Rags, Riffs & Reveries
Dear mandolin friends around the world,
I am delighted to share with you all a work of mine titled Rags, Riffs & Reveries, commissioned last year by my friends Barbara and Joseph Blumenthal in centennial celebration and commemoration of Barbara's 1916 Gibson A. It was premiered yesterday evening in lovely (if also frozen over) New England; my only regret is that my work prevented me from attending what must have surely been a joyous occasion.
This piece echoes American music, popular at the time Barbara’s mandolin was built, flanked as it were by the style of the eras right before and right after that: the current musical fashion was edgy ragtime, preceded by the maudlin sentimentality and homeliness of fin-de-siecle parlor songs and leading up to all the spunk and vigor of nascent swing, pushing relentlessly forward into the ‘30s and ‘40s.
So I am happy to share the score and parts of this piece in the hope that you, too, may get to enjoy it. It is scored for two mandolins, guitar, and double bass. The odd-numbered movements are dances from that most vibrant, colorful era, scored for the full quartet, while the even-numbered movements are interludes for mandolin and bass alone. I never care for over-analysis; just imagine stepping into the sets of Woody Allen’s Café Society…
As always, if interested, please just zap me a message here, giving me your email address, and I will promptly reply with the score and parts as PDF docs.
Warm greetings to you all from icy New York,
Victor
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
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