Tenor
Beach - Ecstasy - Voice (or Afl), Alto Flute (or Cl), and Piano
Ecstasy, Op.19 No.2, by Mrs. H. H. A. Beach
Two versions, for "Low voice (in Db)" or "High voice (in Eb)", with Alto Flute Obbligato (transcribed) and Piano.
Alternative parts for Alto Flute Solo and Bb Clarinet Obbligato.
Program Notes by Peter H. Bloom.
Piano Scores, Voice Parts, Alto Flute Obbligato Parts, and alternative Alto Flute Solo Parts and Clarinet Obbligato Parts; PDF $8.99
Noteworthy Sheet Music was thrilled to publish our edition of Amy Marcy Cheney Beach's song Ecstasy in 2017, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. The idea to make Ecstasy available to a broader combination of players and singers came from flutist Peter H. Bloom, who proposed that the piece would be an excellent vehicle with which instructors might inform students (early and advanced alike) about interpretation of the highly romantic late 19th century idiom. To that end, we have packaged together in a single edition Mrs. H. H. A. Beach's two versions of Ecstasy, for "low voice (in Db)" and "high voice (in Eb)", with each version including transcriptions of the obbligato (originally for violin) for either alto flute in G or clarinet in Bb, and an alternative solo part in the form of an alto flute transcription of the voice line. Thus, multiple performance variations are possible, including high or low voice and piano with either alto flute or clarinet obbligato, or fully instrumental versions for alto flute and piano, or two alto flutes and piano, or alto flute, clarinet, and piano.
Scores, 8 pages (4 pages each version); Voice parts, 2 pages (1 page each version); Alto Flute Obbligatos, 2 pages (1 page each version); Clarinet Obbligatos, 2 pages (1 page each version); Alto Flute solo parts, 2 pages (1 page each version); Total, 20 pages.
PreviewBloom - From the Drawer - Tenor or Soprano and Saxophone Quartet
From the Drawer, for Voice and Saxophones, by Peter H. Bloom
Contemporary Composition for Tenor or Soprano, with Saxophone Quartet
Score and Parts, PDF $13.99
Boston-based flutist Peter H. Bloom created two versions of his composition From the Drawer, the edition listed here for Tenor or Soprano with Saxophone Quartet (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and baritone saxophone) and a second edition for Tenor or Soprano with Flute (doubling Piccolo), Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn; both editions have been published by Noteworthy Sheet Music. The score provides a musical setting for the intensely emotional poem by Constantine Cavafy. The composer suggests that the vocalist (depending on his or her performance style/background/aesthetic judgment) should free to employ amplification at his/her discretion.
Here are Mr. Bloom's comments about From the Drawer, taken from his preface (Copyright © 2015) to the edition:
"Constantine Cavafy’s 1923 poem, From the Drawer, captures the acerbic condition of longing, the impossibly private nature of affection, and the occultation of time. Its poignancy is universal; transcending gender, age, era, place, and even translation. Rather than rely on one particular translation of Cavafy’s text, I’ve drawn on a number of versions to arrive at a paraphrase that both informs and is shaped by the musical score.
The musical setting is a sonic image of the intensely emotional response to a flood of memory that informs the poet’s narrative: now pensive, now anxious, now wistful, now joyous, now fraught, now resigned, and ever mercurial." P. H. Bloom, September 19, 2015
Score, 14 pages; Tenor or Soprano part, 2 pages; Soprano Saxophone part, 4 pages; Alto Saxophone part, 3 pages; Tenor Saxophone part, 3 pages; Baritone Saxophone part, 3 pages; Total, 29 pages.
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We also offer a professionally-printed hard copy edition of From the Drawer for $23.78 plus a $5.95 shipping and handling fee. Due to prohibitively high international shipping rates, we ship print editions only to addresses in the USA. Please use the Contact Us form to let us know which hard copy publication(s) you would like to purchase, along with your email contact information and USPS mailing address. We will then send you a PayPal invoice for the sale and, once we receive notice from PayPal that you have paid for the item(s), we will ship your music to the address provided.
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Bloom - From the Drawer - Tenor or Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn
From the Drawer, by Peter H. Bloom
Contemporary Composition for Tenor or Soprano, with Flute (doubling Piccolo), Clarinet in B-flat, Bassoon, and Horn in F
Score and Parts, PDF $13.99
Peter H. Bloom is a Boston-based flutist, whose original compositions and arrangements are published by Noteworthy Sheet Music. From the Drawer was written for Tenor or Soprano, with Flute (doubling Piccolo), Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn, and provides a musical setting for the intensely emotional poem by Constantine Cavafy.
