American Carillon Music Editions
The 2011 American Carillon Music Editions new collection is now ready for purchase.This collection comprises 23 pieces of music (173 pages), and provides a balanced offering of original compositions, arrangements, and duets, which we believe reflect the diversity of our customer’s carillon music preferences. The 2011 collection includes music suitable for a variety of instrument sizes, a range of technical difficulty, many familiar pieces that audiences will recognize (and love), music suitable for festive occasions, and even Christmas. We think you will find the music not only fun to play, but very useful when planning concerts for the upcoming year.
Original Compositions We are pleased to feature Flight of Apollo, a new piece by Geoffrey Cook that commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon launch, a celebratory work by Emma Lou Diemer, Fantasy for Carillon, composed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Storke Carillon (UCSB), a set of three Easter hymntunes, An Easter Triptych, by John Dierck, first performed in 1992 during the Easter Sunday services at Riverside Church, a dreamy nocturne, On a Starry Night, by Doug Gefvert, Naji Hakim’s, Hymn to Alberto Giacometti's 'Woman With Chariot',and two new pieces by Karel Keldermans, Giocoso Gaudeamus, a piece rumored to be based on a popular drinking song, and a lovely waltz in a slower tempo, The Sydney Waltz.
We are excited to offer John Knox’s Chorale Partita V, a set of contrasting variations based on the chorale “meine Hoffnung stehet feste” and a welcome addition to his set of four chorale partitas, Kamiel Lefévere’s The Alfred Suite, which paints a picture of a day on the campus at Alfred University, composed in 1940 to celebrate the new Davis Memorial Carillon, and Ed Nassor’s Variations on "Noël Nouvelet", a rollicking depiction of this well-known French Christmas tune. We are rounding out our collection of original carillon compositions by offering Andreas Schmid’s Toccata Über den Glockenschlag(Toccata on the Westminster Quarters),which would make a showy finale to any carillon recital, Marcel Sieber’s Berceuse for Merlijn, a whimsical piece written for his young grandson, Merlijn, Neil Thornock’s energetic Morning Dance, which will have no trouble waking up both carillonneur and listener, and Matthias vanden Gheyn’s Fugue in C major which pairs very nicely with his Preludio X.
Duets We are offering two duets within our collection of original carillon compositions. In Roland Besson’s Fidelíssima (duet) commissioned by the city of Perpignan, France, each of the three movements bears the name of one of the historic districts of Perpignan. Frank DellaPenna portrays life as a cowboy in his ”The Cowboy's Lament (duet)”, based on a well-known American folksong.
Arrangements To make sure you create a concert program with the “audience in mind”, include at least one piece that is either familiar or that can easily capture the attention of the listener. We are excited to offer Ed Nassor's arrangement of Handel’s Pastoral Symphony from "Messiah", and Ronald Barnes’ arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from "Eugene Onegin". Although this waltz was originally scored in D major, since it requires the availability of a large bass “A” bell, we are also offering a transposition of this piece in F major, to accommodate a smaller range of bells.
We are offering a wide variety of collections that contain many crowd-pleasing arrangements. Jürgen Buchner has created his 2nd volume in the Music from Würzburg (Volume II) series. This new collection consists of a selection of “fun to play” and “easy to listen to” caprices by the composer Matteo Carcassi, a famous 18th century Italian guitarist and composer. Kids of all ages will enjoy listening to Ronald Barnes’ arrangements of Evening Prayer and the Dance from Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel and Gretel. Lee Cobb has shared with us his first volume of Hymns of Faith, containing beautiful arrangements of Maitland (“Precious Lord”) and the well-known spiritual, Deep River. Carlo van Ulft has arranged a collection of Marches, featuring the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss, and Under the Double Eagle by Josef Franz Wagner, and a collection of tangos featuring music by Ernesto Baff, José Fuster and Juan Cobian. Don’t be surprised if people are still dancing as they shake your hand following the concert.
Sue Bergren - Music EditorMark Bergren - Publications Editor