By 1814 he had produced piano pieces settings of Schiller and Metastasio, string quartets, his first symphony and a three-act opera. Although family pressure dictated that he teach in his father's school, he continued to compose prolifically; his huge output of 1814-15 includes Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkönig (both famous for their text-painting) among numerous songs, besides two more symphonies, three masses and four stage works. From this time he enjoyed the companionship of several friends, especially Josef von Spaun, the poet Johann Mayrhofer and the law student Franz von Schober. Frequently gathering for domestic evenings of Schubert's music (later called 'Schubertiads'), this group more than represented the new phenomenon of an educated, musically aware middle class: it gave him an appreciative audience and influential contacts (notably the Sonnleithners and the baritone J.M.Vogl), as well as the confidence, in 1818, to break with schoolteaching. More songs poured out, including Der Wanderer and Die Forelle, and instrumental pieces - inventive piano sonatas, some tuneful, Rossinian overtures, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies began to show increased harmonic subtlety. He worked briefly as music master to the Esterházy family, finding greater satisfaction writing songs, chamber music (especially the 'Trout' Quintet) and dramatic music. Die Zwillingsbrüder (for Vogl) was only a small success, but brought some recognition and led to the greater challenge of Die Zauberharfe.
In 1820-21 aristocratic patronage, further introductions and new friendships augured well. Schubert's admirers issued 20 of his songs by private subscription, and he and Schober collaborated on Alfonso und Estrella (later said to be his favourite opera). Though full of outstanding music, it was rejected. Strained friendships, pressing financial need and serious illness - Schubert almost certainly contracted syphilis in late 1822 - made this a dark period, which however encompassed some remarkable creative work: the epic 'Wanderer' Fantasy for piano, the passionate, two movement Eighth Symphony ('Unfinished'), the exquisite Schöne Müllerin song cycle, Die Verschworenen and the opera Fierabras (full of haunting music if dramatically ineffective). In 1824 he tumed to instrumental forms, producing the a Minor and d Minor ('Death and the Maiden') string quartets and the lyrically expansive Octet for wind and strings; around this time he at least sketched, probably at Gmunden in summer 1825, the 'Great' C Major Symphony. With his reputation in Vienna steadily growing (his concerts with Vogl were renowned, and by 1825 he was negotiating with four publishers), Schubert now entered a more assured phase. He wrote mature piano sonatas, notably the one in a Minor, some magnificent songs and his last, highly characteristic String Quartet, in G Major. 1827-8 saw not only the production of Winterreise and two piano trios but a marked increase in press coverage of his music; and he was elected to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. But though he gave a full-scale public concert in March 1828 and worked diligently to satisfy publishers - composing some of his greatest music in his last year, despite failing health - appreciation remained limited. At his death, aged 31, he was mourned not only for his achievement but for 'still fairer hopes'.
Schubert's fame was long limited to that of a songwriter, since the bulk of his large output was not even published, and some not even performed, until the late 19th century. Yet, beginning with the Fifth Symphony and the 'Trout' Quintet, he produced major instrumental masterpieces. These are marked by an intense lyricism (often suggesting a mood of near-pathos), a spontaneous chromatic modulation that is surprising to the ear yet clearly purposeful and often beguilingly expressive, and, not least, an imagination that creates its own formal structures. His way with sonata form, whether in an unorthodox choice of key for secondary material (Symphony in b Minor, 'Trout' Quintet) or of subsidiary ideas for the development, makes clear his maturity and individuality. The virtuoso 'Wanderer' Fantasy is equally impressive in its structure and use of cyclic form, while the String Quartet in G Major explores striking new sononties and by extension an emotional range of a violence new to the medium. The greatest of his chamber works however is acknowledged to be the String Quintet in C Major, with its rich sonorities, its intensity and its lyricism, and in the slow movement depth of feeling engendered by the sustained outer sections (with their insistent yet varied and suggestive accompanying ngures) embracing a central impassioned section in F minor. Among the piano sonatas, the last three, particularly the noble and spacious one in B-flat, represent another summit of achievement. His greatest orchestral masterpiece is the 'Great' C Major Symphony, with its remarkable formal synthesis, striking rhythmic vitality, felicitous orchestration and sheer lyric beauty.
