Halevi Songs (full score and parts)
Chamber Orchestra - Digital Sheet Music

Chamber Orchestra - Level 5 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.938914

Composed by Elissa Brill Pashkin. Contemporary. Score and parts. 82 pages. Elissa Brill Pashkin #73891. Published by Elissa Brill Pashkin (A0.938914).

Halevi Songs is a 3-movement song cycle, composed in 2002. It is a setting of three poems (in English translation of the original Hebrew) of Judah Halevi, who was a Jewish scholar and poet who lived in Spain in the Middle Ages. The three movements are I. The Mirror, II. Do the Tears Know?, and III. Calm After the Storm. Each is just under three minutes. The total duration of the piece is between 8.5 and 9 minutes. The audio clip is from the third movement. The performers are Dianne Smith (soprano), Janet Polvino (flute), Isabelle Boggs (clarinet), Bob Ferrier (guitar), Craig Bitterman (percussion), and Joyce Crouch (piano). A complete recording is available upon request from the composer at ebrill@hcc.edu. The piece is for soprano soloist, with an instrumental ensemble of flute, Bb clarinet, classical guitar, piano, and percussion. This package includes the full score, piano/vocal score, and instrumental parts. Although all the instrumental parts include the solo vocal line as cues, the tempo and meter changes involved demand that the piece be conducted (possibly from the piano). The pianist may play either from the score or from the included piano/vocal score. Licensed by BMI. Composer's Notes: The translation of the first poem, "The Mirror," is by the 19th century American poet Emma Lazarus, most famous for her familiar words engraved on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor…" There has been some interesting academic discussion concerning this poem. It is generally attributed to Halevi, but some scholars now believe it may have been written by someone else. (I have also seen the translation attributed to someone else.) The second poem, "Do the Tears Know?" was originally a tombstone inscription for one of Halevi’s friends. This setting was written to honor my father, Harold Allan Brill, who passed away in January, 2000. The third poem, "Calm After the Storm," is actually the second half of a longer poem about a sea voyage. The three songs are meant to be performed continuously, without a break in between. The use of a different, single, percussion instrument in each movement, gives each song a distinct texture: first the castanets, then the tubular bells, and then, finally, the marimba.