Broadway '79

[vkioulaphides]

Dear friends,

yesterday evening, at Carlo Aonzo's New York Mandolin Workshop, a work of mine titled Broadway '79 was given its (MOST gratifying to the composer, I must add) world premiere. As is my custom, I had promised Carlo, who commissioned the piece, not to circulate it prior to the premiere, for reasons that are self-evident. After the premiere, it is now effectively "in circulation".

Broadway '79 is my own celebration, shared musically with all my mando-friends, of my 30 years in New York. As many of you know, the Big Apple went virtually bankrupt between 1974 and 1975. When I arrived, it was still an indescribably rough, grimy, crime-infested, down-on-its-luck kind of place. Yet, what an AMAZING place it was! New York was then truly the Great City of the Arts: every other loft was an avant-garde art gallery, every other basement housed a performance-art company, there were jazz clubs galore!

I spent many, many happy hours in those legendary jazz clubs, listening to the likes of Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and countless others. Emerging in le ore piccole, the wee hours past midnight, from those suffocatingly smoky clubs, greeted by the night chill --and... *ahem*... ever-so-slightly buzzed-- with ALL that music still ringing in my ears, left an indelible impression on me. Thirty years later, the music is still with me-- no, FYI, the buzz itself is gone.

Broadway '79 is an instrumental jazz ballad, scored for two soloists in alternation, playing one "chorus" each, joining on the refrain, twice over (the form, in other words, is (A-A'-B) X 2; the rest is a (VERY simple, chordal, sempre tremolando) orchestra of first and second mandolins and mandolas, plus "walking bass" mandocello. The piece lasts about 5 minutes, and can be put together with just a couple of rehearsals-- once the soloists know their own parts, that is.

The score is yours for the asking, entirely free. My home e-mail is vkioulaphides@earthlink.net and I can easily e-mail score and parts in PDF format to anyone around the world. All I ask for "in return" is that, should there be any performance(s), the respective performers could be so kind as to let me know the who-where-and-when, just for my own sake and further gratification.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Victor

[Ira Chavis]

Victor, it is a truly a beautiful piece and i am honored to play it with you at the concert yesterday. I'll have the recording soon so if you like you can distribute it with the sheet music. Good seeing you over the weekend. Ira

[vkioulaphides]

Oh, it was great seeing you, Ira! Great, great fun, all around. Thank you for your kind words regarding my piece.

Thank you also for your generous offer; however, while I would LOVE to have an audio copy for myself, I really prefer not to circulate one to others, i.e. those who might consider playing this piece. The point is that I don't care much for the "classical" music world's affliction of "performance history", and all the madness that goes with it. In the case of a MODERN piece, in particular, I truly think it is best for everyone to put his/her own heart and soul into the piece, happily disregarding any and ALL such "performance history"-- for as good as yesterday's performance was, and for as pleased as I am with it. I trust you will understand my reasons.

Hope to see you well before next March!

[For the record, Ira had the dubious fortune of sitting right in front of me during the entire workshop; I have therefore sworn him not to discuss my MANY *ahem*... infelicitous moments of finding myself in the wrong position, with the wrong finger(s), etc. and sounding appropriately out of whack. "What happens at the workshop STAYS at the workshop". ]

Cheers,

Victor

[billkilpatrick]

can't wait to hear it - long ago and far away, b'way and 79th street was just four blocks away ...

i might have misinterpreted something else: from the tone of your initial posting (and your previous message, concerning a choice of guitars for friends visiting you in greece) i gather you're about to leave the city - is this true?

- bill

[vkioulaphides]

Hello, Bill.

You are not alone in having gotten this impression that I am leaving New York; in fact, several participants in Carlo's workshop asked me whether I am about to leave. I am not. A celebration of an anniversary is not necessarily a declaration of change of course. I must have been misleading... Apologies.

What is true is that I plan to spend gradually more time in Greece; my parents are getting older —who isn't?— my nephews are growing up, my old friends are dear to me. In short, life is precious, and not to be missed. Eventually (i.e. upon retirement— which is NOWHERE near, according to my portfolio ) I plan to spend approximately the spring-to-fall stretch of the year in Europe (with my paternal home in Athens as pied-a-terre) and the rest in America (ditto on the New York home-base), heading out to various and sundry destinations across the New World, as it were.

In either case, Bill, please feel free to visit us on EITHER side of the Atlantic.

OK, enough personal trivia. Back to the mandolin!

Cheers,

Victor

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Victor,

Thanks so much for again another beautiful composition! We'll play it coming Wednesday at our rehearsal on this side of the Big Pond.


Best greetings on behalf of all the Consorters,

Alex

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you, Alex! Please give me you honest evaluation after you and Het Consort have had a chance to play through it. This piece is obviously not written in my own, everyday musical language, but is rather a "style study" in a post-Gershwin idiom. You understand all that, of course.

Also thank you for the lovely (lithograph?) image you attached. Indeed, such images of various peoples were ENORMOUSLY popular in centuries past. The "cultural implication" was always something like "thus do the Italians", "this is what Germans look like", "this is what Dutchmen wear", etc. While we may consider such stereotypes, well... stereotypical nowadays, this kind of iconography made a HUGE contribution to world culture.