Schubert never abandoned his ambition to write a successful opera. Much of the music is of high quality (especially in Alfonso und Estrella, Fierabras and the attractive Easter oratorio Lazarus, closely related to the operas), showing individuality of style in both accompanied recitative and orchestral colour if little sense of dramatic progress. Among the choral works, the partsongs and the masses rely on homophonic texture and bold harmonic shifts for their effect; the masses in A-flat and E-flat are particularly successful.
Schubert effectively established the German lied as a new art form in the 19th century. He was helped by the late 18th-century outburst of lyric poetry and the new possibilities for picturesque accompaniment offered by the piano, but his own genius is by far the most important factor. The songs fall info four main structural groups - simple strophic, modified strophic, through-composed (e.g. Die junge Nonne) and the 'scena' type (Der Wanderer); the poets range from Goethe, Schiller and Heine to Schubert's own versifying friends. Reasons for their abiding popularity rest not only in the direct appeal of Schubert's melody and the general attractiveness of his idiom but also in his unfailing ability to capture musically both the spirit of a poem and much of its external detail. He uses harmony to represent emotional change (passing from minor to major, magically shifting to a 3rd-related key, tenuously resolving a diminished 7th, inflecting a final strophe to press home its climax) and accompaniment figuration to illustrate poetic images (moving water, shimmering stars, a church bell). With such resources he found innumerable ways to illuminate a text, from the opening depiction of morning in Ganymed to the leaps of anguish in Der Doppelgänger.
Schubert's discovery of Wilhelm Müller's narrative lyrics gave rise to his further development of the lied by means of the song cycle. Again, his two masterpieces were practically without precedent and have never been surpassed. Both identify nature with human suffering, Die schöne Müllerin evoking a pastoral sound-language of walking, flowing and flowering, and Winterreise a more intensely Romantic, universal, profoundly tragic quality. 03 Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy • (from the Nutcracker Ballet) Show Info Piotr Tchaikovsky Skanson MP3 Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy • This classical guitar with strings selection is from the Nutcracker Ballet.
The Nutcracker is a fairy-ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Composed in 1891–1892, and based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (German: Nußknacker und Mausekönig) by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Alexandre Dumas' adaptation of the story was set to music by Tchaikovsky (after the libretto of Marius Petipa) and has become the most popular ballet performed around Christmas time. It is appealing to children and adults alike and has been a standard yearly feature of theatres in many cities.
The music in Tchaikovsky's ballet is some of the composer's most popular. The music belongs to the Romantic tradition and contains some of his most memorable melodies which are frequently used in television and film. It also appeared in The Nutcracker: a Fantasy on Ice, a television adaptation for ice skating from 1983 starring Dorothy Hamill and Robin Cousins.Artist CommentsOf all the selections on the disc, this one was the most technically challenging to bring to the guitar. This Nutcracker ballet favorite was originally written for glockenspiel and orchestra. The glockenspiel is an instrument similar to a xylophone but instead of wooden bars, it has metal ones. It gives sort of a delicate bell sound when struck, so the challenge was to retain that feel when played on the guitar. Piotr Tchaikovsky (born Kamsko-Votkinsk, 7 May 1840; died St. Petersburg, 6 November 1893). His father was a mine inspector. He started piano studies at five and soon showed remarkable gifts; his childhood was also affected by an abnormal sensitivity. At ten he was sent to the School of Jurisprudence at St. Petersburg, where the family lived for some time. His parting from his mother was painful; further, she died when he was 14 - an event that may have stimulated him to compose. At 19 he took a post at the Ministry of Justice, where he remained for four years despite a long joumey to western Europe and increasing involvement in music. In 1863 he entered the Conservatory, also undertaking private teaching. Three years later he moved to Moscow with a professorship of harmony at the new conservatory. Little of his music so far had pleased the conservative musical establishment or the more nationalist group, but his First Symphony had a good public reception when heard in Moscow in 1868.