The musical setting is a sonic image of the intensely emotional response to a flood of memory that informs the poet’s narrative: now pensive, now anxious, now wistful, now joyous, now fraught, now resigned, and ever mercurial." P. H. Bloom, September 19, 2015
Our sheet music edition of From the Drawer was featured on the New Products page of the Summer 2016 edition of "The Flutist Quarterly", journal of The National Flute Association.
Score, 14 pages; Tenor or Soprano part, 2 pages; Flute part, 4 pages; Clarinet part, 3 pages; Bassoon part, 3 pages; Horn part, 3 pages; Total, 29 pages.
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We also offer a professionally-printed hard copy edition of From the Drawer for $23.78 plus a $5.95 shipping and handling fee. Due to prohibitively high international shipping rates, we ship print editions only to addresses in the USA. Please use the Contact Us form to let us know which hard copy publication(s) you would like to purchase, along with your email contact information and USPS mailing address. We will then send you a PayPal invoice for the sale and, once we receive notice from PayPal that you have paid for the item(s), we will ship your music to the address provided.
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Foster - Old Folks; Oh! Susanna - Vo/Pf/Fl/Vc
Old Folks at Home and Oh! Susanna, by Stephen Foster
Arranged with Flute and Cello ad lib by John W. Pratt
Flute Parts, Cello Parts, Voice Parts, and Piano Scores ― PDF $7.99
The following excerpts are taken from John W. Pratt's foreword to the edition:When a Golden Oldie comes to mind, Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
Comic, sad, or any kind, Oh! Doo-dah-day!
Jeanie, Swanee, Kentucky, Joe, Doo-dah! Doo-dah!
Beautiful, dreamy, fast, or slow, Oh! Doo-dah-day!
I'll bet I know who wrote it, he wrote them night and day,
Stephen Foster wrote it, he'll never go away.
Stephen Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pa., on July 4, 1826...He wrote over 200 songs, including 135 parlor songs, 28 minstrel songs, and 21 hymns and Sunday school songs. A remarkable number are memorable, as the ditty above will attest to anyone with anything like my background. One wonders why. The harmonies and rhythms are basic, as are the forms and rhyme schemes (see above), the music is repetitious, and the vocal range rarely goes outside an octave (a great benefit for community singing). Yet the fit is so natural and the pacing so well judged that the songs are ideally effective and diabolically catchy. Foster is perhaps, though on a different plane, the Mozart of his field...
For a pianist playing several stanzas at a sing-along, Foster's songs do become a little dull. But their very simplicity, repetitiousness, and familiarity abet variation as, again on a different plane, chorales serve Bach chorale preludes. Like chorale preludes, the piano parts here always incorporate the melody, so they can be played solo or to accompany amateur singers. It struck me that they could be enhanced by optional flute parts. After writing them, I discovered that, according to his brother Morrison, Foster himself "delighted in playing accompaniments on the flute...As the song went on he would improvise...the most beautiful variations upon its musical theme." If Foster's improvisations were like the one his brother published, however, they just varied the melody itself in the manner of the period. My game is more ambitious, as you will easily see. I added optional cello parts, mostly for color, as in the Haydn trios but superficially more interesting for the cellist. (Again we are on a different plane, of course.)
"Oh! Susanna," one of the best-known American songs by anybody, is Foster's "Erlkönig." (Speak of different planes!) With its nonsensical lyrics and polka beat, it is clearly comical, and I treated it accordingly. It was written in Cincinnati, possibly for a social club, first performed at an ice cream saloon in Pittsburgh in 1847, and published in 1848. When no American song had sold over 5,000 copies, it sold over 100,000. It earned Foster only $100, but its popularity led to a publisher's offer, convincing him to become a professional songwriter, America's first.
"Old Folks at Home" established Foster as a truly American composer. It was written in 1851 for a blackface troupe whose leader paid Foster about $15 to be credited for it. When almost finished, Foster asked his brother for "a good name of two syllables for a Southern river." He rejected Yazoo and Pedee, but was delighted with Swanee, a shortening of Suwanee, a small river in Florida which his brother found in an atlas. Though about a slave's nostalgia for home, I find its theme universal and melancholy and I resisted the temptation to jazz it up. Please try, at least, a slowish tempo.
