Orchestra Music

Da Capo Alba, the orchestral section of the Lanarkshire Guitar and Mandolin Association performs in concerts throughout Scotland.

The Repertoire - Some Examples

Our programme is quite eclectic, in the hope that everyone in the audience will find something which they really enjoy.
Our current repertoire includes:

• Music of the 18th Century:
• • Voluntary - William Boyce
    Boyce is one of the most English important composers of the 18th Century. We feel that this arrangement as a piece of orchestra with two solo mandolins works very well.
  • Concerto All' Unisono - Evaristo Felice dall'Abaco
    An Italian composer and violinist, dall'Abaco launched his musical career as a violinist with Tommaso Antonio Vitali in Modena, and in 1704 he joined the court of Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria as Kammermusiker. Abaco was only a few months in Munich, when he was forced to flee with the court to Brussels, following Maximilian's defeat at the Battle of Blenheim. On Maximilian's restoration and return to Munich, in 1715, dall'Abaco was appointed Concert-meister. He continued to compose chamber music at the French and Dutch courts until 1740 when he retired.
    Dall'Abaco's music is especially indebted to Vivaldi and Corelli. However, when he went into exile with the Munich court, he spent time in France and absorbed some of the influences there.
• Music of the 19th Century:
• • Peer Gynt Suite: Morning, Anitra's Dance - Edvard Greig
    Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843 - 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist in the romantic period. We currently play two pieces from his famous Peer Gynt Suite. "Morning Mood" is evocative of the rising of the sun. Contrary to popular belief, it was not meant to depict a sunrise over the Norwegian fjords, but over the Sahara Desert.
• Folk Music from around the World:
• • Cordillera
    • El Humahuaqueno - Carnevalito
      "Humahuaqueno" is the name for an inhabitant of Humahuaca, Argentina. El Humahuaqueno is a very colorful song written in the form of an Argentine folk dance.
    • Pascua Linda - Huayno
      A traditional Bolivian song.
    • Takirari
      Traditional
  • Set of Irish Tunes: The Roscommon Suite - Turlough O'Carolan
    • Frank Palmer
    • Morgan Magan
    • O'Carolans Dream
    • Sir Festus Burke
    • Bridget Cruise
    • The O'Rourke's Feast
• Italian:
• • Music for Play - Claudio Mandonico
    Entrata, Canzone and Ritmico are the three movements of this piece.

Some examples from previous programmes:

• Music of the 18th Century:
• • Trumpet Tune - Jeremiah Clarke
  • Die Ballade von Uri
    Waltz of the lost dreams - Manos Hadjidakis
  • Prelude to Te Deum - Marc-Antoine Charpentier
    We often played this well known piece at the very beginning of our concerts. The joyous mood would set the tone for an enjoyable evening.
  • Symphony in F - Carl Friedrich Schwindl
    This beautiful piece by Schwindl (1737-86) consists of three movements. The first marked Allegro is written in sonata form with all its characteristic parts. The second movement is slow and cantabile, the third again fast. For the audience, it is an interesting piece to listen to, and for the orchestra, a piece from which to learn the fundamentals of the music from classical times.
• Folk Music from around the World:
• • Suite nach japanischen Kinderliedern - Oske Ito
    This piece is based on Japanese children's songs. Varied sound colours and dynamics give the listener a unique musical experience.
  • Planxty O'Carolan - Bruno Szordikowski
    This is an arrangement of six Irish tunes that will be sure to set your toes tapping! The arranger, Bruno Szordikowski is a classical guitar composer and guitar teacher at the Mãlheim school of music in Germany.
    Turlough O'Carolan (Toirdhealbhach ó' Cearbhalláin) was born in 1670 in County Meath and became one of the last Irish harpers who composed, and a significant number of his works survive in single line melody. O'Carolan's fame was not due to his skill with the harp (having started at 18), but to his gift for composition and verse. Around the age of 18 O'Carolan was blinded by smallpox. Even before his illness, O'Carolan had shown talent for poetry. He studied for three years, at the end of which his father's employer gave him a harp, a horse and some money to begin his career as an itinerant harper. For forty-five years O'Carolan would travel throughout Ireland composing tunes (planxties) for his patrons, usually composing on his journeys. He travelled widely throughout Ireland.
  • Set of Scottish Tunes
    We arranged this piece to play at the 2006 Eurofestival Zupfmusik in Bamberg. It consists of both "old" and "new" traditional tunes. The orchestra is supported by a whistle and a concertina.
    The following tunes are part of the set:
    • Lord Lovat's Lament
    • Duke of Perth
    • The Kings
    • Tha mi Sgith
    • Cutting Bracken
    • Drummond Castle
    • Farewell to Whiskey (Neil Gow)
    • The Hut on Staffin Island (Phil Cunningham)
    • Spootiskerry (Ian Burns)
    • Willafjord
    • The High Road to Linton
  • Lambada
    Lambada is a dance whose steps and moves are a fusion of salsa, merengue, tango and zouk. Lambada dancing came to Europe from Brazil, made famous by the group Kaoma with their 1989 hit Lambada. The word "lambada" is an obscure Brazilian Portuguese word, and refers to the wave like motion induced in a whip. This flowing wave motion is reproduced by the dancers' bodies and is one of the things that distinguishes lambada from other dances.
• Contemporary:
• • Heavy Metal Peppi - Otto Jezek
    After studying guitar and music, Otto Jezek (born 11th November 1967 in Vienna) had his first work published in 1995, and recorded a CD "Danza Latina" the following year. In the subsequent years he won several composition prizes. The Heavy Metal Peppi uses musical ideas and idioms typically found in heavy metal music.
• Popular Music of the 20th Century:
• • I Ain't Got Nobody - Thomas "Fats" Waller/Andy Razaf (arr. Calum Harbison)
  • My Fate is In Your Hands - Roger Graham/Spencer Williams (arr. Calum Harbison)
    These are adaptations from the original piano versions.
    Calum Harbison, one of our mandola players, arranged these two bouncy tunes for the orchestra.
    Thomas "Fats" Waller was born in 1904 in New York City and died in Kansas City, Missouri, 1943. He was a celebrated jazz pianist, organist and composer. His hundreds of recordings encompass ragtime, boogie woogie, dixieland and swing. His appearances on radio and in several motion pictures (notably Stormy Weather, 1943) brought Waller's talents to a wide audience.

Music
Intro | Orchestra Music | Ensemble (Duo, Trio...)

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