Rather less successful was his first opera, The Voyevoda, given at the Bol'shoy in Moscow in 1869; Tchaikovsky later abandoned it and re-used material from it in his next, The Oprichnik. A severe critic was Balakirev, who suggested that he write a work on Romeo and Juliet: this was the Fantasy-Overture, several times rewritten to meet Balakirev's criticisms; Tchaikovsky's tendency to juxtapose blocks of material rather than provide organic transitions serves better in this programmatic piece than in a symphony as each theme stands for a character in the drama. Its expressive, well-defined themes and their vigorous treatment produced the first of his works in the regular repertory.
The Oprichnik won some success at St. Petersburg in 1874, by when Tchaikovsky had won acclaim with his Second Symphony (which incorporates Ukrainian folktunes); he had also composed two string quartets (the first the source of the famous Andante cantabile), most of his next opera, Vakula the Smith, and of his First Piano Concerto, where contrasts of the heroic and the lyrical, between soloist and orchestra, clearly fired him. Originally intended for Nikolay Rubinstein, the head of Moscow Conservatory, who had much encouraged Tchaikovsky, it was dedicated to Hans von Bülow (who gave its premiere, in Boston) when Rubinstein rejected it as ilI-composed and unplayable (he later recanted and became a distinguished interpreter of it). In 1875 came the carefully written Third Symphony and Swan Lake, commissioned by Moscow Opera. The next year a journey west took in Bizet's Carmen in Paris, a cure at Vichy and the first complete Ring at Bayreuth; although deeply depressed when he reached home - he could not accept his homosexuality - he wrote the fantasia Francesca da Rimini and (an escape info the 18th century) the Rococo Vanations for cello and orchestra. Vakula, which had won a competition, had its premiere that autumn. At the end of the year he was contacted by a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, who admired his music and was eager to give him financial security; they corresponded intimately for 14 years but never met. Tchaikovsky, however, saw marriage as a possible solution to his sexual problems; and when contacted by a young woman who admired his music he offered (after first rejecting her) immediate marriage. It was a disaster: he escaped from her almost at once, in a state of nervous collapse, attempted suicide and went abroad. This was however the time of two of his greatest works, the Fourth Symphony and Eugene Onegin. The symphony embodies a 'fate' motif that recurs at various points, clarifying the structure; the first movement is one of Tchaikovsky's most individual with its hesitant, melancholy waltz-like main theme and its ingenious and appealing combination of this with the secondary ideas; there is a lyrical, intermezzo-like second movement and an ingenious third in which pizzicato strings play a main role, while the finale is impassioned if loose and melodramatic, with a folk theme pressed into service as second subject. Eugene Onegin, after Pushkin, tells of a girl's rejected approach to a man who fascinates her (the parallel with Tchaikovsky's situation is obvious) and his later remorse: the heroine Tatyana is warmly and appealingly drawn, and Onegin's hauteur is deftly conveyed too, all against a rural Russian setting which incorporates spectacular ball scenes, an ironic background to the private tragedies. The brilliant Violin Concerto also comes from the late 1870s.