― John W. Pratt, May 27, 2013 ©
Flute parts, 2 pages; Cello parts, 2 pages; Voice parts, 2 pages; Scores, 7 pages; Total, 18 pages.
PreviewGifford - The Pied Piper of Hamelin - An Operetta
The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Marjorie Otis Gifford
An Operetta, from the Poem by Robert Browning
Facsimile Edition by Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC, PDF $24.99
Marjorie Otis Gifford (1909-2003) was a composer, choirmaster, and long-time music and piano teacher in CT and NY. At age 24, she put music to Robert Browning's classic poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin, creating a children's operetta for her students. In her preface to the operetta, Mrs. Gifford states that perhaps the best performance of The Pied Piper was at the Lenox School in NYC, where she was teaching in 1938; that production was directed by Antoinette Perry, who later became known as 'Tony' of the Tony Awards. Indeed, there are additional famous personalities and much fascinating history associated with the remarkable life of Marjorie Otis Gifford.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin operetta was brought to NSM's attention by Gale Finlayson, daughter of composer and music educator Walter Finlayson, and we created our facsimile edition of the operetta at Gale's request. Marjorie Otis Gifford and Walter Finlayson were great friends, and in her preface Mrs. Gifford credits Mr. Finlayson with putting her operetta down on paper. NSM has received permission to publish the operetta from both the executor of Mrs. Gifford's estate and from Deborah O'Connor, the artist who created the charming illustrations that grace the internal pages of the operetta. We hope that, in publishing our facsimile edition, we can contribute to sustaining the legacy of Marjorie Otis Gifford and enabling future generations of young music students to perform and enjoy her work.
Marjorie Otis Gifford's The Pied Piper of Hamelin operetta was performed by the Rutland Youth Theatre of Rutland, VT, on March 2, 2018; click the link to visit YouTube and watch clips of this performance videotaped and posted by Ms. Finlayson.
Score with music and lyrics for voices and piano accompaniment, 67 pages; text of the Robert Browning poem addendum, 7 pages; Total, 78 pages.
Hatton - Wreck of the Hesperus - Theatre Orchestra
The Wreck of the Hesperus, by J. L. Hatton & H. W. Longfellow
Arranged for theatre or salon orchestra by Peter H. Bloom
Tenor, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, & Double Bass Parts, and Mini-Score ― PDF $19.98
The "dramatic scena" was an especially popular entertainment at its zenith in the mid-nineteenth century throughout the English speaking world. John Liptrot Hatton's setting of Longfellow's Wreck of the Hesperus is the very model of the dramatic scena at its finest, and a magnificent showcase for an heroic tenor. Longfellow's ballad recounts a chilling tale loosely based on conflated reports of two New England shipwrecks that occurred during a single devastating blizzard in 1839. This arrangement of Wreck of the Hesperus for theatre or salon orchestra was made for the now retired D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band of Boston, and their extraordinary tenor Kevin McDermott. It can be heard on the Hall's Band's CD recording "Grand Concert," winner of the Noah Greenberg Award of the American Musicological Society. (excerpted from Peter H. Bloom's © foreword)
Click the mp3 icon to listen to an audio clip of Wreck of the Hesperus from the Hall's Band CD recording Grand Concert!.
The D.C. Hall's Grand Concert! CD is available from NSM - click to access the page.
Tenor part, 4 pages; Flute part, 2 pages; Bb Clarinet part, 2 pages; Violin part, 2 pages; Viola part, 2 pages; Double bass part, 2 pages; Mini-Score, 8 pages; Total, 26 pages.
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We also offer a professionally-printed hard copy edition of The Wreck of the Hesperus for $29.97 plus a $5.95 shipping and handling fee to addresses in the USA. Please use the Contact Us form to let us know which hard copy publication(s) you would like to purchase, along with your email contact information and USPS mailing address. We will then send you a PayPal invoice for the sale and, once we receive notice from PayPal that you have paid for the item(s), we will ship your music to the address provided.
