Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ashokan Farewell: A nostalgic tune everyone loves

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Jay Ungar, and his wife Molly Mason have been running fiddle camps for a long time. Back in the early 80s, after a Summer fiddle camp had wrapped up, Jay Ungar was reminiscing about the fun that was had, and also lamenting the fact that it was over until the following year. He took out his fiddle, and a tune came into his head. The tune really affected him deeply, and brought tears to his eyes every time he played it. Molly, Jay’s wife suggested that he call the tune Ashokan Farewell. The family band recorded the tune on one of their albums, and Jay thought nothing of it. Documentary director Ken Burns somehow came in possession of a copy of the album with Ashokan Farewell on it and decided to use it in his upcoming documentary on the Civil War in the United States. The tune was featured 27 times during the documentary, and in one of the most poignant moments where a soldier’s letter to his sweetheart saying that he might not come home is narrated, Ashokan Farewell is featured as the soundtrack. Many people believed that the tune was an older tune from around the Civil War years, and someone even tried to sue Jay Ungar claiming that he plagiarized the tune from somewhere else. For a while Jay Ungar doubted that Ashokan Farewell was his original melody. It is an original tune by Jay Ungar.

Here is my recording on violin and piano of Jay Ungar’s Ashokan Farewell. He refers to this tune as a Scottish Lament by a Jewish guy from the Bronx in New York. Enjoy.

The Use of Technology to Store and Read Sheet Music

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For a long time, instrumentalists and singers had to carry around binders full of sheet music and flip pages back and forth, or in the case of pianists, get someone else to turn pages for them (sometimes with mixed results). Now sheet music can be downloaded onto an iPad or Android tablet in pdf format and put into a sheet music app and read that way. You can also take pictures of the sheet music and save the file as a pdf in the sheet music app. To prevent page turning disasters, page can be duplicated in the sheet music app and moved to the correct place so that the musician doesn’t have to flip back several pages to repeat a whole section of music. Pages can be turned by swiping the tablet or iPad with your finger, or turned hands free by using a Bluetooth page turning foot pedal. Notes or comments can be written on the music in the app, or problem spots in the music can be circled.

More and more musicians and singers are going paper free and using iPads and tablets because it is way more convenient than carrying around a textbook-sized binder every time you go to rehearsal or perform in front of an audience. The tablet or iPad is very light to carry around, doesn’t take up a lot of space in a backpack or bag, and only needs to be checked to ensure that the battery is charged. In a rehearsal space or concert space, the lighting may not be very good. The iPad or tablet can be adjusted to make the sheet music brighter or dimmer on the screen. With paper, if the music is hard to see, you can’t do anything to make it more visible (except stand or sit under brighter lights). The foot pedal simply has to have its batteries checked and replaced once in a while.

A lively Latin tune called “For Sephora”

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In 2013, while I was working in the Victoria Conservatory of Music library, I found out that one of the jazz students Jay Jennings was interested in starting a band. Jay was studying saxophone in the post-secondary music program at the Conservatory but also played acoustic and electric guitar. We met and started rehearsing once a week at Jay’s house. That Summer, we did some busking at one of the local outdoor markets playing Django Reinhardt tunes, a few jazz standards, and a Latin tune by Stochelo Rosenberg of the Rosenberg Trio called “For Sephora” which he wrote for his little sister Sephora. For Sephora proved to be our greatest hit, and whenever we played it, people of all ages would stop and listen and give us some money. In 2014, Jay decided to enlarge the group, so we became a quartet called Swingsation featuring singer Lauren Marshall (whom Jay knew from the Conservatory), Aron Bird on the acoustic bass, Jay Jennings on rhythm guitar, and me, Robert Jan Dukarm on violin. We still played some of our old instrumental tunes from time to time, but as a quartet we mainly focused on Ella Fitzgerald tunes and Billie Holliday tunes, and a couple of Latin tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim. We did a few gigs while together as a group, and recorded our one and only album called “Hot Off the Strings” in 2016. In 2018 Swingsation split up because we were not doing regular gigs, and were basically practicing in a band member’s basement every week. Here is a recording of “For Sephora” from Swingsation’s album “Hot Off the Strings” featuring Aron Bird on bass, Jay Jennings on rhythm guitar, and me, Robert Jan Dukarm playing the melody and improvised solo. Enjoy.

