Sword Dance from Hymn of the Highlands. Par SPARKE PHILIP. Strathcarron is a movement from Philip Sparke’s Hymn of the Highlands, in which each movement reflects a different location in the beautiful Scottish highlands. Stratcarron, named after a village at the head of Loch Carron, near the Isle of Skye, takes the form of a sword dance which alternates between fast and slow tempi. / Niveau : 5 /…

Arr. Philip Sparke. Pendant plus de quarante ans, Jimmy Webb (1946) a composé des chansons à succès pour divers artistes tels que Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash et Linda Ronstadt. En 1968, il écrit MacArthur Park, une chanson complètement novatrice. D’une durée de plus de sept minutes, elle est deux à trois fois plus longue que la plupart des succès pop et …

Par SPARKE PHILIP. En 2007, Philip Sparke est nommé compositeur en résidence à l’établissement scolaire de Monmouth (Monmouth School), bourgade historique sur la frontière Angleterre/Pays de Galles. L’école puise dans un passé prestigieux qui remonte à 1614. Elle dispose d’un département de musique particulièrement actif, qui peut s’enorgueillir de posséder deux Orchestres d’Harmonie en collaborat…

Jesu bleibet meine Freude from Cantata 147. Par BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN. Bach’s appointment as the Cantor at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche in 1723 required him to produce a new cantata for every Sunday service. Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring is taken from his Cantata No. 147 and is unusually elaborate, treated more like an aria than a chorale. It is perhaps the best-loved cantata movement from Bach’s entire o…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. The Four Noble Truths are the most basic expression of the teaching of Buddha and therefore still form the guidelines for Buddhists to this day. The four truths are Dukkha, which describes times of major stress in our lives - birth, aging, desire and death; Samudaya which describes those parts of our life that induce stress, feeling, craving, desire; Nirodha which tells us how t…

Flamenco for Band. Par SPARKE PHILIP. Flamenco is a style of music, usually played on the guitar to accompany dancing and singing, that has its home in Andalusia in southern Spain. It has its roots in the years of Moorish rule of the region (711-1492) although the modern flamenco style dates only from the 18th century. La Caracola (which is the Spanish name for the triton sea shell) is an annual f…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. This is an ancient Welsh air that was first published in Relics of the Welsh Bards in 1794. Dafydd (David) Owain was a famous Welsh bard who lived on a farm called Gareg Wen (The White Rock) in Eifionydd, Carnarnvonshire, North Wales. Tradition has it that on his deathbed he called for his harp and composed this lovely melody, requesting that it be played at his funeral. Accordi…

Meditation on 'O come, O come, Immanuel'. The Advent hymn we all know today as O Come, O Come, Immanuel was arranged in its modern form by Thomas Helmore and published in Hymnal Noted in 1856. Both the words and melody, however, predate this version by centuries. The tune, Veni Immanuel, is taken from a 15th century processional of French Franciscan nuns, part of the setting for the funeral hymn L…

Arr. Philip Sparke. Par HOLST GUSTAV. Christina Rossetti wrote the words to this famous Christmas carol in 1872 in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem. They were set to music by Gustav Holst (1874-1934) for inclusion in the first edition (1906) of The English Hymnal, edited by his life-long friend, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Philip Sparke has carefully arra…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. Trinidad est la capitale du calypso, cette danse antillaise conçue sur un rythme facile, au phrasé libre. Mais que l’on soit d’ici ou d’ailleurs, on reconnaît instantanément la musique des Caraïbes ; une musique aux parfums de soleil, d’étés de paresse, source de bien-être. C’est ce bonheur contagieux que Philip Sparke a traduit en musique dans Clarinet Calypso. / Niveau : 2 /…