SKU: BT.DHP-0890148-020
This 4-movement suite is based on authentic folktunes from the beautiful southern province in France: the Provence. The composer used an harmonic language respecting the popular characteristics, but on the other hand also contains some spicy notes (... just like the wellknown Provençal sauce! ...). The instrumentation is very colourful, paying a lot of attention to the different timbres of both brass and wood winds as well as to the percussion section.Every movement has its own character: Un Ange a fa la crido (= An angel brought the creed / credo) is like a bourrée, Adam e sa Coumpagnou (= Adam and his companion) is an old love song, Lou Fustié (= the carpenter)a fast dance and finally Lis Escoubo (= a whistle tune / popular ballad) is a farandole. In the latter, the old tradition of folk musicians who play a whistle with one hand and a drum with the other hand, is clearly represented during the first presentations of the one and only theme)Although this piece is not too demanding, a well balanced band is necessary to perform it successfully. Thanks to the contrasts and the varying colours, it keeps on holding the attention. Dieses vierteilige Werk basiert auf alten Volksliedern aus der Provençe. Der Komponist verwendet diese Melodien in einer farbig instrumentierten Suite und braucht hierbei eine Klangsprache, die einerseits den volkstümlichen Charakter nichtverleugnet, aber andererseits doch ab und zu eine pikante Note enthält.Die Teile sind: Un ange a fa la crido, Adam e sa coumpagno, Lou Fusti en Lis Escoubo.
SKU: PR.140401330
ISBN 9781491134412. UPC: 680160684939.
Nathaniel Dett was among America’s leading composers in the early 20th century, and MAGNOLIA SUITE is a beautiful example of his rich, hybrid style. Deeply inspired by the music and mission of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dett’s piano music springs from the late Romantic traditions of florid texture and embellishment, along with programmatic titles and raw emotion. It is notable for melody writing inspired by and paraphrasing African-American song. The 18-minute MAGNOLIA SUITE contains five movements, any of which may also be performed separately. This edition by Lara Downes provides a clean, new engraving that corrects the many errors and unclear indications appearing in the historical printing.Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in a place that was built on freedom. The little village of Drummondville, Ontario was founded by enslaved Africans – Dett’s ancestors among them – who traveled the Underground Railroad out of the American South into Canada. Their journey brought them to a safe haven, a place where fortunes and futures could be transformed in the span of one generation, to lives full of new possibilities. You could call it “the place where the rainbow ends,†which is the title of the last movement of Dett’s Magnolia Suite.When Dett wrote these pieces, he was a young teacher at Lane College in Tennessee, a historically Black college that had been founded in 1882, the year of his birth. A place built on freedom, with the purpose of educating newly-emancipated slaves – a place designed to nurture the blossoming of ideas, the vibrant flowering of minds set free. This music is inspired by the gorgeous splendor of the magnolia blooms on that college campus, and also by the shared histories, experiences, and aspirations of the community that Dett found there.These five pieces pay affectionate tribute to lineage and legacy. They express gratitude for the bittersweet beauties of the present; nostalgia for the past (a bit romanticized, as the past always is); and an effervescent optimism for the future that awaits us in the place where the rainbow ends.
