Title Our Best Wishes
Date of composing December 2017
Duration [2’34”]
Genre piece for woodwind quartet (flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, bassoon) and percussion for 2 players (triangle, tambourine, cowbell, glockenspiel)
Style Neo-Renaissance
Level of difficulty intermediate to advanced
Copyright © 2016 Natalia Pispini
Inspiration and musical structure
Allegretto giocoso. In G. The work is about winter celebrations, and there were three major sources that inspired me in composition.
One is my remembering of Russian snow, its sound when you walk over, its smell, and a very special mood which you experience in winter when the New Year day is coming soon.
The second source is my impression after the Greek carols kalanda. Nowadays, they are still performed in Greek villages. Young boys and girls, or very small kids wander around in neighborhood, knock the doors and sing kalanda where they express good wishes to the householders. The singers accompany themselves with metallic triangle trigono, or framed drum tumbeleki, or even bagpipe gaida. Many of those songs are coming from the Byzantine past, bearing the old musical style connected with natural and church modes, or with regular rhythmic patterns-formulas etc. Greek kalanda may have uneven rhythmic schemes which are common in Balkan music.
The third source is Renaissance Italian genres like frottola and madrigal.
The character of the piece is light, merry and joyful. I imagined kids playing light percussion instruments, singing their wishes with light and high voices. The rhythm is uneven 7+7/16. The unevenness brings an elegance and some ethnic nuance, and it refreshes the normal 6/8 basic scheme. The harmonic structure is simple and consists of the triads passing from one tonality to another.
The ternary form /:A:/BA2 has repeated interludia sectors.
Performance notes
Rhythmic accuracy, perfect synchronization in time and manner of playing (legato, staccato and tenuto) are important. It is possible that the parts of triangle, tambourine and cowbell can be played by one musician if these instruments are framed.
! This work may be commissioned or/and performed. If you want to play this piece, please contact Natalia. In your message, kindly provide some information (brief introduction, ensemble title, website, contact details). The score, parts and all necessary material will be sent to you within a week.
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