The period 1878-84, however, represents a creative trough. He resigned from the conservatory and, tortured by his sexuality, could produce no music of real emotional force (the Piano Trio, written on Rubinstein's death, is a single exception). He spent some time abroad. But in 1884, stimulated by Balakirev, he produced his Manfred symphony, after Byron. He continued to travel widely, and conduct; and he was much honoured. In 1888 the Fifth Symphony, similar in plan to the Fourth (though the motto theme is heard in each movement), was finished. A note of hysteria in the finale was recognized by Tchaikovsky himself. The next three years saw the composition of two ballets, the finely characterized Sleeping Beauty and the more decorative Nutcracker, and the opera The Queen of Spades, with its ingenious atmospheric use of Rococo music (it is set in Catherine the Great's Russia) within a work of high emotional tension. Its theatrical qualities ensured its success when given at St. Petersburg in late 1890. The next year Tchaikovsky visited the USA; in 1892 he heard Mahler conduct Eugene Onegin at Hamburg. In 1893 he worked on his Sixth Symphony, to a plan - the first movement was to be concerned with activity and passion; the second, love; the third, disappointment; and the finale, death. It is a profoundly pessimistic work, formally unorthodox, with the finale haunted by descending melodic ideas clothed in anguished harmonies. It was performed on 28 October. He died nine days later: traditionally, and officially, of cholera, but recently verbal evidence has been put forward that he underwent a 'trial' from a court of honour from his old school regarding his sexual behaviour and it was decreed that he commit suicide. Which version is true must remain uncertain. 04 Carol of the Bells Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 Carol of the Bells "Carol of the Bells" (also known as the "Ukrainian Bell Carol") was adapted from "Shchedryk" by Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, which was first performed in December 1916 by students at Kiev University. It was a part of the Ukrainian National Chorus reportoire during its 1,000-plus concert tour around Europe and the Americas and was introduced to American audiences on October 5, 1921 at Carnegie Hall.
This rendition features 4 classical guitars, cello, and violins passing the familiar bell melody from instrument to instrument.
Originally a Ukrainian folk song that tells the tale of a swallow flying into a household to proclaim the plentiful year, the carol has been widely used in advertising, and humorous versions of it have appeared on South Park, Family Guy and Saturday Night Live. One famous use is in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, when the child Kevin McCallister is setting traps to catch the inept thieves Marv and Harry. Canadian band Barenaked Ladies performed a re-arranged version on their Christmas album Barenaked for the Holidays.
The English language lyrics were written in 1936 by Peter Wilhousky of NBC Radio. The song reminded of Wilhousky of ringing bells and he captured that imagery in his lyric.Artist CommentsThis selection was another interesting arrangement challenge. The familiar ostinato of ba-dee-dee-dum was difficult to make smooth in a solo guitar arrangement, so I decided to arrange this for a guitar trio of which I would play all 3 parts. Ah, the miracles of modern recording! Then we added strings like we usually do. The finished product is real cool with all of these different parts coming in and out throughout the song. Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 05 O' Holy Night Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 O' Holy Night
"O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" by Placide Cappeau. Translating the serene yet reverent nature of the selection is accomplished flawlessly by the classical guitar, cello, and violin of this recording. Skanson’s delicate touch also adds to the truly heart-warming nature of the sound.
In the carol, the singer recalls the birth of Jesus. It was translated into English by Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, editor of Dwight's Journal of Music in 1855 (note the abolitionist reference in the third verse: "for the slave is our brother"), and lyrics also exist in other languages.
"O Holy Night" may have been the first piece of music to be broadcast via radio, played on the violin.Artist CommentsThere are two moments in all the Christmas music repertoire that I think are the coolest. I tried to capture both of them on this recording. One is in Silent Night which I will mention later. The other is in this song. When the words go "Fall on your knees..." in the bridge of this song, I always get chills. I believe it to be one of the most brilliant chord changes ever written! This is one moment on the record not to miss! Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 06 Arabian Dance • (from the Nutcracker Ballet) Show Info Piotr Tchaikovsky Skanson MP3 Arabian Dance • From the Nutcracker Ballet, a lush string orchestra supports this classical guitar arrangement of this timeless classic. In the Nutcracker Story, the Nutcracker who turns into a prince leads Clara into the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The people of the Land of Sweets dance for Clara and the Prince in the dances of Dew Drop Fairy, Spanish, Chinese, Arabian (where this song is from), Russian, Mother Ginger, Polichinelle, Marzipan, Sugar Plum Fairy, and the Waltz of the Flowers. Clara wakes up under the Christmas tree with the Nutcracker toy in her arms.
