Description

David Johnstone – Elegy (‘Oration of the Bull’), for Viola and Piano

PDF 1 – Viola part

PDF 2 – Piano part

Performance time approx. 7′ 30″

‘Elegy’ is a concert work that can be played as a ‘pure’ concert piece, without mention of the programmatic thread – as such, a late romantic intense outpouring with some occasionally more modern touches also present. It is very much of film ambience, for the special quality of the viola sings (in all registers) almost uninterruptedly in long awe-inspiring phrases that would seem to fit like ‘a glove’ to the big screen. There are two performance possibilities, for the work is equally persuasive whether performed with a pianist in recital or in orchestral programmes with string orchestra; taking into account that there are rather different sound conceptions in the accompaniment it will be seen that the tone colours of the orchestration are rather different in each version. The duration is about seven minutes and a half.

The composer has for many years been a staunch defender of animal welfare and animal rights, and this offering is specifically an oration dedicated to the plight of the Spanish bull in the bull-ring (‘la corrida’), which he sees neither as art nor culture. There are no doubts, in Johnstone’s mind, as to the need still (in the twenty-first century) for animal ‘justice’ and to act against unreasonable animal exploitation’:

The music starts … at once the bull demonstrates his physical condition in this solo ‘cadenza’, although it soon becomes obvious that he is in an entirely hostile and unknown atmosphere. Nevertheless … what great expansion of melody he feels. The power of the main theme (the big song) comes to the fore a number of times. The fantasy and ‘rubato’ passages from the viola soloist are indeed of our chief character, the bull himself, trying to re-group his forces to regain his initial strength. The second theme, syncopated and in imitation, is rather more ‘distant’. Without going further into details, the rest of the work describes the unequal fight between man and bull, terminating with the death of the bull. Further more detailed programmatic information is available from the composer upon request.

EXAMPLE:

A note from David:

“If you wish to have a very professional quality copy of this music, set with high quality paper in a deluxe edition please contact the publisher CREIGHTON’S COLLECTION for a prompt delivery at an economical price – recommended for performance. It has a sharpness of image superior than you will find in the Johnstone-Music web shop”.

 [Creighton’s Collection
244 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, CF11 9JG, Wales, Great Britain
Tel. [+44] 29 2039 7711 (from within G.B. 029-2039-7711)
Or by Internet: www.cccd.co.uk / E-mail: tim/ at /creightonscollection.co.uk ]

Welcome to Johnstone-Music! A big Anglo-Spanish web for MUSICIANS and especially CELLISTS – original music scores for orchestral instruments and keyboard. Plus articles, audios, videos, resources, catalogues, news etc. Official web of the professional cellist David Johnstone, principal cello Navarre Symphony Orchestra (Spain), chamber musician and soloist in many premieres. Hundreds of cello arrangements in the web for a symbolic charge of €1.00 per download or for free.

The following have taken his work onboard, sometimes with special collaborations as composer-arranger-performer: the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orchestre Nouvelle Generation de Montreal, the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), Orchestra da Camera del Locarnese (Suiza), The Zagreb Soloists, the Saint Petersburg Musical Theatre “Zazerkalye” Chamber Orchestra, the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum (Poland), Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (New Zealand), Camerata Cambrensis (Basque country), Essener Philharmoniker (Germany), Ensemble Metamorphosis of Belgrade (Serbia), with Ara Malikian (Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra – Madrid), and a long etc.. Currently, many courses, conservatoires and music schools, university String departments etc. use his repertoire; there are dozens of his arrangements on ‘You Tube’ …

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