The man depicted is clearly an islander --perhaps an ancestor of mine! -- with his baggy pants, the soft, colored cap, the calf-stockings, the sash... I would hazard a guess that he is from the Cycladic islands, although of course foreign visitors often combined elements in the spirit of artistic license. For those who appreciate the MOST arcane of trivia: the cap this fellow is wearing was known across the Eastern Mediterranean as kulah, from the Persian word for "hat", from which cap-wearing habit, and the manufacture of such hats, is derived the surname... Kioulaphides.

The musician depicted is playing a tamboura, a common (if also widely and wildly divergent) long-necked lute, played in Greece all across the Byzantine millennium, from the 4th to the 15th century, and well beyond. It is a close relative of the Italian colascione, which I suspect the Venetians brought over from their maritime possessions: the Greek islands!

While I am no organologist --I defer to real experts like Alex-- I believe that the tamboura was "mandolinized" in the mid-20th century, yielding as a hybrid the Greek bouzouki: a long-necked lute with a staved bowl.

The only thing I can attest to with full confidence is that this picture DID, indeed, put a big smile on my face.

Cheers,

Victor

[Jory]

I loved Broadway '79, Victor - it was just beautiful. I'm posting a you tube video of Ralf Leenen playing his Embergher for your enjoyment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GwlZqNoDQ

enjoy -

I so enjoyed meeting you.

Happiness,

Jory

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you for your kind words regarding my piece. As for our recent acquaintance, the pleasure was all mine.

Indeed, Ralf is the "Ysaye of the Mandolin"-- only half the size, of course. In a sense, what Ysaye did with his unaccompanied works for the violin, vis-a-vis Bach's violin partitas, Ralf has done with his STUPENDOUS Suite for Unaccompanied Mandolin. If I could play 10% of it after 10 years of assiduous practice, I would call it a great personal accomplishment.

See you around!

Cheers,

Victor

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Victor,


I have - as you suggested - made a guitar part for Broadway '79. Not one with simply chords but one that also follows the mandola and mandoloncello part closely. That's because I felt that in this way the guitar section would not 'disturb' the 'easy and jazzy mood' of the piece.

Last Wednesday we gave it a try and we all like it very, very much. What a beautiful piece for orchestra again! Thanks; we will perform it at our concerts this season and in France in September '09.


Greetings from all Consorters!

Alex.

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you, Alex!

Oh, I am sure that the guitar part you wrote for Broadway '79 is MOST artistic and appropriate! As you surely understand, Carlo specified that he had wanted a guitar-less score, due to the instrumentation of his N.Y. Mandolin Workshop. Still, a nice guitar part would be welcome and, as you say, a repetitious, strum-strum-strum kind of part would be a minus, not a plus; on the contrary, a better integrated, "organic" part (like the one I am sure you wrote) would greatly enhance the sonority of this piece.

As always, I look forward with great excitement to hearing Het Consort perform this little piece of mine. The French are great jazz aficionados; let us hope they enjoy my foray into this all-American art-form. As for the not-so-little piece I have been "cooking" for you all it is coming along well. More on that in the weeks to come...

Cheers,

Victor

[John Craton]

Sounds great, Alex! Out of curiosity, where is Bancygni, France? I cannot locate it on any of my maps and am having no better success Googling it ... and I can even find Duck Nest Springs, Alabama, on Google

[vkioulaphides]

Oh, but... Bancygni IS Duck Nest Springs in French! (Isn't there some cygnus Latin cognate in there, as in "swan"?)

[John Craton]

Closest I could come up with would be something like "applauding swans," but I hardly think that's an accurate translation.

[Alex Timmerman]

I quite like that: "applauding swans"...






PS. I 'll have a look where this nest of swans can be found .

[vkioulaphides]

It sounds like some picturesque locale in Gascogne, with a little inn sporting a "Montaigne Slept Here" shingle...

[Alex Timmerman]

Mistery solved!

Due to an unfortunate error (of mine) the poster shows the name of the village as Bancygni while it should be written as Bancigny...

It is a place suituated in the department of Aisne in Picardie in northern France.


Best greetings,

Alex .

[vkioulaphides]

... which, of course, is also a LOT closer to Holland than Gascogne. Well, I sure hope that the Bancigneux (IF that's how you call them) enjoy my piece, and the concert in general. I expect even the local waterfowl (ducks, geese, swans, etc.) to sing along with those lovely, warbling mandolins.

Cheers,

Victor

[Alex Timmerman]

I see we -John, Victor and myself - are all 'on line' here at the moment.

Therefore it is, although it should better be placed under the topic 'Concerts of note', good to know that in France we will also perform John Craton's 'Danseríes Ancíennes' for mandolin orchestra. A splendid new work with an ancient and medieval feeling at it (just excellent to start a concert with!) and the 'Three Rag's' by the American composer Gerladine Dobyns, a set of excellent arrangements John made. Gerladine Dobyns' Ragtimes are wonderful examples of this genre, that really need to be heard. If we want to compare them with for instance those fantastic ones by her contemporary Scott Joplin, I would say Dobyns' are more refined and certainly equally beautiful.
I hope that many orchestras will play John's Ancient Dances and his Dobyns arrangements!


Best greetings,

Alex.

[Alex Timmerman]

Victor, I am sure that when they hear your Broadway '79 all the birds will s(w)ing along with us.


Best,

[vkioulaphides]

Let us hope the birds get all those syncopations right!

I also want to mention that I was one of the first to hear John's Danceries (albeit in a computer-generated, synthesized audio file), and found them MOST wonderful! Needless to say, they will sound ever so much better on real instruments, and will without a doubt be a great hit in France, and all around.

Cheers,

Victor