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ID: SIGCD505
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Jewish Music
Subcollection: Piano and CelloSignum Records are delighted to introduce this debut disc of Paul Marleyn and John Lenehan: a haunting CD of music rooted or influenced by Jewish culture.
Jewish musicians have for generations been asked to provide cheerful music for social occasions, when their lives were anything but cheerful. Consequently a style of Jewish folk music has developed which describes the saddest events in an almost agonisingly merry vein. Such traditional folk melodies are presented h e re alongside works by Bernstein, Bloch, Bruch, Schedrin and Stutschewsky.
Bloch’s early Cello Sonata (from 1897) has never previously been published or recorded. The celebrated English cellist Steven Isserlis unearthed the music a few years ago and gave the world premiere at London’s Wigmore Hall. He generously gave Paul his permission to record this work, as an example of Bloch’s beautiful but early, and rather immature, style. The sonata compares fittingly with the further examples of Bloch’s repertoire on this disc.
From Jewish Life is the title work of this disc, written in 1923-4. Bloch wrote of his music:
"It is the Jewish soul that interests me, the complex, glowing, agitated soul which I feel vibrating throughout the Bible this is in me, and it is the better part of my life" |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD506
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Contemporary music
Signum Records is proud to release its first volume of music devoted to one of Britain's best known composers Michael Nyman. The Zoo Duet perform music for two pianos.
Nn one has played a greater role in bridging the divide between the worlds of classical and popular music than Michael Nyman. He has combined Purcell and Mozart, 1950s rock ‘n’ roll, ancient Sumerian quasi-feminist texts, Queens Park Rangers Football Club and innumerable other diverse musical and cultural sources to produce a style of composition which is romantic, eclectic, occasionally chaotic, but uniquely his own.
Like the best classical, jazz or pop music, Nyman’s output does stand up to closer analysis, but the secret of its appeal lies not in the field of academic, but rather in its ability to speak to a large and culturally diverse audience.
Taking a Line for a Second Walk began life in 1986 as an orchestral work from the Houston Ballet. The Water Dances, originally written for Peter Greenaway’s film Making a Splash and appearing here in its five-movement form for the first time, is in part derived from a chord progression taken from a Monteverdi madrigal.
Michael Nyman has demonstrated that it is possible to write progressive and challenging new music without alienating a large part of the classical audience while attracting an even broader rock- and pop-orientated public. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD507
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Choral Collection
Subcollection: ChoirThe Elysian Singers perform choral works by composer, James MacMillan.
MacMillan characteristically draws inspiration for his vocal works from recurring themes such as the Catholic Church and Scottish traditional culture.
The most substantial work on this recording is Cantos Sagrados ("Sacred Songs"). MacMillan takes the poems of Latin American poets Ariel Dorfman and Ana Maria Mendosa, and combines their settings of political repression with traditional religious texts to create a powerful combination of liberation theology. The result is at times delicate, and then terrifying. The composer’s intentions were to create a work both sacred and secular, being timeless yet contemporary.
Of the other works on this disc, the majority are settings of Latin or English religious texts often written for particular occasions or places. A Child’s Prayer, for instance, was dedicated to the victims of the Dunblane tragedy of 1996, where one teacher and sixteen of her pupils were shot dead whilst in class. One of the two secular works on this recording, The Gallant Weaver is a setting of that most Scottish of poets, Robert Burns, to a nostalgic evocation of Celtic folk-music.
The Elysian Singers were founded in 1986. Since 1999 they have been directed by Sam Laughton and have established a national reputation as a young and lively chamber choir, winning awards for commissioning new music. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD508
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Organ Collection
Subcollection: OrganThe year 1937 was surely one of the richest years of the 20th century for the English organ repertoire. That peculiarly English genre the organ sonata gained two new major works with the publication of Percy Whitlock's sonata in C minor and Edward Bairstow's sonata in Eb.
Percy Whitlock studied composition at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams. His C-minor organ sonata was conceived whilst laid low with illness and dependent upon the radio, where he was thrilled to hear a broadcast of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony in C minor. Then during a period of convalescence, Whitlock enjoyed a series of country walks which sowed the seeds of the second and third movements of his sonata. The sonata is a brooding work of symphonic scale and complexity. In it, the organ is treated very much as an orchestra, requiring the player to be more than usually adroit at manipulating the stops to achieve specific tone-colours. The sonata is recognised as the finest of the very good, light, British organ pieces that exist (with most of the others being by Whitlock anyway).
In the 1930s Sir Edward Bairstow was Professor of Music at the University of Durham and had not written for the organ since 1911, chiefly concentrating instead on the composition of choral works. A nationally recognised academic, he came to regard some of his earlier organ works as somewhat sentimental but he had never the less had a yearning to write an organ sonata. By giving the work slow and quiet outer movements which rise in the middle, and a bright, strong central one, Bairstow inverts the usual pattern. He establishes the overall mood as quiet and introverted, suiting his love of restraint.
The disc concludes on an upbeat note with the arresting Flourish for an Occasion from the pen of Sir William Harris, organist of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. St George's is the home of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and the occasion for which this piece was composed was the annual Garter service of 1947. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD085
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Sacred Music
Subcollection: ChoirFew can argue with Tenebrae's international stature as one of the most competent, versatile, exciting and passionate vocal ensembles in the world today.
The beauty of Tenebrae's perfectly blended sound coupled with near-flawless technique is showcased in this recording, featuring a selection of their favourite concert repertoire to create a performance worthy of anyone's collection.