How Composers/Arrangers write music

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In earlier times, composers/arrangers had to write down music notation on a piece of paper with a quill pen (which was very messy because ink would spill and smudge all over the paper). Mistakes often had to be scratched out. The only way to make a copy of the music was to write it out by hand. Sometimes the copyist was not very accurate, and there are examples of the same piece of music copied out with different harmonies or notes in a melody. Now composers/arrangers can use music notation software to write a piece of music. They can enter in the notes one by one, or connect their midi keyboard to their computer and enter in the notes by playing them. Once complete, the music can be saved as a pdf file and published for sale online.

An audition today? What audition?

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I am lying in bed, doped up on pain killers with a mouth full of cotton and four wisdom teeth taken out. My dad has just called the Head of Strings, Dr. Walter Mony at the Victoria Conservatory of Music to sign me up for a Music History course. The phone call doesn’t stop there. Dr. Mony then asks my dad what instrument I play, what level I am at, and why I want to take that particular course. After those questions are answered, he says to my dad, “I want your son to come down here right now for an audition.” My dad comes into my bedroom and says, “you need to get out of bed right now. You have an audition to go to.” I was not pleased at all. I had to get out of bed with no preparation at all, and do an audition with the Head of Strings, Dr. Walter Mony! I played Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs from memory and a few scales (including a very difficult scale that I was not familiar with that I made up fingering for). The whole time I was playing at the audition, Dr. Mony was sitting there with his eyes closed. My immediate thought was that he didn’t like what he was hearing. Once the audition was over Dr. Mony said, “I want that boy.” He took me to see the registrar and registered me for the post-secondary Music Diploma Program. I became Dr. Mony’s student. At that time my strongest instrument was the piano. After I studied violin for a while with Dr. Mony I got discouraged and said to him that maybe I should switch to the piano. He looked at me gruffly and said, “don’t worry. I’ll make a violinist out of you if it kills you!” To make a long story short, I survived and graduated from the Conservatory in both violin and piano and went on to the University of Victoria in the third year of the music program there.

Gerald Moore plays Schubert’s “An die Musik”

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Gerald Moore (1899-1987)

Gerald Moore was an English pianist. He played for many of the great singers and musicians of the 20th Century. During Moore’s lifetime, pianists who accompanied singers and instrumentalists were often treated as second-rate musicians. Accompanists were not paid much, and their names were often featured in small lettering on concert posters. Gerald did his utmost to turn the situation around by lecturing about the art of piano accompaniment, writing books for singers and accompanists to help them better understand and interpret art songs and other repertoire, and by performing and recording with many of his esteemed colleagues. He also wrote a very witty autobiography called “Am I Too Loud?” in which he mentioned many funny anecdotes and talked about several of the singers he worked with and befriended.

One of Gerald Moore’s favourite songs (which he recorded and performed many times with singers) was Franz Schubert’s “An die Musik” which translates to “To the Music.” He arranged the song for solo piano, recorded it in 1949, and famously played it at his final performance after the singers he accompanied asked him to play a solo. Here is Gerald Moore playing his piano arrangement in a recording from 1949.

Album: Favourite Requests for Violin (Walter Mony, Violin; Anna Bender, Piano

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Walter Mony (1929-2009)

Walter Mony was a violinist, violist, conductor, and music lecturer. He was born in Canada, had his first music lessons there, and then studied in the United States and London, England. He studied under several top violinists including, Albert Sammons, Max Rostal, and Henryk Szeryng. When he was in his 20s, Walter was the Assistant Principal (assistant concertmaster) of the London Symphony, and also a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. Walter was a member of the internationally famous Nederburg Harp Trio with which he made many recordings on major record labels. Walter also made many chamber music recordings and recordings as violin soloist with orchestras, including recordings of contemporary music written especially for him. He moved to South Africa and became Head of Music at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Apart from his regular teaching, for many years Walter taught music to poor African children in South African Townships for free, even lending them his expensive violin bows and violins to play on (not knowing if he would ever get them back). In 2005, Walter Mony moved to Victoria BC, Canada and became the Head of Strings at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where he taught students of all levels, including students in the post-secondary Music Diploma Program. I was privileged to be one of his students from September 2006 to December 2008 for the first two years of my Bachelor of Music majoring in violin performance and teaching. Walter Mony passed away in January 2009.

Anna Bender (1919-2004)

Anna Bender had a remarkable career of over 60 years as a pianist in South Africa during the late 20th Century. She performed and made recordings with some of the world’s most famous musicians between the years 1950 and 1970. Anna travelled all over South Africa and former Rhodesia working as an accompanist. She also did a solo piano recital in Prague in 1992. Anna received a Fellowship from Trinity College of Music in London for solo piano. She got a degree in Cultural History from the University of Pretoria and published five volumes of Afrikaans Art Songs. Anna Bender passed away in 2004.

