Violoncello piccolo & alto violin

A "violoncello piccolo" is a form of violoncello, akin to the cello da spalla (also called viola da spalla).

http://www.jonacoviolins.ro/lang/en/viola/violla-da-spalla-for-left-hand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XZ3opUQRyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZSBaQLm16w

"A whiny beginning of the [Bach] 6th [cello] suite’s Praeludium (notably less securely played than what came before and after – where there were only a handful of squeaks and slips present) betrayed a few problems, not the least of which might have been the uncomfortably high register in which the suite lies for the cello, an instrument it was not written for. Most cellists use a smaller cello with an additional E string for the performance, which is akin to the baroque violoncello piccolo that these pieces were probably written for."

— http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2006/04/chairman-ma-dances.html

THE NEW YORK ALBUM

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0059GZJ1A/ref=sr_1_26_rd
http://www.discogs.com/Yo-Yo-Ma-Baltimore-Symphony-Orchestra-David-Zinman-The-New-York-Album/release/3683087
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Sony/88697561082

"Yo-Yo Ma, The New York Album...Release date: September 20, 1994...

"Béla Bartók (1861-1945) Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Op. posthumous...

"Perhaps in Bartók's mind the draft of the Viola Concerto truly was complete. Nevertheless, the posthumous task of deciphering, arranging, filling out and orchestrating the thirteen extant pages of sketches proved to be [a] formidable one. At the [Bartók] family's request it was undertaken by Tibor Serly (1901-1978), the Hungarian-American composer and violist...

"Serly actually prepared a cello arrangement of the concerto simultaneously with the "original" viola version...Yo-Yo Ma originally intended to perform (and record) this cello version...but he was dissatisfied with the registral displacement and discovered that he could play the solo at its original pitch on the alto violin (or vertical viola), a large "viola" fitted with a long endpin and held like a cello. This instrument, part of a set of eight "violin analogues" designed and made by Carleen Hutchins at the suggestion of composer Henry Brant, is intended to carry the tonal characteristics, projection, and balance of the violin sound into the viola range."

— from the album's original liner notes—on p. 205 of   https://www.scribd.com/doc/79087402/Book-Yo-Yo-Ma-30-Years-Outside-the-Box

OTHER

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=186473
http://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-6-suites-for-cello-solo-2012-recording-mw0002428644
https://sites.google.com/site/drtkaufmanartsandmusic/bach-cello-suites

Copyright (c) 2014, 2015 Mark D. Blackwell.

Robin Hodson compositions

A acquaintance of mine, Mr. Robin Hodson, has composed quite a number of choral and chamber works worthy of note. Not 'modern' music, these are quite listenable.

One can hear them free of charge on ScoreExchange. Just click the tab labeled 'Scorch plug-in', and install it if necessary. (BTW, Sibelius recently has made their plugin work better):

Truly quite excellent (especially harmonically) are:

• 1993   Wind Quintet (1: Martial Fugue & Western Wind)
• 2002   Verbum Caro Factum Est
• 2003   English Missa Brevis
• 2004   Ave Maria (SB duet)

Here's a chronological list (attempting to be complete) of his compositions (which are available on ScoreExchange):

• 1986   This Is The Day
• 1988   Missa Sancti Pauli
• 1989   There Is No Rose
• 1990   Death, Be Not Proud
• 1993   Diaphonic Mass (organum)
• 1993   Wind Quintet
• 1997   Ave Verum
• 2000   Funeral Sentences
• 2001   Magnificat (Maryland Service)
• 2002   Elegy for Strings
• 2002   Nunc Dimittis (Maryland Service)
• 2002   Verbum Caro Factum Est
• 2003   English Missa Brevis
• 2004   Ave Maria (SB duet)
• 2004   Ave Regina Caelorum
• 2004   Regina Caeli Laetare (Soprano, Piano, Cello)
• 2008   Psalm 111: I Will Give Thanks Unto The Lord

Also I should mention the several CD releases (of steadily increasing quality) of his own popular music compositions. The 2008 album is uniformly excellent. Particularly excellent from his 2003 album are:

• Hold Your Candle Over Me
• Never Coming Home Again

Copyright (c) 2013 Mark D. Blackwell.

Rare, select chamber music (sheet music and MP3)

Here are some rare, excellent, beautiful, intelligent and select chamber music pieces of famous and once-famous old composers, culled by listening carefully to the sound samples on Edition Silvertrust's website. They also publish The Chamber Music Journal. I audited their full catalog of sheet music in two categories: quite a number of pieces! (I developed the list for some of my acquaintances with whom I play music, and have clarified the titles, somewhat. Originally, it may have been a recommendation from Delicious.com which led me to Edition Silvertrust, but I am not sure.)

All the best, excellent pieces, and only the best ones, are on this list. This is only my educated opinion; and yet, I believe you should enjoy them if you heard them! But merely let me mention my extensive classical music background. I invite you to judge for yourself!

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String and clarinet quintets:

Joseph Eybler (1765-1846), String Quintet for Violin & 2 Violas (or 2 Violins & Viola), Cello & Bass in D Major, Op.6 No.1 (1801)

Friedrich Dotzauer (1783-1860), String Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola & 2 Cellos in d minor, Op.134 (1835)

This one is operatic:
Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), String Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola & 2 Cellos in e minor (1837)

Johan Svendsen (1840-1911), String Quintet in C Major, Op.5 (1867)

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), String Quintet No.1 in F Major, Op.85 (1903)

Alexander Krein (1883-1951), Three Sketches on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet Quintet Op.12 (1914)

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Piano quintets:

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), Piano Quintet in A Major, Op.14 (1853)

Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929), Piano Quintet in e minor (1865)

Giovanni Sgambati (1841-1914), Piano Quintet No.1 in f minor, Op.4 (1866)

Friedrich Kiel (1821-1885), Piano Quintet No.1 in A Major, Op.75 (1873-4)

Hermann Goetz (1840-1876), Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass & Piano in c minor, Op.16 (1874)

Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916), Piano Quintet No.1 in d minor, Op.35 (1877)

Zdenek Fibich (1850-1950), Quintet for Violin, Clarinet & Horn (or 2 Violins & Viola), Cello & Piano in D Major, Op.42 (1893)

Carl Frühling (1868-1937), Piano Quintet in f sharp minor, Op.30 (1894)

Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902), Piano Quintet No.3 in g minor, Op.126 (1895)

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948), Piano Quintet in D flat Major, Op.6 (1900)

Wilhelm Berger (1861-1911), Piano Quintet in f minor, Op.95 (1904)

Théodore Dubois (1837-1924), Quintet for Oboe (or Clarinet or Violin), Violin, Viola, Cello & Piano in F Major (1904-5)

Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909), Piano Quintet in C Major, Op.45 (year not found)

Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915), Piano Quintet in g minor, Op.30 (1910-11)

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Piano sextets:

This one is not hard for piano (unlike the usual Glinka), because he intended his Italian doctor's daughter to play it:
Mikhail Glinka (1804-57), Grand Sextet for Piano, String Quartet & Bass in E flat Major (1832)

William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875), Sextet for Cello & Bass (or 2 Cellos), 2 Violins, Viola & Piano in f# minor, Op.8 (1838)

This one has fewer notes than usual for strings:
Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907), Sextet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon & Piano in B flat Major, Op.6 (1888)

Paul Juon (1872-1940), Divertimento (Piano Sextet) for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon & Piano, Op.51 (1913)

Copyright (c) 2009 Mark D. Blackwell.