Country: Australia

Melbourne Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra

RM1100e Melbourne Concerto
RM1100e Melbourne Concerto
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Barry Cockcroft
Composed: 2017 Duration: 16 mins.
Instrumentation: Sax Concerto
ISMN: 979-0-720137-24-7 Catalogue: RM1100
Level: E Country: Australia

Contains 210 pages - full score, orchestral parts and saxophone solo part.

Instrumentation:

Solo Soprano Saxophone

2 Flutes
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets
2 Bassoons

Trumpet
Horn 1
Horn 2

Marimba
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Cello
Contrabass

 

 

aftertraces…

RM981e Aftertraces
RM981e Aftertraces
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Paul Stanhope
Composed: 2011 Duration: 17 mins.
Instrumentation: English Horn Chamber Music, Oboe Chamber Music
ISMN: 979-0-720129-15-0 Catalogue: RM981
Level: E Country: Australia

 

aftertraces... for oboe trio
Players 2 and 3 also double on English horn.
I: Mirage (3 oboes, 3rd player doubling English horn)
II: Air (duet for oboe and English horn)
III: Ephemeral Echoes (2 oboes and English horn)
IV: Shadow Dance (3 oboes 2nd and 3rd players doubling English horn)

Composer’s Note
Aftertraces... suggests ideas of the intangible: that which is transitory, immeasurable and perhaps ephemeral. Music is all of these things and, despite our best efforts to quantify and analyse it, music remains abstract and mysterious. This trio in four movements suggests different ideas of the intangible. It also attempts to play with the spatial elements of performance and sound by having the trio placed in different parts of the space, or not present at all, thus leaving the scope for solo, duo and trio textures.

Mirage suggests hallucination, illusion and fantasy, a figment of imagination opposite from reality. Part of the ‘mirage’ in this music is the illusion that a single instrument can sound like it is playing a complex chord, which is suggested by the use of various multiphonics, double harmonics and other extended techniques available (and now well- established in practice!) to the contemporary oboe player. Having moved through a veil of hazy sounds, trills and unorthodox devices, the music seems to enter another world, engendered by the chords and shapes set up by the various extended techniques at the beginning of the work but now more rhythmically-driven. The piece ends in a similar way to the beginning with the addition of the ghostly sound of a player offstage.

Air suggests various meanings: firstly the literal one of the breath wind instruments need to make their instruments sound and, of course, what we breathe in order to live. Secondly, an Air is an archaic English term used for Aria or song, and the song-like nature of this work for oboe and cor anglais is immediately apparent.The two instruments duck and weave in and out of each other’s way in long, occasionally decorated lines.
Ephemeral Echoes follows directly from the previous movement and plays with ideas of texture and space.The absent 2nd oboe emerges from the previous movement in an offstage solo. The long solo lines are passed around the trio in a series of echoes, as the lost oboist gradually makes their way back to the stage, embraced, so to speak, by the rest of the ensemble.

The echoes found in the third movement become more ordered and dance-like in Shadow Dance. The shadow is construed in terms of a canon (which can also be thought of as an echo) whereby one part plays exactly the same as another at the distance of a few bars later over a jaunty, circling bassline articulated by the cor anglais. Thus, there is always some sort of lead voice and another shadowing. The addition of a 2nd cor anglais part adds timbral variation and the possibility of canonic interplay between the two low instruments and in some sections a mensuration canon – which is where all parts play the same material but at different speeds.This Shadow Dance is bright in character and ends with a fleeting reference to the blurred edges of the first movement.

Aftertraces... was co-commissioned by Father Arthur Bridge for Ars Musica Australis and by Campbell Town Arts Centre.

It was premiered by and is dedicated to Sydney Oboes:Alexandre Oguey,Diana Doherty and Shefali Pryor. Paul Stanhope

Falling Ever Deeper

RM1081e Falling Ever Depper Dean FL/PNO
RM1081e Falling Ever Depper Dean FL/PNO
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Paul Dean
Composed: 2014 Duration: 14 mins.
Instrumentation: Flute & Piano Level E
ISMN: 979-0-720137-22-3 Catalogue: RM1081
Level: E Country: Australia

I originally intended the title “Falling Ever Deeper” to be one intimating total melancholy and as an emotional reaction to some immense personal challenges I faced during 2014. But as the piece developed I realised that the phrase “Falling Ever Deeper” could have positive resonances as well as the perhaps more obvious negative ones. So, the piece in essence gives a fairly accurate account of a journey through crisis, isolation and moving on.

The opening movement, Maelstrom, is dominated by the musical scream played by both instruments at the beginning of the movement. Of course this ‘scream’ has emotional overtones, but musically represented my overriding intention to have the flute an equal in the balance between the two instruments throughout the composition of the entire work. The opening movement is to be played as frantically and as breathlessly as possible.

The second movement, Void, is an opportunity for the lyrical and timbre possibilities of the flute and the player to be explored and discovered. As much contrast as possible is required to make the movement as dramatic and ultimately, as moving, as possible.

The last movement, Epiphany, is intentionally more up beat emotionally than the first two. Drama, speed and accuracy of the intricate articulations are the main points of focus for me as composer when listening to a performance of the work.

I wrote this piece for my two great friends, Vernon Hill and Virginia Taylor. Their friendship has been very important to me over several years, and no more so than in 2014. Their inspiration to me as a wind player and as a composer is incredible and endless.

And I dedicate the piece to my friends, Cooper, Stephen, Margaret and my brother Craig and his partner Sue for helping lift “Falling Ever Deeper” out of the abyss, and into the sunshine.

Paul Dean

Four Desert Flowers (4 pieces)

RM526e Four Desert Flowers (4 pieces) Stanley
RM526e Four Desert Flowers (4 pieces) Stanley
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Jane Stanley
Composed: 2010 Duration: 11 mins.
Instrumentation: Flute Chamber Music, Marimba Chamber Music
ISMN: 979-0-720119-83-0 Catalogue: RM526
Level: D Country: Australia

Movements include: I - Desert Rose, II - Banksia, III - Desert Snow Flower, IV - Callistemon

Shaw Thing

RM1070e Shaw Thing Firth BIG BAND
RM1070e Shaw Thing Firth BIG BAND
Digital Download eScore
Composer: Andy Firth
Composed: 2013 Duration: 2 mins.
Instrumentation: Big Band
ISMN: 979-0-720137-11-7 Catalogue: RM1070
Level: 2.5 Country: Australia