AN AMERICAN CANTATA
This symphonic work, composed and entirely orchestrated by Yeston contains his musical setting of Martin Luther King’s landmark I HAVE BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP speech as its Second Movement (click below on this page to hear it). A Choral Symphony for 2,000 voices and orchestra and written in three Movements, it was commissioned in 1999 by the Kennedy Center for Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra and premiered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the millennium celebration in July of 2000. A fuller description, and more recordings from it to listen to, can be found as an independent American Cantata page on this website.
DECEMBER SONGS FOR VOICE AND ORCHESTRA
A piano/solo voice Song Cycle written on commission from Carnegie Hall on the occasion of its Centennial Year celebration, Victoria Clark’s brilliant rendering of the December Songs, accompanied by a 37 piece orchestra conducted by Ted Sperling, with orchestrations by Larry Hochman, was later recorded. Click here for more information and to listen to some of it. In addition to this orchestral score, December Songs is also available from CONCORD THEATRICALS for voice and small chamber ensemble accompaniment, as well as Piano/Vocal format.
CONCERTO FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA
Composed in 1975 and premiered by Yo-Yo Ma and the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Gilbert Levine (1977 - click on the link below to hear his performance) this piece is inspired by Yeston’s profound childhood memories of his grandfather, who was a Cantor, and his passionate Hebrew cantillation in Orthodox synagogue before the Congregation, hence the responsorial treatment of solo and multiple celli with each other and with the orchestra. The opening theme is a 12-tone row, drawn from the sacred Sabbath prayer Tikantah Shabbos sung in the Hebrew Musaf service. Scroll down on this page to listen to the performance!
TOM SAWYER - A Ballet in Three Acts - For Orchestra
Hailed by Alastair Macaulay in the New York Times as “the first full length three-act story ballet wholly created by an American composer, choreographer and ballet company”, this work was recorded with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra under Martin West at Skywalker Sound and released by PS Classics. Scroll down to hear the Dance of The Fireflies where Tom and Huck head toward the cemetery in early evening as they appear. Tom Sawyer can also be found more fully described, with additional musical tracks, including the shorter Tom Sawyer Orchestral Suite, on this website here: Tom Sawyer, and a link to its Recording can be ordered there or by clicking Products.
TOM SAWYER SUITE
A twenty-one minute Orchestral Suite musically culled from the Ballet by the composer, suitable as a selection for Orchestra and Pops Orchestra concerts.
TOM SAWYER – SOLO PIANO VERSION
Complete 90-minute Piano score suitable for Concert or Performance or Dance Recital.
TRILOGUES FOR THREE STRING QUARTETS
A Chamber piece conceived as a Drama for instruments, in three Movements.
AUBE AND OTHER IMAGES
For Voice and Chamber Orchestra – a setting of the Rimbaud poem, Aube (Dawn), in English translation for male or female voice.
SONATA FOR PIANO
This quasi atonal sonata in one movement premiered at Sprague Hall, Yale University. Yeston had been studying with Donald Martino, Howard Boatwright, and Yehudi Weiner at the time of composing it.
FIVE ECSTATIC SONGS - For Piano and Soprano
Composed while in residence at Clare College, Cambridge, this collection of atonal miniatures based on nursery rhymes, was jazz influenced and written under the tutelage of Patrick Gowers.
MY GRANDMOTHER’S LOVE LETTERS - Hart Crane
A setting of the Hart Crane poem for Voice and Piano, not to be confused with a song of the same title that Yeston composed and included in his December Songs as an hommage to Crane.
SONG FOR VIOLIN (For Violin and Piano)
VALSE MELANCOLIQUE - For Piano
C-MINOR ETUDE – for Piano
(Click CONCORD THEATRICALS for rental of all above Scores and Parts)