Pearls-Roland Szentpali

My next piece will be the first Pearls Suite composed by Roland Szentpali.  It is a three movement composition with the titles as follows:  Ducati SPs 916, My One and Only Love, Suzie.

About the Composer,

Roland Szentpali is a Hungarian Tuba Soloist and Composer.  He mainly composes in the Jazz style.  Some of his most notable works are his Tuba Concerto, Sketches 1998 for Euphonium and Piano, Pearls I, II (for Euphonium), and III (for Tuba), and Parallels for Tuba.  Quite a few of his compositions are chamber works that include A-typical instrumentation, for example in Dance Movements he calls for tuba, electric guitar, bass guitar, and percussion.  This implies that he is attempting to fuse the idiomatic solo structure, with solo instrument and piano/ensemble accompaniment, and exploring the solo instrument with almost a jazz instrumentation accompaniment.  In all seriousness, he is incredibly successful with it.

About Pearls,


The first movement, Ducati SPS 916, is named for a motorcycle that was, at the time, the fastest "street-legal" motorcycle available for purchase.  This movement explores the style of funk, this is evident from the syncopation's and the general feel of the accompaniment.  This movement has an electronic accompaniment available (but not easily), it isn't for purchase but if you were to kindly ask someone that does posses a copy I'm sure they would be willing to pass it on.  According to some professionals, Szentpali was never very happy with how the electronic accompaniment turned out, which is why he never had it for sale.  I believe he originally gave it to Steven Mead and then it was passed on from there.  I do posses this accompaniment and will upload the a video of the piece with the electronic acc., in the near future.  The entire suite was written for trumpet player Gabor Doldoczki, which limits the range of the piece.  It extends from a low G to, at the most, high f1.  The movement has no key signature, instead it modulates by use of accidentals.  The main challenges of this piece will be keeping a consistent tempo, and the general flexibility between ranges.  There are also some extended techniques including: flutter tonging, glissandi, and it is typically performed with added turns or lip trills.  Here is a recording of Jamie Lipton performing Ducati with piano accompaniment. 



The second movement, My One and Only Love, was written for Cornejo-Garas Denissey (who was the composer's girlfriend for over nine years) and is in the style of a jazz ballad.  The movement has a slow almost improvisatory feel.  It is often performed with embellishments on the melody, including turns or small improvised figures to help aid the emotional bluesy feel of the piece.  This can also be said for the piano accompaniment.  In Danny Helseth's recording he uses what sounds like a cup mute (rather than the typical straight mute) during the piece to give it a unique jazzy sound.  The biggest challenge for this piece is the musicality, making sure it doesn't become boring.  Adding those additional figures mentioned above can help but they should not be the only thing the performer brings to the table with this piece.  Adding dynamics and rubato will help bring this piece to life, the best thing you can do is simply get into the music!  Here is a recording where Szentpali is actually playing the accompaniment part.




The third movement, Suzie, has a Latin Quasi Samba feel to it.  It is a very vague samba because the piano is so busy and complex the entire time.  It is easier to feel as a samba if you feel the piece in 2/2 rather than the written 4/4.  The piece was written for a dancer and very close friend of Szentpali.  The most challenging aspect of this piece are the general technical facility required to play the fast 16th note passages.  The other challenging aspect would be trying to capture the style/character of the piece.  It can be incredibly difficult if you aren't familiar with the samba style.  The first thing one should do is look up some popular samba pieces, after a little research of the style the player should have a better grasp at what the piece is asking for.  There are many printing errors in this movement (actually throughout the entire suite).  Rather than explaining all of them you can view a dissertation done on this piece, it was done by Christopher Buckley at the University of North Texas in 2010.  I will post 2 recordings of this piece, the first is just a straight forward performance by Abe Ryunosuke (euphonium) and Roland Szentpali (piano).




The second is of Steven Mead with a Midi File accompaniment, its easier to feel the samba in this one.

Pilatus "Mountain Air"-Goff Richards

Goff Richards was a prominent English Brass Band composer and arranger, while also composing for other ensembles.  Some of his notable works for brass band include:  "Pastorale," "Trailblaze," "Doyen," and of course many others.
Pastorale


 Doyen


Trailblaze




Goff Richards was born in Cornwell and attended school at the Royal College of Music (known today as RNCM).  After his studies he became the Head of Music at Fowley School at the impressive age of 21.  After teaching he became a professional musician working with Malcolm Arnold.  He was also responsible for forming five well known ensembles including:  The Goff Richards Orchestra, Burnished Brass, Percusssion Plus and The Arcadians.  Richards recently passed away in June of 2011, his death has been considered a great loss in the brass/composition world.

He composed/arranged 12 pieces for Euphonium including Pilatus.  Most of these pieces are entirely/include a beautiful lyrical section to showcase the beautiful tone of the Euphonium.  Pilatus is one of those pieces that is entirely lyrical and one of my personal favorites.  It was originally composed for Steven Mead and Brass Band Burgurmusik Luzern in 1994.  The Piece describes the Pilatus, the city of Lucerne's famous local mountain.  The mountain has a couple very interesting legends to go along with its history. 

"History
Although the first written reference to Mount Pilatus came in the 13th century, it is believed that the Celtic herdsmen inhabited Mount Pilatus even before that. It was with the completion of the Gotthard route that the real story of Mount Pilatus began. Richard Wagner on reaching the Mount Pilatus in 1859 was overwhelmed with the views from this great mountain. From King Don Carlos of Spain to England’s Queen Victoria and Atlantic explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, all were impressed by the Alpine panorama from Mount Pilatus. (www.switzerlandflexitours.com)"

The two legends are as follows

"The Legends of Pilatus
From time immemorial, local people around Mount Pilatus believed that the tiny lake in the Oberalp dip was to blame for the terrible storms in the area. Devastating thunderstorms appeared as soon as ripples were made in the waters. People feared the restless ghost of Pontius Pilate, said to rise from the waters every Good Friday to wash the blood of Christ from its hands."

"The Dragon Legend of Pilatus

In medieval times, it was believed that dragons with healing powers lived in the rugged clefts and crevices of Mount Pilatus.

In the summer of 1421, a powerful dragon flew to Mount Pilatus and landed so close to a farmer by the name of Stempflin that he fainted. When the farmer came to, he discovered a lump of coagulated blood and a dragon stone, the healing powers of which were officially confirmed in 1509.

The chronicle of Petermann Etterlin tells how Regional Governor Winkelried killed one of the Mount Pilatus dragons: he wrapped a spear with thorn twigs and thrust it into the open mouth of the dragon, finishing the beast off with a sword. In the process, drops of poisonous dragon's blood spurted on to his hand. These drops - and the poisonous breath of the dying dragon - froze the blood in Winkelried's veins and he also met his death.

In the early hours of the morning of 26 May 1499, a wondrous spectacle was seen in Lucerne: after a terrible thunderstorm, an enormous, wingless dragon rose out of the wild waters of the River Reuss at the Spreuer bridge. The beast had probably been taken by surprise by the thunderstorm and washed down from Mount Pilatus in the Krienbach, which flows into the Reuss beneath the Jesuit church. Several well-respected and educated townspeople authenticated the truth of this story."  (www.pilatus.ch)

As you can see, Goff Richards had plenty of inspiration for writing his piece about Pilatus.  From listening to the piece it would seem to me that he focused on the majestic and mysterious qualities behind the mountain while composing.  I think this lead to the beautiful and occasionally mysterious melodies in the piece.