Description

David Johnstone – English Serenade, for String Orchestra

(Violin 1 & 2, Viola, Cello, Bass)

Performance time approx. 11.00 mins

Download Contents or Instructions:
PDF1 – General Score
PDF 2 – Orchestral parts for Violin 1, Violin 2 and Viola
PDF 3 – Orchestral parts for Cello and Double Bass

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The ‘English Serenade’ was completed in the autumn of 2005, taking as a base material from the small string quartet piece ‘English Serious Frolic’ of the previous year. However this is no transcription, but a substantial and more complex reworking for the larger forces of the string orchestra, and indeed the Serenade triples the performance time of its predecessor, now running in three movements, or clearly defined sections without a break.
The opening part is an apparently light composition, but one that also structurally displays a more romantic seriousness that remembers, and indeed makes honour to, the name of Edward Elgar – whilst at the same time one can see present the musical elegance of David Johnstone. It has a precise pulsation of tempo, but also inviting in many moments a liberal ‘rubato’, and the writing generally portrays an ambience or sonority of an orchestral character without entirely losing the feel of chamber music.
The central section, or slow movement, is full of advanced romantic English harmonies with occasional hints at late-Wagner too, and this part is based upon the hymn tune ‘Lord thy Word Abideth’ of Ravenshaw.  The purpose has not been to specifically provide a religious section but to further underline the English and British heritage so famed in bearing such ‘cantabile’ slow tunes – Johnstone accentuates this by interweaving the string principals as soloists with the full strings.
When the last section gains momentum it immediately seems as if we are recapitulating on the opening movement, and indeed we are (!), but there are many fine details which also show further playfulness, developing the earlier material further (sometimes quite unexpectedly). This becomes stronger all the while, and a final gallop brings the work to a glorious close.
The composer offers this music to the listening public purely and simply for enjoying and relaxing (that is to say, without claiming any profound musical statements), and for the performers something of real interest and fun to play. For these reasons one can clearly see that it falls within the tradition of the best classical and romantic serenades from the line of Mozart, Beethoven, Volkmann, Dvorak, Reinecke, Tchaikovsky or Elgar, just to mention a few, whilst also humbly trying to capture some of the ‘essential’ qualities of English music. The duration of the complete work is of some 11 minutes.

Dedicated to the memory of Albert Barkus, F.R.C.O., for many years during the twentieth-century the dedicated Town Hall Organist for the English town of Reading and an excellently crafted musician and composer.

EXAMPLES:

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 ]

ENGLISH

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 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), 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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