Four Motets (score & parts)(Short) - 4BSN

  Des profundis clamavi
  Belle, pour l’amour de vous
  Mille regretz
  De tous biens plaine

This is the printed music.  To purchase the PDF, click HERE.

When transcribing vocal music for wind instruments, one of the most important, and most nuanced,choices one must make is where to add slurs. Singers use an enormous variety of different consonantand vowel sounds to enunciate and connect (or separate) notes. By contrast, wind instruments are relatively more binary: We can articulate a note (albeit with a range of qualities), or not articulate a note (with a somewhat smaller range of qualities).

To solve this challenge, I have chosen a two-tiered approach:
• Solid slurs are used where a single vowel is sustained through multiple notes, in which a singer either would not rearticulate successive notes or would do so very gently (as with repeated notes under a slur).
• Dotted slurs are editorial suggestions based on gentler consonants, elided vowels, and logical note
groupings.

These suggestions can be changed or disregarded as the performer sees fit; a wide range of different articulations are musically justifiable. Similarly, all dynamics, expressive markings, and tempo indications are strictly editorial, and can be replaced at will.
To assist in the performer's interpretive choices, lyrics to each motet are included in the full scores. In order to minimize unnecessary information in individual parts, those are presented without lyrics.
"De profundis clamavi" is presented in a shortened form. In my opinion, the first part works beautifully for bassoons, whereas the second part is somewhat less convincing without text.

More than anything, I hope that these arrangements provide a satisfying opportunity to perform what is, for me, some of the most beautiful music ever composed.  

- Billy Short, March 2025

     William Short was appointed Principal Bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2012. He previously served in the same capacity with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the Houston and Detroit Symphonies and the Philadelphia Orchestra. William has performed as soloist with the Vermont and Delaware Symphonies, the New York Classical Players, and the Strings Festival Orchestra. He is a founding member of the Gotham Wind Quintet and has performed many times with the Camerata Pacifica, Dolce Suono, and Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble chamber music series.
     A dedicated teacher, William serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Temple University. In addition, he is a Visiting Faculty member at The Tianjin Juilliard School and has held visiting guest positions at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has presented classes around the world, including at conferences of the International Double Reed Society, for which he served as a board member from 2017-2021.
     William has performed and taught at the Interlochen, Lake Champlain, Lake Tahoe, Mostly Mozart, National Orchestral Institute, National Youth Orchestra, Stellenbosch (South Africa), Strings, Twickenham, and Verbier Festivals. An occasional arranger, editor, and composer, his work has been published by the Theodore Presser Company and TrevCo Music.
     William received his Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Daniel Matsukawa and Bernard Garfield, and his Master of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Kamins. As a student, he attended festivals including the Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Verbier Festival. Additional major teachers have included Jeanine Attaway, Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and William Lewis.
     A Fox Artist, William plays on a Model 750, which he is proud to have helped develop.