New Mandolin Music, Coming Up...

[vkioulaphides]

Dear friends,

our mandolin community is ever "the gift that keeps on giving". While my decade of 100+ mandolin-works is well behind me, my love for our instrument is of course undiminished, and the friendships I have formed with fellow mandolinists over the years as warm as ever— and my many mandolinist friends seem to remember me, too.

As a result, I am booked solid with requests to write mandolin music stretching all the way till June 2016, believe it or not. On my plate at present is a short work for unaccompanied mandolin for Caterina Lichtenberg, whose students will be performing music from the Balkans in Bulgaria on January 17, 2015; a duet for mandolin and mandola for Chris Acquavella and Fabio Gallucci, slated for recording in 2015; an ambitious work for countertenor and plucked orchestra for Het Consort of the Netherlands, slated for performance at the world-renowned Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; a quartet for two mandolins, guitar and bass on a private commission, slated for performance in 2016.

As is always my practice, I will be circulating all these scores freely after their respective premieres. First, time to roll up my sleeves...

Cheers to one and all mandolinists around the world,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

OK, friends... the first baby is about to be delivered. I had the rare opportunity of a quiet day at home (Columbus Day) to write down my thoughts with a single stroke of the (virtual) pen, all in one sitting. The Greek folk idiom is so in my genes, of course, that it doesn't take much for music in that style to flow.

The solo piece for Caterina and her students has been baptized Balkonies (sic). As you all know, balconies are a staple of traditional architecture in our part of the world, plus the word-play in the name has some subliminal alliteration to "Balkans", which is after all the theme of the program.

Cat had asked me to deliver this score by the end of November to allow her students time to learn it but, by any reasonable estimate, I should be able to do so by the end of October— returning then immediately to the duet for Chris A, which is already three-quarters sketched.

After the Bulgarian premiere of the solo piece on January 17th, I will be circulating the score to all my usual contacts; if anyone would like to be added to the list, please just zap me a quick note with your email. I don't SPAM the innocent but gladly share with the willing and receptive.

Cheers,

Victor

[Jim Garber]

Excellent, Victor. As usual, I am looking fwd to hearing the results of your always wonderful work.

[vkioulaphides]

Thanks, Jim.

A strange experience, in a way... time and again I have felt "written out", that I have said just about all I ever had to say by way of mandolin-music. Invariably, at that very moment someone comes along and asks me for the one thing I have not yet written.

In this case, while I have all sorts of arrangements of Greek folk music for mandolin, plus a truckload of original music for plucked instruments, I truly do not have an original piece for unaccompanied mandolin in that idiom. It simply never occurred to me.

Enter Caterina, and the rest is history. Once she and her students have given the premiere in January, I may impose on your kindness yet once again, namely to post this work among the others of the same genre, for all to hopefully enjoy.

Cheers,

Victor

[stevenmando]

Hi I am looking forward to your post , I am of Bulgarian decent, Bulgarian pride and love Balkan music and all music in that area

[vkioulaphides]

Hello, Steven.

Thank you! We also have a dear friend and denizen of Mandolin Café among us who is native Bulgarian, Plamen Ivanov. He has not been active on the forum as of lately, but you will surely enjoy meeting him some day on these threads, if you haven't already.

Caterina writes, "So far we have Bulgarian composer Rossen Balkanski, than Bela Bartok, Wienjawski, Ilja Dragunov, D. Rogaljov and a traditional Gankino (from Bulgaria)." No doubt that must be music to your ears.

Cheers to one and all,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

OK, dear friends, Balkonies has just been delivered to Caterina.

As is my usual practice, I will keep it under wraps until the premiere by her and her students on January 17th, 2015; after that, I will circulate it freely.

In Martial's deliciously cruel aphorism, non scribit cuius scripta nemo legit, he doesn't [really] write, he whose writings no one reads.

True to that wise dictum of two millennia ago, I write music for it to be played and nothing gives me greater joy than to watch my compositions in use, and hopefully enjoyed.

Cheers,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

Never the one to drag my feet I have just delivered my latest "baby" to Chris Acquavella now, end of November. Why wait for the spring, as originally scheduled? Inspiration comes when it does, so why put it on hold?

The piece is called Aguacero, referring to those spectacular rainfalls in the Caribbean— something I have experienced time and again while visiting my wife's family in the Dominican Republic: a true "wall of water" coming down from the heavens. The piece is just that, an impression, a "moment in time" when the rain comes down, whipping the broad leaves of the palm-trees, thrashing the lush, tropical vegetation with its relentless energy.

I am sure that Chris and Fabio will do it justice, and that the picture I have painted with this score will come across in the most vivid, vibrant colors. I will keep this score under wraps until the CD is released. After that, it will become public, as usual.

Next on my plate, a most ambitious undertaking: three Britten-esque seascapes, a song-cycle for male alto and orchestra of plucked instruments, slated for performance next fall in the Netherlands. Much to think about, new paths to find...

Cheers to one and all,

Victor