Here are two pieces from an album that Walter Mony and Anna Bender recorded together called, Favourite Requests for Violin. The album was released in 1960. The links provided are from a streaming service called Boomplay. The album was available for a short time on YouTube, but seems to have been taken down. I am providing a link to two pieces, Souvenir by Frantisêk Drdla and the Waltz in A Major by Johannes Brahms (arranged by David Hochstein), plus a link to the whole album if you wish to listen to more of it. Enjoy.

https://www.boomplay.com/songs/193348524 (Souvenir)

https://www.boomplay.com/songs/193348522?from=artists (Waltz in A Major)

https://www.boomplay.com/albums/103410955?from=artists (Whole Album: 11 tracks, 39 minutes)

Niccolo Paganini: Sonata Concertata Op.61 for Guitar and Violin: Rondeau

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Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840)

Niccolò Paganini is one of the most famous violin virtuosos of all time. His compositions and playing style made a major impact on modern violin playing. He is best known today for his 24 Caprices for Unaccompanied Violin which are some of the most difficult pieces ever written for the violin.

A little known fact about Paganini is that he was not only a violin virtuoso but also a guitarist. Paganini used his knowledge of guitar techniques such as arpeggios, triple stops, and pizzicato and expanded the technical capabilities of the violin by incorporating these techniques into his violin etudes and concertos. During his concerts he often played both the violin and guitar. Sometimes he played the guitar as a soloist, and other times he played it in duet with another instrument. Niccolò Paganini composed a lot of music for violin and guitar duet. He famously did a tour where he played several of his violin/guitar pieces as the violinist with a guitarist, and also toured playing several of his violin/guitar pieces as the guitarist with another violinist. These pieces, unlike several of his 24 Caprices for unaccompanied violin and concerto movements, are very tuneful and pleasant to listen to. They are not screechy, scratchy and shrill like some of the Paganini pieces violin virtuosos often play.

Gil Shaham (1971 -)

Gil Shaham is a world renowned violin virtuoso known for his impeccable musicianship and fabulous playing technique. He is in great demand all over the world as a soloist and recitalist, and has appeared in concert with many of the world’s great orchestras.

Göran Söllscher (1955 -)

Göran Söllscher is a world renowned classical guitar virtuoso who has a very wide ranging repertoire. He plays everything from J.S. Bach to music by the Beatles.

In this recording, violinist Gil Shaham and guitarist Göran Söllscher play a movement from Paganini’s Sonata Concertata in A Major Op.61 for Guitar and Violin. This is the Rondeau from that sonata, which is a lively little piece. This recording is from Shaham and Söllscher’s album entitled “Paganini for Two.” Enjoy.

Franz Schubert: Seligkeit, D. 433

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Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived during the late classical and early romantic eras. He wrote chamber music, piano music, symphonies, operas, but it is for his around 600 lieder (art songs) that he is best known. For those songs Schubert used poems written by the top poets of his time. He not only composed beautiful melodies, but also wrote piano accompaniments that were very ingenious in the way they helped to tell the story behind the poems.

Here is one of Schubert’s most beloved art songs called Seligkeit (which means bliss). This is a lively charming little waltz tune. In this recording it is sung by Soprano Kathleen Battle and accompanied on the piano by James Levine. On the homepage of my website I have put a link where you can purchase my arrangement of this song for piano solo. Enjoy.

Wojciech Kilar: Waltz from the Promised Land

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Wojciech Kilar (1932-2013)

Wojciech Kilar was a Polish composer who composed classical music and film scores. He is best known for his film scores for films such as Dracula, The Ninth Gate, The Pianist, and the Portrait of a Lady among other films. Kilar won many awards for his film scores, including the score for the film Ziemia obiecana (The Promised Land), and an award for his film score for Dracula, his most successful film score.

Katica Illényi ( 1968 – )

Katica Illényi is a Hungarian violinist, theremin player, singer, and dancer. She is a classically trained musician, but also plays folk music, klezmer music, and gypsy jazz. Katica has a very popular YouTube channel, and has recorded many albums including: Tango Classic, Theremin Christmas, and Reloaded Jazz Violin. In this YouTube video, Katica Illényi (violin) with Rita Termes (piano) play a beautiful violin/piano arrangement by Rezső Ott of Wojciech Kilar’s Waltz from the film Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana). Enjoy.