Schubert - Auf dem Strom - Vo/Cl/Pf
Auf dem Strom, Op.119, by Franz Schubert
Obbligato transcribed for A-Clarinet by C. A. Vater
Piano Score and Parts for Voice and A-Clarinet, PDF $9.50
The great Austrian composer Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) was a master at creating extremely beautiful, melodic, emotional lieder. His song Auf dem Strom (On the River) provided a musical setting for the text of the eponymous poem written by the German poet and music critic Ludwig Rellstab. The lyrics tell the story of a sad parting, of the yearning and loneliness that sets in as the narrator bids farewell to a loved one on shore, while his river journey carries him away towards the sea. The premier performance of Auf dem Strom took place in Schubert’s 1828 public concert, during which the obbligato part was played by Josef Lewy on horn, the instrument for which the obbligato was written and which undoubtedly can provide an appropriately mournful, sentimental character to the piece. However, an alternate obbligato version for cello was also published. Now, with all respect, we provide an A-clarinet version of the obbligato, in expectation that clarinetists will appreciate this addition to the voice/clarinet/piano repertoire. We believe that a well-played clarinet can aptly contribute a suitably complex, dolorous essence and tone that will adequately do justice to this highly romantic lied by Schubert. Schubert himself created one of his most wonderful and popular works, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, for clarinet obbligato, and we hope he would welcome our adaptation of Auf dem Strom for A-clarinet.
Score, 19 pages; Voice part, 4 pages; A-Clarinet part, 4 pages; Total, 32 pages.
PreviewSchubert - Auf dem Strom - Voice/Bass Flute/Pf
Auf dem Strom, Op.119, by Franz Schubert
Obbligato transcribed for Bass Flute by C. A. Vater
Piano Score and Parts for Voice and Bass Flute, PDF $9.50
The great Austrian composer Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) was a master at creating extremely beautiful, melodic, emotional lieder. His song Auf dem Strom (On the River) provided a musical setting for the text of the eponymous poem written by the German poet and music critic Ludwig Rellstab. The lyrics tell the story of a sad parting, of the yearning and loneliness that sets in as the narrator bids farewell to a loved one on shore, while his river journey carries him away towards the sea. The premier performance of Auf dem Strom took place in Schubert's 1828 public concert, during which the obbligato part was played by Josef Lewy on horn, the instrument for which the obbligato was written and which undoubtedly can provide an appropriately mournful, sentimental character to the piece. However, an alternate obbligato version for cello was also published. Now, with all respect, and at the suggestion of our flutist colleague Peter H. Bloom, we offer a bass flute version of the obbligato. Most of the transposed horn part falls nicely within the sweet range of the bass flute, and very few adaptations were required. Though clearly having different sonic qualities than a horn, the bass flute lends a forlorn, haunting, earthy tone that can well do justice to this Schubert song. After giving the bass flute obbligato a try, Mr. Bloom commented: "Fabulous! // The tone-color of the bass flute for this number is gorgeous."
Piano score, 19 pages; Bass Flute part, 4 pages; Total, 32 pages.
PreviewSing Along Materials
Sing-Along Materials, arranged by John W. Pratt
Piano Scores and Lyrics, Free Downloads
In an ongoing project with John Pratt, we are uploading a variety of free materials for community sing-alongs. These include large-font lyrics sheets and piano scores with modifications or arrangements by Mr. Pratt. Just click on the title links or download buttons to access the pdfs, free of charge.
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Our friend John Pratt decided to liven up the traditional Thanksgiving hymn when he plays it at his extended family's annual feast, and we decided to make his version freely available to others similarly inclined. The first stanza is traditional, the second adds all the octaves John is able to play, and the third replaces the usual bass line with one which marches along step-wise, mostly in eighths, leading to a few nontraditional harmonies. For 2022 he added an optional piccolo part to accompany the piano and voice score.
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Large-font lyrics for Christmas carols and Thanksgiving songs [1] to [42]Mr. Pratt has also created a booklet format for the large-font lyrics for holiday songs [1] to [42], called The NSM Carol Book, which is handy for group sing-alongs and is easily re-usable. The booklets should be printed double-sided on 8.5" x 11" paper (or 9" x 12", if available), stapled in the middle and folded to form a 5.5" x 8.5" booklet. Since printing directions will be different for every printer, we leave it to our visitors to know what settings to use on their own equipment to have all pages come out in order, right-side up, etc. With my Canon ImageCLASS MF4890 machine, for example, I would do the following: print using fit to page, landscape orientation, 2-sided, flipping on short edge; then staple along the mid-line and fold down the center along the staples so that the Contents are on the front page. Note that a long-arm stapler (reaching to 5.5") is required for manual stapling, but some institutions may have printer/copiers that can auto-staple along the mid-line.