/allrights.html
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Print: $5.70 Spring and Fall
INSTRUMENTATION: Medium voice, cello, & piano
“Spring and Fall” is a setting of Hopkins’ poem by the same name. In the text, the speaker consoles Margaret, who is grieving her first loss (loss of innocence or possibly a death). The speaker attempts a stoic veneer, but emotion seeps through; the speaker’s own struggle is brought out in the rapidly shifting mood of the cello cadenza. The speaker asks Margaret why she is weeping, concluding that she weeps for a universal human condition, something we all feel but can scarcely name: “It is the blight man was born for, / It is Margaret you mourn for.” While both instruments engage in musical commentary on the text, the piano is more of a passive observer of the mood; the cello is more closely aligned to the voice and to the speaker’s emotional struggle, as the speaker tries to comfort Margaret, and ultimately, him- or herself.
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