Ear 2012

THEORY ESSENTIALS, 2/e offers a unique, total solution to teaching music theory. Integrating all the components of the two-year music theory sequence, the text and its accompanying workbook synthesize the major topics in music theory with aural skills, keyboard applications, and examples from the literature.

At age five, George began playing the piano sitting on the piano bench next to his mother, a classically trained pianist, watching and listening. One day, he started playing along with her by ear, and he was hooked. Eventually George performed at talent shows in his elementary schools, and on weekends, his father took him to the piano store at the local mall. Crowds would gather around to watch, perhaps this was an early indication performing was destined to be in George’s future.

The distinctive soundscape of this CD stems from the unique church interior at Løgumkloster in the south of Jutland, Denmark. Beneath the high vaulting, in the cloisters and in the small hidden spaces of the abbey, the flautist Eva Østergaard (b. 1966) has recorded a series of layers of sounds on fl utes of all sizes from piccolo to bass. The music was written specifi cally for Eva, the church and this CD by five Danish composers, all of whom explore the remotest reaches of the instruments and the building.