Tchaikovsky took a selection of eight of the more popular numbers from the ballet and formed The Nutcracker Suite for concert performance. The titles of the ballet (simply The Nutcracker) and the suite (The Nutcracker Suite) are frequently confused.Artist CommentsThe very first cassette tape I ever bought as a kid was a recording of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet. And the very first classical piece I fell in love with was this one. The way Tchaikovsky syncopates the rhythm in this song so perfectly captures that Middle Eastern flavor. I always get a feeling of a 5 count even though the song is actually in 6. Amazing! Piotr Tchaikovsky (born Kamsko-Votkinsk, 7 May 1840; died St. Petersburg, 6 November 1893). His father was a mine inspector. He started piano studies at five and soon showed remarkable gifts; his childhood was also affected by an abnormal sensitivity. At ten he was sent to the School of Jurisprudence at St. Petersburg, where the family lived for some time. His parting from his mother was painful; further, she died when he was 14 - an event that may have stimulated him to compose. At 19 he took a post at the Ministry of Justice, where he remained for four years despite a long joumey to western Europe and increasing involvement in music. In 1863 he entered the Conservatory, also undertaking private teaching. Three years later he moved to Moscow with a professorship of harmony at the new conservatory. Little of his music so far had pleased the conservative musical establishment or the more nationalist group, but his First Symphony had a good public reception when heard in Moscow in 1868.
Rather less successful was his first opera, The Voyevoda, given at the Bol'shoy in Moscow in 1869; Tchaikovsky later abandoned it and re-used material from it in his next, The Oprichnik. A severe critic was Balakirev, who suggested that he write a work on Romeo and Juliet: this was the Fantasy-Overture, several times rewritten to meet Balakirev's criticisms; Tchaikovsky's tendency to juxtapose blocks of material rather than provide organic transitions serves better in this programmatic piece than in a symphony as each theme stands for a character in the drama. Its expressive, well-defined themes and their vigorous treatment produced the first of his works in the regular repertory.
The Oprichnik won some success at St. Petersburg in 1874, by when Tchaikovsky had won acclaim with his Second Symphony (which incorporates Ukrainian folktunes); he had also composed two string quartets (the first the source of the famous Andante cantabile), most of his next opera, Vakula the Smith, and of his First Piano Concerto, where contrasts of the heroic and the lyrical, between soloist and orchestra, clearly fired him. Originally intended for Nikolay Rubinstein, the head of Moscow Conservatory, who had much encouraged Tchaikovsky, it was dedicated to Hans von Bülow (who gave its premiere, in Boston) when Rubinstein rejected it as ilI-composed and unplayable (he later recanted and became a distinguished interpreter of it). In 1875 came the carefully written Third Symphony and Swan Lake, commissioned by Moscow Opera. The next year a journey west took in Bizet's Carmen in Paris, a cure at Vichy and the first complete Ring at Bayreuth; although deeply depressed when he reached home - he could not accept his homosexuality - he wrote the fantasia Francesca da Rimini and (an escape info the 18th century) the Rococo Vanations for cello and orchestra. Vakula, which had won a competition, had its premiere that autumn. At the end of the year he was contacted by a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, who admired his music and was eager to give him financial security; they corresponded intimately for 14 years but never met. Tchaikovsky, however, saw marriage as a possible solution to his sexual problems; and when contacted by a young woman who admired his music he offered (after first rejecting her) immediate marriage. It was a disaster: he escaped from her almost at once, in a state of nervous collapse, attempted suicide and went abroad. This was however the time of two of his greatest works, the Fourth Symphony and Eugene Onegin. The symphony embodies a 'fate' motif that recurs at various points, clarifying the structure; the first movement is one of Tchaikovsky's most individual with its hesitant, melancholy waltz-like main theme and its ingenious and appealing combination of this with the secondary ideas; there is a lyrical, intermezzo-like second movement and an ingenious third in which pizzicato strings play a main role, while the finale is impassioned if loose and melodramatic, with a folk theme pressed into service as second subject. Eugene Onegin, after Pushkin, tells of a girl's rejected approach to a man who fascinates her (the parallel with Tchaikovsky's situation is obvious) and his later remorse: the heroine Tatyana is warmly and appealingly drawn, and Onegin's hauteur is deftly conveyed too, all against a rural Russian setting which incorporates spectacular ball scenes, an ironic background to the private tragedies. The brilliant Violin Concerto also comes from the late 1870s.
