Listen to this music: 'Diferencias'!

[sailaway]

In browing the classical mando websites, I found Het Consort, which directed me to www.nemsis.nl/Diferencias.mp3. This site plays a wonderful piece of music, played by a fine mandolinist. In searching for Diferencias ( which is a generic spanish dance of the time of king Philip and his 4 wives ) I c ame up with many hits but no way to identify which Diferencias is the one I want ( in musical notation not tab ). I have fallen completely in love with this Diferencias and wish to use it as an audition piece in 6 months . Plucked String doesn't have it either. (This piece is well worth learning if only for the wonderful drone against a crescendo about 7/8 of the way through the small sample.). Can anyone help ?

even if you can't , listen to this music ! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Jacob]

I am unable to listen to the music you provided the link to, but perhaps it is 'Diferencias' by the Cafe's Victor Kioulaphides who has so graciously provided free sheet music for this and two additional compositions here (http://paperclipdesign.com/vk/).

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you for your kind words, Sailaway. Yes, these Diferencias (sobre Morenika) are my baby; the wonderful mandolinist heard on Het Consort's site is the young Dutch virtuoso Sebastiaan de Grebber.

Incidentally, I am currently writing a major concert-piece for Sebastiaan, a Rhapsody (for mandolin and piano). Obviously, he has "premiere rights". After he premieres the piece, I plan to put it, too, into general (and free) circulation.

Thank you again; your positive reaction means more to me than all the "official" pats-on-the-back.

Cheers,

Victor

[Jim Garber]

This is indeed the composition of our own Victor K. as played by Sebastiaan de Grebber from Alex's group. Beautiful piece and nice performance.

More info on Victor here (http://www.mandolineorkest.nl/informatie/encomponist01.htm).

Jim

[vkioulaphides]

...not to forget to mention with credit due our own Jim Garber, by whose expert technological help my little pieces are available to all.

The other two tidbits, Idillio and El Malecón, are essentially etudes: one for simple duo-style, tremolo melody and chordal accompaniment, the other for the "two-mandolins-in-one" effect, with dance-rhythm and tune broken up across registers.

[Martin Jonas]

(This #piece #is #well #worth #learning #if #only #for #the #wonderful #drone #against #a #crescendo # about #7/8 #of #the #way #through the #small #sample.). #
Wonderful piece indeed, and thanks to Victor's and Sebastiaan's generosity, both the sheet music and the recording are available for free online. I note you refer to a "small sample". If you're referring to the MP3 on the Consort web site, that's the entire piece, not just an excerpt.

Martin

[Eugene]

even #if #you #can't #, #listen #to #this #music !
We have...and I kinda like it to boot! #So much so that I listen to it with some frequency. #To clear up one little misconception, diferencias is not a specific dance but referred to a set of instrumental variations, often on a dance tune. #The term was common in the renaissance and early baroque, but faded as referring to such things as "variations" became more common. #As Victor says, his fine composition is based upon the Sephardic romance Morenika; if you keep looking for diferencias, you'll come across a good many: diferencias sobre las Folias, diferencias sobre Guardame las Vacas, etc.

[sailaway]

Kudos to V.K. for this wonderful piece of music. The intricate weavings of musical themes in Diferencias fascinate me, I have set my computer to play it each morning ,so at least part of the day will go well. Much gratitude to all for your help in finding this. And now, off to begin practice !-- and for those who are attending the upcoming Classical Mandolin Society annual meeting - Charley Rappaport of Albion PA, my instructor, will be playing some classical Eastern European melodies also recorded on his latest album of traditional music from all over the world, 'If I had a Red Tomato".....:)

[margora]

Victor: a question. In the de Grebber on line recording, he uses tremolo early in the piece. But there is no tremolo marked in the score?

[vkioulaphides]

No, Robert: No tremolo marked in the score.

But, as you know, music is never the judicial statement it is sometimes made to seem by musicologists: What I had meant was no tremolo, anywhere in the piece; the figuration is full enough of frill and filigree.

Still, when I hear Sebastiaan's brilliant rendition, with his own, interjected "duo style" in the theme, I have no objection. He does it, and does it well! Who am I to issue "thou shall nots"?

If, however, you are asking for a few words "from the horse's mouth", as it were, I meant the piece very Spanish-lute-like, ornate, meditative, embellished by figuration but without tremolo.

[margora]

Victor, thanks. My interpretation is sans tremolo but I wanted the "horse's mouth" position.

[vkioulaphides]

Well, then!

Also, when Russian virtuosa Anastasia Orlova won the "Star of the North" competition with a program including Diferencias —and bearing in mind the Russian taste for bravura and dazzling prestidigitation— I am inclined to surmise that she must have played it quite a bit faster than I meant it, making it thereby into some sort of vehicle for virtuosity.

As you understand, however, the intention behind the piece is that it should sound as if the performer is making it up as (s)he goes: slowly, deliberately, musing on the various possible ramifications of the haunting, old song. That being the case, one performer's "improvisation" need not sound anything like any other's.

[Jim Garber]

As you understand, however, the intention behind the piece is that it should sound as if the performer is making it up as (s)he goes: slowly, deliberately, musing on the various possible ramifications of the haunting, old song.
That reminds me of a wonderful recording of Thelonious Monk playing Round Midnight and talking to himself as he deliberately chooses various chords. I like that idea, Victor. It is also the way I play anyway.

Jim

[vkioulaphides]

Of course!

And, besides, that is exactly the way the piece came into being, after all. In other words, I did not suddenly decide "lemme see, now... one 4-bar phrase here, oh, let me throw in some old, one-bar elision into the next one, then this, then that", mechanically, Lego-like.

Instead, the piece took form in my memory after years and years of playing Morenika (the original song) in a hundred-and-one different guises, on all those folk-lute gigs I have played since time immemorial. The score is nothing but a distilled —dare I say "concrete"? #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif— written-down version of all those improvisations.

But, as we all understand and appreciate, the creative process does not end as soon as the composer has laid down his pen...

[John Craton]

Indeed, Victor, and well said. When I was young (a looong time ago), I attempted to write every nuance I envisioned for a piece as I composed it. But later I found that such an approach makes the perfomer a mere machine. In my more recent works I try to give only the most basic indications for performance beyond the notes themselves -- even relatively few crescendos and decrescendos. The real artistry is revealved by the performer, not by silly composers like me. I feel that my job is to give the performer the idea and then leave it up to the artist (and the listener) to provide the rest. Or am I just nuts? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[vkioulaphides]

Well, whether you (and/or I, for that matter) are nuts, THAT I leave for others to judge! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

But what you say is true: The day that every single performance is to be identical to every other, then, heck, let's just get rid of me, and you, and Alex, and Sebastiaan, and Richard, and Neil, and everybody else on this board and let's have instead all music entered into and played back by computers!

Technologically possible, of course, and not improbable, either. Still, that would be a sad day for humanity... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif