The Great Western, Violin 1 Part

The Great Western is as title suggests, an evocation of trains. It is another fun piece, with much emphasis on triplets and chromatics: Music Teacher Magazine. / Ensemble A Cordes

Wunderkind Sonatas I K. 6-9 for Piano and Violin-At the time Mozart?s genius recognised at an early age could only be explained as being God-given. Wolfgang Amadeus and his sister Maria Anna older by five years were admired as being 'Wunderkinder' (prodigies) on theirtravels through Western Europe between 1763 and 1766. The piano sonatas ?with a violin accompaniment? K. 6 9 were composed in Paris. It is wonderfully fresh and varied music. The piano is joined by a violin that adds colour butnot as an equal partner unlike in the later great violin sonatas (see HN 77 80). This music is not only ideally suitable for piano and violin teaching purposes but will also allow musicians who already know ?everything? todiscover some treasures.With marked and unmarked string parts

The final movement of the Sonata in A major KV 331 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the Rondo Alla Turca is one of the most famous piano pieces of all time. Once only familiar to musical experts later a universal piece for all piano pupils its opening melody is now even omnipresent as an alienated sinus tone-like mobile phone ring tone. Fazıl Say's arrangement originally created as an effective encore follows on from this popularity. After the first eight bars have been presented in original form typical elements of jazz superimposed on the still recognisable classical foundations can be discovered such as syncopation of the top notes andornamentation through chromatic blue notes embedded in the at times frenzied chains of semiquavers. In the spirit of the work's improvisatory character Say likes to perfom his Alla Turca Jazz in different combinations for example accompanied by jazz singers of with orchestra. It may appear strange that Fazıl Say who was born in Turkey and - when not on tour - is still resident in that country does not bring back Mozart's interpretation of genuine Turkish music closer to its own roots particularly as many of his compositions such as Black Earth or the Violin Sonata are characterised by a subtle amalgamation of the Classical-Romantic tradition Turkish folk music and elements of jazz. In a further Mozart arrangement the ballet music Patara premiered in Vienna in 2006 composed on the basis of the Rococo-like theme from the first movement of the same A-major Sonata (wich enjoys almost as great popularity as the Alla Turca theme) Say utilised the connection which was absent in Alla Turca albeit in the opposite direction. In the ballet music the piano symbolises Western culture and the Ney flute Oriental culture communcated atmosperically by austere percussion instrumentation and soprano vocalisation.

The composer says: Several musical threads led to my writing this piece of music to celebrate my friend Matanya Ophee?s (AKA MO) 80th birthday - a life lived with the guitar. Jelly Roll Morton once asserted: ?In fact, if you can't manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning; I call it, for jazz.? Over the last couple of years I moved back to Jelly Roll Morton?s city: New Orleans, home of my adolescence and reacquainted myself with the tinges of Spanish in its rich musical heritage. One of these pieces was the Mardi Gras Mambo, an iconic song frequently played during Mardi Gras and, in David Newman?s reworking of the lyrics, at the New Orleans Saints football games as the Super Bowl Mambo. Uncited sources on both Wikipedia and Essortment say the word Mambo means ?conversation with the gods? in Kikongo, the language spoken by Central African slaves taken to Cuba where it became the name for a musical form and a dance style that developed originally in Cuba in the able hands of Cachao?s (Bassist Orestes Lopez) tune: Danzon Mambo. This rhythmic style became famous in the 1950?s following its use in dance bands in Mexico and through New Orleans to the United States. The infectiousness of the New Orleans re-interpretation of the Mambo?s ostinato bass line and the reaction of people who are readily moved to dance when they hear it spoke to me of dance and celebration. This led me to choose some of this piece?s characteristics and title for this piece: Mambo for MO. As we have progressed on the instrument, some of us may have encountered the four-chord descending minor chord progression known as the Andalusian cadence: i - VII - VI - V in many different genres and guises. After all, it appears in Ray Charles? Hit the Road, Jack, the verse on Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys, Walk, Don?t Run by The Ventures, Runaway by Del Shannon and in that great work arranged and embraced by the Guitar: J.S. Bach?s Chaconne from the Partita in D minor for solo violin, BWV 1004. This bass line derived from a Latin American musical style as reinterpreted in New Orleans, a chord progression that evokes the Flamenco Music of Spain, and my impressions of the sinuous lines of people dancing the Second Line in the streets of New Orleans at Mardi Gras led me to this synthesis as a tribute to a man who has contributed so much in his lifelong efforts for the guitar, its history and lore on the occasion of his birthday! Happy Birthday, Matanya! Carlos Barrientos was born on June 25, 1954 in Tela, Honduras. He began his formal music studies at the National Music Conservatory in Guatemala City, Guatemala C.A. His training with Maestro Elias Barreiro, Director of Guitar Studies at Tulane University, was supplemented with Master Classes with Manuel Barrueco, Leo Brouwer, Juan Mercadal, Michael Newman, Tommy Tedesco and Carlos Barbosa-Lima. He studied composition under the tutelage of Dr. Jerry Sieg, University of New Orleans, and Dr. Roy Johnson, Florida State University. He consulted with Michael D. Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Music, Albany State University, Albany, GA in the creation of a recordings library that reflects Western Art Music and American Jazz for the students at Albany State University. The New York Premiere of the First Movement of his Second Guitar Sonata was dedicated to and performed by Classical Guitarist Maestro Carlos Barbosa-Lima in 2003 at Carnegie Hall. At the request of U.S. Senator Bob Graham one of his compositions, Si Tu Te Vas (If You Go Away), was included on a recording to promote The Everglades Trail. In 2004, at the American Church in Paris, France the World Premiere of his Romance for Flute and Guitar was performed by the award-winning Serenade Duo, flutist Michelle LaPorte and guitarist Gerry Saulter. He has performed with such legendary musicians as Herbie Mann, Donald Byrd and Debbie Reynolds, led an on stage Renaissance Trio in a University of New Orleans production of Shakespeare?s Twelfth Night, and played incidental music for their production of Bertold Brecht?s The Good Woman of Sichuan. He has performed Carulli?s Guitar Concerto in A, Leonard Bernstein?s West Side Story and Marvin Hamlish?s A Chorus Line with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Okaloosa-Walton Community College, Niceville, FL, and with the Southern Art Music Ensemble, a Jazz/Latin Fusion Sextet, including an Honors Convocation in Atlanta for Mr. Ted Turner. He has been a guest performer with the Albany State University Jazz Ensemble at The Fletcher Henderson Jr., Macon and Atlanta Jazz Festivals, and played the banjo in the Albany State University /Albany Symphony?s co-production of George Gershwin?s Opera Porgy and Bess.