The period 1878-84, however, represents a creative trough. He resigned from the conservatory and, tortured by his sexuality, could produce no music of real emotional force (the Piano Trio, written on Rubinstein's death, is a single exception). He spent some time abroad. But in 1884, stimulated by Balakirev, he produced his Manfred symphony, after Byron. He continued to travel widely, and conduct; and he was much honoured. In 1888 the Fifth Symphony, similar in plan to the Fourth (though the motto theme is heard in each movement), was finished. A note of hysteria in the finale was recognized by Tchaikovsky himself. The next three years saw the composition of two ballets, the finely characterized Sleeping Beauty and the more decorative Nutcracker, and the opera The Queen of Spades, with its ingenious atmospheric use of Rococo music (it is set in Catherine the Great's Russia) within a work of high emotional tension. Its theatrical qualities ensured its success when given at St. Petersburg in late 1890. The next year Tchaikovsky visited the USA; in 1892 he heard Mahler conduct Eugene Onegin at Hamburg. In 1893 he worked on his Sixth Symphony, to a plan - the first movement was to be concerned with activity and passion; the second, love; the third, disappointment; and the finale, death. It is a profoundly pessimistic work, formally unorthodox, with the finale haunted by descending melodic ideas clothed in anguished harmonies. It was performed on 28 October. He died nine days later: traditionally, and officially, of cholera, but recently verbal evidence has been put forward that he underwent a 'trial' from a court of honour from his old school regarding his sexual behaviour and it was decreed that he commit suicide. Which version is true must remain uncertain. 07 Joy To The World Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 Joy to the World "Joy to the World" is one of the best-known and best-loved of Christmas carols. It contains a message of joy and love replacing sin and sorrow. The hymn is significant for its widespread use throughout Christian denominations and for the musical stature of the people who created it.
The scripture-based words are by Isaac Watts. The music was adapted and arranged by Lowell Mason from an older melody which was then believed to have originated from Handel; not least because the theme of the refrain (And heaven and nature sing...) appears in the orchestra opening and accompaniment of the recitative Comfort Ye from Handel's Messiah, and the first four notes match the beginning of the choruses Lift up your heads and Glory to God from the same oratorio. However, Handel did not compose the entire tune.Artist CommentsCapturing the essence of a song is, to me, the most important thing when arranging. "Joy to the World" has always been a march to me. I have heard many different arrangements of this song and most of the time I have felt the arranger has missed the mark. To me it has to march along with confidence and joy! Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 08 We Three Kings Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 We Three Kings We Three Kings of Orient Are is a Christmas carol (technically an Epiphany carol) written in 1857 by Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr., who wrote both the words and the music as part of a Christmas pageant for the General Theological Seminary in New York City. It first appeared in his Carols, Hymns and Song in 1863. This arrangement for classical guitar, violins, and cello starts with the guitar outlining a beatiful minor nine chord. The effect is returned for the cool and mysterious ending. This soft triplet feel creates images of the kings and their journey.Artist CommentsIf you are in a quiet place when you listen to this song check out the icy shimmer of the strings at the beginning and end. I love that part. It is done by a tremolo technique on the cello where the bow is moved rapidly back and forth over the strings. We use this technique fairly often in our arrangements so keep an ear open for it especially on the Solamente Romanz CD. Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 09 Mary's Lullaby Show Info Darren Curtis Skanson Skanson MP3 Mary's Lullaby This ballad with classical guitar and cellos is a slow contemplative work that is very peaceful and reverent at the same time.Artist CommentsThis is my only original composition on the CD. This Song has 2 distinct sections. The first section I imagine Mary singing softly to the Child about now much she loves him. The second section I imagine her closing he eyes and singing 'about what He must do when he grows up as tears of joy and sorrow streak down her cheeks. Darren Curtis Skanson (1967 to present) American composer. Encouraged in music from a young age, Skanson began singing, playing instruments, and composing as early as he can remember. At 13 he took his first classical guitar lesson and began a partnership with the classical guitar that has produced a wide variety of music. After an outstanding collegiate career studying classical guitar, composition, and recording science, Darren spent the early part of the 1990's touring and composing for both the progressive band Mata Hari and violinist Malcolm Watson. Embarking on his solo career in 1995, his composition output exploded with works for classical guitar, acoustic fingerstyle guitar, 12 string guitar, cello, and violin. Skanson is known mostly for his classical guitar compositions and arrangements of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and other classical composers. Skanson continues to record, compose and perform out of his Denver, Colorado base. His discography currently includes 10 compact discs of classical guitar arrangements and original work with over 200 pieces to his credit. As well as playing solo, he performs with his trio of classical guitar, violin, and cello aptly named The Skanson String Trio. 10 Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring Show Info Johann Sebastian Bach Skanson MP3 Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is a movement from a cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach during his time in Leipzig, Germany. The cantata, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben," is officially the 147th out of the 300 cantatas that Bach wrote.
This setting has the classical guitar as the central instrument but features string parts from the score.
A chorale melody is found inside of the cantata, as was the typical of the time of Bach's composing, where most cantatas had generally transformed into a sort of abbreviated oratorio. Though in the modern day the song is often employed in weddings, this is in no way related to the scope of the piece, nor was it intended to be a wedding piece upon composition.Artist CommentsBelieve it or not, the great classical composers did a fair amount of stealing melodies from other composers. This piece by Bach is an example of that very phenomenon. Bach wrote the very familiar triplet figure melody we know. However he " borrowed" the choral part of the work from a famous choral of the day. Today, Bach world have to be paying royalties on that! Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Bach is considered by many to have been the greatest composer in the history of western music. Bach’s main achievement lies in his synthesis and advanced development of the primary contrapuntal idiom of the late Baroque, and in the basic tunefulness of his thematic material. He is often regarded as one of the pinnacle geniuses of western civilization. Bach spent the height of his working life in a Lutheran church position in Leipzig, as both organist and music director. Much of his music is overtly religious, while many of his secular works admit religious interpretations on some levels. His large output of organ music is considered to be the greatest legacy of compositions for the instrument, and is the measure by which all later efforts are judged. His other solo keyboard music is held in equally high esteem, especially for its exploration of the strictly contrapuntal fugue; his 48 Preludes & Fugues (The Well-Tempered Clavier) are still the primary means by which these forms are taught. 11 The First Noel Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 The First Noël The word Nowell comes from the French word Noël meaning "Christmas", from the Latin word natalis ("birth"). It may also be from the Gaulish words "noio" or "neu" meaning "new" and "helle" meaning "light" referring to the winter solstice when sunlight begins overtaking darkness.
This clean solo guitar version speaks to the profoundness of the original English Christmas carol, most likely from the 16th or 17th century. The melody is unusual among English folk melodies in that it consists of essentially the same musical phrase repeated three times, and ending on the third of the scale. In its current form it is of Cornish origin, and it was first published in Some Ancient Christmas Carols (1823) and Gilbert and Sandys Christmas Carols (1833), edited by William Sandys and arranged, edited and extra lyrics written by Davies Gilbert.
