Joaquin Malats Serenata Española from his Impressions of Spain arr. violin & piano. This is a sunny piece that features many of the idioms and stylistic characteristics that are typical of Spanish art music in the late 19th century. The origins of this piece are as a piano solo although there are many arrangements to be discovered for different instrument combinations. Interestingly, much of the Spanish piano repertoire of the 19th and early 20th centuries is more familiar transcribed to being played on the guitar and this is certainly the case with the Serenata. This is a movement that dates from the late romantic era when nationalism became an identified as a trend in composition. The music of composers from countries on the fringes of Europe were appearing in concert programmes including music by Dvorak, Smetana, Grieg, Granados & Albeniz amongst others. Playing the scale in the sounding key in all its forms would be excellent preparation for playing this work major, harmonic & melodic minor and the phrygian mode. In this movement many of characteristic musical sounds of Spain are captured in a score that suggests images of the country. There is much characteristic figuration and decoration used in Spanish music and these feature in the melodic, accompaniment, harmonic & timbral detail. There is opportunity to explore articulations in a performance with staccato notes used particularly in the accompaniment. Short notes imitating the sound of the guitar are quite appropriate in this piece. Chords can be rolled again imitate the sound of playing chords on the guitar. The music editor has not indicated staccato notes in the music score mainly because it is challenging to be consistent in such matters especially with music that does benefit from spontaneity. This movement music was composed and published in the last decade of the 19th century. There were some ambiguities in the source scores available to the music editor who has spent time removing errors and inconsistencies. It is the phyrgian mode that is features strongly in Spanish music. The structure of the phyrgian scale is S/T-T-T-T-S/T-T-T (S/T = semitone T = tone) Modal shifts from minor to major also feature The realisation plays back at a tempo of 112 quarter note or crotchet beats to the minute although there are occasionally speeding ups (animando) and slowing downs particularly at the end of phrases. Formally the music has a sectional structure and can be described as being in ABA ternary form. (AABB’A) Spanish music is often dramatic and on occasions invites exaggeration in performance. The extensive melodic range is a particular characteristic of this movement. Where appropriate there are some octave transpositions in the soprano saxophone part to keep to the instruments best tonal range range. The element of contrast is also to the fore with legato & staccato, loud and quiet playing, speeding up and slowing down. Piano accompaniments are in place & can be downloaded as mp3 files from the PlentyMusic website. They playback at 104, 108, 112, 116 & 120 quarter note beats to the minutes. A solo instrument part is also appended to the full score available as part of the pdf download.

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