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| 2016/07/30 06:59:47瀏覽243｜回應0｜推薦5 | |
Sowash: Sunny Days for violin, clarinet and piano
Corinne Cook's North Carolina-based violin-clarinet-piano trio named their ensemble "Sonsa" (the Russian language’s word for "sun") because all three musicians have family in Belo-russia, because the word is short, optimistic and easy to spell, and because the trio’s first big adventure was to be a performing tour of that country. Corinne asked me to compose a work the trio could play on the tour. Thinking that Belo-russian audiences might like to hear what an American composer could do with their country's folk music, I asked Corinne to send me a selection of some of the better-known Belo-russian folk songs. With “sun” in mind, I chose five folk tunes that seemed to me to have a “sunny” character. The one that opens the first movement is even entitled, “The Sun Also Shines.” We don’t usually think of Russians as having “a sunny disposish,” but as I set about writing this piece, images of sunshine seemed to pour in. I didn’t resist. Who wants yet another grim and grumpy piece of music? Since my music was turning out to be sunny, hopeful, even humorous, I titled the suite, “Sunny Days.” It was 1994 and we were still trying to figure out what to make of the sudden, unexpected end of the Cold War, five years earlier. Accordingly, I gave those Belo-russian folksongs an "American" treatment, intending the music to serve as a metaphor of hope, cooperation and mutual appreciation between the countries of the former Soviet Union and our own country. Let us cling to that hope all the more fervently now, as relations between Russia and the West become ever more strained. The piece begins with an Introduction: stern, impressive, mighty and momentous, as if three powerful world leaders are taking their positions behind three podiums on a stage before the United Nations. Picture them, ‘dressed for success,’ their postures stiff, their faces deeply serious. They seem poised to announce something sombre, sweeping and grandiose. Then comes a surprise. The introduction gives way to an ‘oom-pah, oom-pah’ in the piano … and the three leaders smile, embrace and, laughing, they begin to dance! ah, HA! To hear the opening movement of Sunny Days played exuberantly by violinist Paul Patterson, clarinetist Anthony Costa and pianist Phil Amalong, click here: http://www.sowash.com/ To see a PDF of the score, click here: http://www.sowash.com/ |
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