Van Appledorn, Mary Jeanne (1927-2014) Website
formerly of Lubbock, TexasContrasts for piano
4'45" $9.00 #040080 AP-118
Recording: CRS CD 9664Composed in 1946, this is an example of the composer's early style when she was a student at Eastman. It is in three movements, homages to Bartok, Bloch and William Schumann, and is part of a three-work retrospective, joyous and effervescent. It is inscribed to Howard Ingley. Contasts was recorded by Kristian Rasmussen for CRS Master Recordings in 1966.
A Liszt Fantasie for Piano
5' $10.00 #040081 AP-119
Recording: North/South Consonance (Contemporary Romantics)"...a piece with echoes of Lisztian rhetoric in an unabashedly contemporary context. This is intelligent, evocative music." (Fanfare)
"...a bravura, high-flying pastiche of long-breathed melody, tremolos, rolling basses, a gypsy theme, trills, celestial arpeggiating...the works. It is a terrific trip!" (IAWM Journal)
A Liszt Fantasie for piano was written in 1984 and dedicated to William F. Westney. The piece makes musical references to themes from fifteen compositions by Franz Liszt. A list of the themes and the sources appears at the end of the score.
Parquet Musique pour Clavecin (harpsichord)
3' $7.50 #040090 AP-207
Recording: Gasparo Records CD 290"a composer with a wide range of styles and forms to her credit." (The Music Connoisseur)
Van Appledorn dedicated Parquet Musique (1990) to organist and harpsichordist, Barbara Harbach. The piece is short but fast in nearly continuous sixteenth notes, sometimes single notes in each hand and sometimes clusters, that only occasionally break for a pause and a change in tempo.
Cellano Rhapsody for cello and piano
4' (score and part) $10.00 #040097 AP-707
Four Duos for Viola and Cello
6'30" $8.00 #040098 AP-708
Recording: Opus One 147 CD"This work is a significant addition to the slim repertoire of duos for viola and cello." (The Violexchange)
Dedicated to Susan Schoenfeld and Arthur Follows, Four Duos was awarded First Prize in the Texas Composers' Guild Contest. It was premiered in and recorded on Opus One in 1989. The movements are brief and are marked: Lento, Allegro, Moderato, and Presto.
Introduction and Allegro for violin and organ
2' $10.00 #040158 AP-751Inscribed to Kirsten Yon and Sigurd Ogaard, Introduction and Allegro (2007) for violin and organ is a brief and straightforward piece of moderate difficulty.
Incantations for Oboe and Piano
7'30" Score and Part $12.00 040113 AP-723
Recording: Living Artist Recording CD5Incantations for Oboe and Piano was written in 1998 and dedicated to Amy Brisco Anderson who also edited the piece. There are four movements. In Memoriam, the first, is a short, free movement with many pitch bends and quarter tones for the oboe (with the fingerings precisely indicated) and long sustained chords in the piano. Bacchanal is a fast movement that gets faster as it builds momentum to a fortissimo finish. Ambience continues without a break, alternating outbursts in the piano with those in the oboe. Ritual has a moto perpetuo piano part with a more lyrical oboe part, and an extremely loud final flourish
Incantations for Trumpet and Piano
4' Score and Part $10.50 #040114 AP-724
Recording: Opus One CD 162
"Van Appledorn's Incantations has a bluesy tone straight from Miles Davis." (American Record Guide)Incantations (1991) was commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Music Education Building at North Dakota State University. Written for the celebration of the house, the piece also reflects upon the third Sunday after Easter for which the Introit of the day begins "Jubilate." It is in two short movements which are described in a review in Fanfare Magazine of the Opus 1 recordIing as "a yearning, chanting molto espressivo, followed by a rapid, celebratory piece which conjures up The Shrovetide Fair in Petrouchka."
Missa Brevis
for voice and organ or trumpet and organ
8' 30" $ 7.00 #040057 AP-336
Recording: Contemporary Record Society 8842The piece had its premiere in October Hall at the Saratov State Conservatorie in Saratov, U.S.S.R., in 1987. The performance was by Anatoly Selianin with organist Trina Khudiakova. Robert Birch, trumpet, and Carol Feather Martin gave the American premiere at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. and have recorded the piece on a Contemporary Record Society album entitled Brass and Pipes.
Written in 1998 and based on Psalms 100, 13, 117, 23 and 150.
