PSNY Welcomes George Perle

by Isaac Bunch on March 17, 2015, 5:46 p.m.

Last summer, Schott Music announced the acquisition of nearly fifty works by renowned American composer and scholar, George Perle. In a career spanning over fifty years, Perle won many of the greatest composition prizes in the United States, including a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize. A leading scholar of the Second Viennese School, Perle co-founded the Alban Berg Society with Igor Stravinsky and Hans Redlich in 1968. After teaching all over the United States, Perle returned to his native New York City area later in life and continued to compose and lecture until his death in 2009. 

May 6 marks the centennial of Perle's birth, and to celebrate we'll be adding selected chamber works from his catalogue to PSNY in the coming months. To kick off his centennial celebration a few weeks early, Perle’s Woodwind Quintet No. 3 is now available for download from PSNY. Check out an excerpt from Mvt. II "Scherzo": 

This week also sees new works available from Pierre Jalbert, Fred Lerdahl, Joseph Schwantner, and Scott Wollschleger. Two new Jalbert works include his String Quartet No. 5, and the Copland House commission, Crossings for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The two piano version of Fred Lerdahl’s 1994 orchestral work, Quiet Music, along with Lerdahl’s violin and cello duo, Give and Take, which just received its premiere at the Musica Nova Helsinki Festival, have also been added to PSNY. Other additions this week include the score for the chamber orchestra version of Joseph Schwantner’s New Morning for the World, and Brontal 6, a new work for piano by Scott Wollschleger.  

Richard Carrick's "Cycles of Evolution"

by Isaac Bunch on March 12, 2015, 1:49 p.m.

New York-based composer Richard Carrick has released “Cycles of Evolution,” a new album showcasing a wide variety of works for chamber and large ensemble. The album, which can be purchased via New World Records and iTunes, features a string orchestra arrangement of Carrick’s PSNY work, Adagios, performed by the String Orchestra of Brooklyn and Toomai String Quintet. “Cycles of Evolution” also features his recent work Sub-merge for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn in F, and bassoon, now available on PSNY. The album also features performances by Either/Or and Hotel Elefant, as well as musicians from the New York Philharmonic.  

Several full scores have also been added to the PSNY catalogue this week, including the 1982 Stephen Paulus opera The Postman Always Rings Twice, which is available via direct digital download for the first time ever. Other full scores include René Leibowitz’s Wind Quintet, Op. 11 and Tobias Picker’s Symphony No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3. 

Remembering Stephen Paulus: The Postman Always Rings Twice

by Ted Gordon on March 10, 2015, 12:58 p.m.

Stephen Paulus, one of America's most prolific and celebrated contemporary composers of vocal music, has left us with a treasury of beautifully composed works, after his passing in late 2014. A Minnesotan originally from the East Coast, he found a home for his unique style of lushly tonal, romantic compositions in the mid-west, and beyond. This performance of his "Pilgrim's Hymn" at the Milwaukee Art Museum is a perfect example of Paulus' haunting compositional voice. Paulus has written about the composition of this work on his website; his son, Andrew Paulus, will be publishing these collected "work stories" every month. 

 One of his most widely-known pieces was his 1982 opera, "The Postman Always Rings Twice", based on the novel of the same name. A dark tale of forbidden love and conspiratorial murder, it has been performed throughout the United States. Now, for the first time, a full-sized study score for this powerful opera is available as a direct digital download. For a taste of this opera, check out this short documentary about a 2011 production at Boston University.