Allegri's haunting Miserere is the central point in a journey through music of longing and entreaty, hope and faith. These works spanning the centuries are chosen from the heart of Tenebrae's concert repertoire. |
| 18.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
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ID: SIGCD166
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Chamber Music
Subcollection: Choir* WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING
Coro Cervantes is a unique professional chamber choir. Through its perforamances and recordings it aims to bring the music of Iberia and Latin America to audiences everywhere. This disc of 20th century music for the unusual yet fabulous combination of choir and guitar coincides with the 70th birthday of Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre, whose work Yanomam, inspired by the death rituals of the indigenous Yanomami people, gives the album its title. The choir is accompanied by the Brazilian Fabio Zanon, one of most all embracing talents in the international guitar scene.
The Yanomami
The Yanomami are one of the largest relatively isolated tribes in South America. They live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela, and today their total population stands at around 32,000. At over 9.6 million hectares, the Yanomami territory in Brazil is twice the size of Switzerland. In Venezuela, the Yanomami live in the 8.2 million hectare Alto Orinoco - Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve. Together, these areas form the largest forested indigenous territory in the world.
The Yanomami live in large, circular, communal houses called yanos or shabonos. Some house up to 400 people. The Yanomami believe strongly in equality among people. Each community is independent from others and they do not recognize ‘chiefs’. Decisions are made by consensus, frequently after long debates where everybody has a say.
Like most Amazonian tribes, tasks are divided between the sexes. Men hunt game, often using curare (a plant extract) to poison their prey. Women tend the gardens where they grow around 60 crops and also collect wild honey nuts, shellfish and insect larvae.
The spirit world is a fundamental part of Yanomami life. Every creature, rock, tree and mountain has a spirit. Sometimes these are malevolent, attack the Yanomami and are believed to cause illness. Shamans control these spirits by inhaling a hallucinogenic snuff called yakoana. Through their trance like visions, they meet the spirits or xapiripë.
During the 1980s, the Yanomami suffered immensely when up to 40,0000 Brazilian goldminers invaded their land. The miners shot them, destroyed many villages, and exposed them to diseases to which they had no immunity. Twenty percent of the Yanomami died in just seven years. After a long international campaign led by Yanomami spokesman, Davi Kopenawa, Survival and the Brazilian NGO, the Pro Yanomami Commission (CCPY), Yanomami land in Brazil was officially recognized as the ‘Yanomami Park’ in 1992 and the miners expelled.
However, the Yanomami still face many threats. Cattle ranchers are invading and deforesting the eastern fringe of their land. Over 1,000 gold- miners are now working illegally on Yanomami land, transmitting deadly diseases like malaria and polluting the rivers with mercury. The Brazilian congress is debating a draft bill which, if approved, will legalise large scale mining in Indian lands, a move which is bitterly opposed by the Yanomami.
As a result of their increasing contact with outsiders, the Yanomami, CCPY and Survival, set up an education project. Yanomami are being trained to teach reading, writing and maths in their communities.
In 2004, Yanomami formed their own organisation, Hutukara (the part of the sky from which the earth was born), to defend their rights. Survival International has been working with the Yanomami for 40 years.
To support the Yanomami join Survival International at
www.survival-international.org |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD224
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Violin |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD207
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Cello Collection
Matthew Barley launches his new CD, Constant Filter, of John Metcalfe compositions - many of them premiered tonight. Prepare to be amazed at what the electric cello can do, retaining the soulful beauty of the classical cello but with kaleidoscopic extra dimensions of colour and voice created by cutting-edge music technology. Includes works for acoustic cello and piano with rising star Ashley Wass, as well as new transcriptions of some of Schumann's most poignant and perfect songs. While Metcalfe's music is often characterised by grooving rhythms, Schumann's songs are always flexible and breathing - an unlikely and beautiful contrast. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD454
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: PianoTracks
1. New College Service: Magnificat Alexander L'Estrange 6.53
2. New College Service: Nunc dimittis Alexander L'Estrange 3.43
3. Prayers for Peace: Lighten our Darkness Alexander L'Estrange 1.41
4. Let All the World in Every Corner Sing Alexander L'Estrange 5.57
5. Prayers for Peace: The Lord's Prayer Alexander L'Estrange 1.50
6. Tune Me, O Lord Alexander L'Estrange 6.50
7. On Eagles' Wings Alexander L'Estrange 4.52
8. Oculi Omnium Alexander L'Estrange 2.48
9. My Song is Love Unknown Alexander L'Estrange 8.47
10. Prayers for Peace: God Be in My Head Alexander L'Estrange 1.00
11. Panis Angelicus Alexander L'Estrange 5.20
12. Lute-book Lullaby Alexander L'Estrange 4.36
13. Epiphany Carol Alexander L'Estrange 5.03
14. Hodie! Alexander L'Estrange 3.19
15. Let the People Praise You Alexander L'Estrange 4.52
16. An Irish Blessing Alexander L'Estrange 3.51 |
| 18.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
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ID: SIGCD082
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection:
Vocal Collection
Subcollection: ChoirA collection of 25 madrigals from 23 different composers - from the famous to the obscure - make up this Elizabethan curiosity, published in 1601 by Thomas Morley. A musical dedication to Queen Eliyabeth 1, The Triumohs of Oriana displays the talents of English songwriters, long overshadowed by their European counterparts, conjuring up an image of an idealised and mythical England of old. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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