Galilean Galaxies for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano
6'30" Score and parts $9.00 #040138 AP-739
Recording: CRS Artists CD0072Galilean Galaxies was written in 2000. There are three movements: Spatial Nuances, Neutron Sparkles, and Super Novae.
Passages III for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
8'30" $11.00 (piano score & parts) #040150 AP-749
Recording: Eroica Records JDT 3196Passages III is a trio for clarinet, cello and piano that was commissioned in 2003 by Trio Montecino. The piece continues the composer's concept of creating movements based on the colors of a specific musical scale or motive. . The six movements do just that. The opening Allegro contains octatonic and modal scale constructions. The following Moderato features energetic bi-chordal structures. Third is a Presto of octatonic melodic and vertical structures.
Fourth is a fugato based on a Lydian tetrachordal subject. Next is Mesmeric Moment founded on pentatonic structures in the D Dorian scale. Lastly, Marcato features minor ninth chords alternating with quartal structures performed at sforzando dynamics throughout.
Rhapsody for Trumpet and Harp
(Score and part) 7'45" $10.00 #040123 AP-733
Recording: Opus One CD 169The Rhapsody (1993) is a ballade or 'song without words' that recalls the compositions of ancient wandering minstrels (rhapsodists). Unlike most rhapsodies, which are irregular in form, this one alternates two sections, A B A B A. Van Appledorn's music has been variously described as "highflying...a terrific trip" and "intelligent and evocative" (Fanfare).
Soundscapes for Solo Bassoon and Strings
8'25" $15.00 (score & parts) #040149 AP-748Soundscapes is a sextet for solo bassoon, two violins, viola, cello and contrabass. It is in four movements alternating slow and fast and was commissioned by bassoonist James Hough, to whom the music is dedicated. The composer writes: "...each movement creates a particular soundscape of musical texture, timbre, melody and rhythm."
The opening Adagio creates a thick texture with a driving melody in the bassoon.
The second movement, Allegretto, features hammerstroke rhythms in the opening section and undulating melodic lines a tritone apart in the violins in the second section before the opening music returns. The Lento, also in ternary form, has a sonorous melody in sarabande rhythm at first, while the second part has a deeply expressive bassoon melody against duplet rhythms in the violins. The final Allegro is in rondo form and recalls material from earlier movements.
Songs Without Words
for two high sopranos and piano
3'30" $ 7.00 #040058 AP-337
Recording: Living Artist Recording CD5These three songs were written in 2000 and dedicated to Kathy and Linda McNeil. The titles are "La la la," "Ooo-Ah" and "Ta-ka-ta-ka-tu." The two vocal parts consist of imitative lines sung on nonsense syllables. The piano part includes several special effects such as glissandi and tone clusters played with the arm on the black keys.
Two Shakespeare Songs:
Under the Greenwood Tree (1'10")
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind (2'20")
SATB and piano
3'30" $3.50 #040002 AP-502Stylistically crisp and rapidly projected, this double feature exemplifies the choral trends of the Eisenhower years.
"...intelligent, evocative music." (Fanfare)
Originally from Michigan, Mary Jeanne van Appledorn is Professor of Music at Texas Tech University. She was educated at the Eastman School of Music where she received a B.Mus in piano, an M.Mus.in music theory, and a Ph.D. In 1956 she gave her New York debut as a pianist at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall. Her compositions have been performed throughout the United States and in Russia and Japan. The New York City Ballet choreographed her music, Set of Seven, for the company's fortieth anniversary.
Sisra Publications (the name Arsis Press uses for ASCAP composers) has published these works: A Liszt Fantasie and Contrasts for piano; Parquet Musique pour Clavecin (harpsichord); Sonic Mutation for harp; Missa Brevis for voice and organ or trumpet and organ; Songs Without Words for two high sopranos and piano; Five Psalms for trumpet, tenor voice and piano; Incantations for trumpet and piano; Galilean Galaxies for flute, bassoon, and piano; Four Duos for viola and cello; Cellano Rhapsody for cello and piano; Two Shakespeare Songs for SATB and piano; Incantations for oboe and piano; and Introduction and Allegro for violin and organ.
Other music by Mary Jeanne van Appledorn is available through Oxford University Press, Carl Fischer, Galaxy Music, and Dorn Music. Recordings can be heard on the Opus One, Contemporary Record Society, Century, Crest, and Capstone labels.
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