An orchestral arrangement, by Victor Hely-Hutchinson from his Carol Symphony, was memorably used as the theme to the BBC adaptation of John Masefield's seasonal fantasy adventure, The Box of Delights.Artist CommentsIf you have a chance, check out the words to this famous carol. The words tell almost the whole Christmas story in four verses. Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 12 Away In A Manger Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 Away In A Manger First published in an 1885 Lutheran Sunday School, "Away in a Manger" has two major melodies for the song, neither of them with certain authorship. This classical guitar with violins and cellos features both. Some have attributed the song to Martin Luther himself. The confusion may have began because Murray published it with the subtitle "Luther's Cradle Hymn (Composed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by German mothers to their little ones)."Artist CommentsOne of the sweetest of the traditional carols, away in a manger is actually sung to 2 different melodies. In this arrangement I mixed those 2 for Away in a manger and Brahms Lullaby. The most familiar Away in a Manger melody constitutes most of this arrangement. It is the one we sing here in America. However at the very end of the song I Do the last verse with the melody more familiar in England. I also do it with a special technique called Natural and false harmonics. That is the bell like sound you hear. Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 13 What Child Is This? Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 What Child Is This? "What Child Is This?" is a Christmas carol lyrically written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix to the melody of "Greensleeves".Artist CommentsAlso known as Greensleeves, what child is the oldest Song on the disc. I believe this is a unique arrangement because we Made the song into a duet between guitar and cello. The guitar holds Down the main melody and chords while the cello plays a wonderful counter melody. Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 14 O' Little Town Of Bethlehem Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 O' Little Town Of Bethlehem Using the tradional harmonies right out a Lutheran hymnal, the classical guitar with strings setting of O Little Town captures that quiet stillness of the lyric, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie. Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal priest, was inspired in 1865 when he was visiting the town of Bethlehem. Three years later, he wrote the poem for his church and his organist, Lewis Redner, added the music. Redner's tune called "St. Louis" is the tune used most often for this carol in the United States.Artist CommentsI do not think it gets that cold in Bethlehem, But I have this mental picture of a dark city with snow covered roof tops, smoke wafting out of Chimneys, and warm candlelight that glows in every window. Funny how much our own culture affects our imaginations. Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 15 Silent Night Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 Silent Night "Silent Night" is a traditional and popular Christmas carol and this setting for classical guitar is so special. The original lyrics of the song Stille Nacht were written in German by the Austrian priest Fr. Josef Mohr , the melody was composed by the Austrian headmaster Franz X. Gruber specifically for the guitar. So marrying a classical guitar arrangement with Silent Night is a match made in heaven, no exaggeration intended.
It is believed that the carol has been translated into over 300 languages around the world, and it is one of the most popular carols of all time. It is often sung without musical accompaniment. It is given special significance in the Lutheran church. In 1965 the duo Simon and Garfunkel released a version known as "Silent Night/7 O'Clock News", in which a news broadcast fades in over the course of the song, with the violent and tragic events of the news standing in contrast to the peaceful message of the song.Artist CommentsThe second greatest Moment in the Christmas music repertoire is at the end of this song over the words "Sleep in heavenly peace" It gives me chills every time. I was playing at a nursing home once and one of the residents was restless and loud for the whole program. I started playing this song and she became very quiet. By the time I was into the 2nd verse, this lady was singing along. By the tine we hit the 3rd verse, the whole audience was singing along. Powerful song! Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer 16 Angels We Have Heard On High (Reprise) Show Info Traditional Skanson MP3 Angels We Have Heard On High (Reprise)
In music a reprise is the repetition or return of the opening with slight changes to reflect the development of the story. This reprise put an ending tag to Darren Curtis Skansons Christmas classic A Light Classica Christmas.
It is common for songs sung by the same character or regarding the same literary motif to have similar tunes, or incorporate similar tunes. In the stage version of Les Misérables, a song of the primary antagonist is similar in both tune and lyrics to a soliloquy of the protagonist when he was in a similar emotional state. In the musical The Music Man, the love song Goodnight My Someone uses the same basic melody as the rousing march and theme song Seventy-Six Trombones. And in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat, the song Ol' Man River is reprised three times after it is first sung, as if it were a commentary on the situation in the story.Artist CommentsLast but not least, check out the powerful orchestra punch at the end! Traditional composition - No actual or specific known composer Thanks and Credits:
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