Vltava for Solo Guitar (from Ma Vlast by Bedrich Smetana)

Bedrich Smetana is considered to be the Father of Czech music and is known for his exceptional love for the motherland, its beauties and independence. Smetana started his music career very early – as a pianist at the age of 6. But with age he became more and more concerned about the future of his homeland – Bohemia – and his started composing music with nationalistic features.

The river Vltava

Smetana’s late years of life were quite pathetic – the great composer gradually lost his hearing and ended his life in an asylum for mentally ill people. However, the heritage he left remained unsurpassed. Among composer’s most famous works are the opera The Bartered Bride, string quartet From My Life and of course the renowned symphonic cycle known as Ma Vlast.

The latter is actually a set of six individual works-movements that were recorded individually too. But the part of this tone poem – Vltava – stands even more aside. Its German name is “Die Moldau”, the work is dedicated to a country’s ‘blood’ – the rivers, particularly the majestic Vltava. The tone is painted in such a way that it brightly describes all the natural phenomena of the river – its current, streams, day and night niceties, life on its banks. This music piece involves one of Smetana’s famous tunes, and exactly the adopted melody of La Mantovana which is also known to be the base of the national anthem of Israel.

Below is a curious adaptation of Vltava for solo guitar:

Unique sheet music for children

Talking about RARE sheet music I’ve stumbled across something way beyond it. It’s not only rare but it’s so original and, most important, useful for the whole generation of musicians (or generationS, who knows). Okay, pompous world aside, let me share the idea with you.

Music book "Maestro-in-the-Making"

Right now out there online there is a nice campaign going on that is turning to crowds to find support and raise funds for a unique music project for children of the world – “Maestro-in-the-Making”. There is not that much time left but I hope guys will manage to reach their goal and get the necessary funds to proceed to the project’s stages. The idea is awesome. They are going to hold an international competition among contemporary composers and in this way issue a call for new original scores. The pieces should be easy and fun, something that would make music education for kids more diverse and engaging.

The best works then will be awarded and included into a special sheet music edition for children “Maestro-in-the-Making”. The book will be sent for free to numerous music schools all over the world. And all that – FOR FREE. Cool, huh?

The idea is pretty real and doable, if only people cared to make a little contribution of their own, the sooner the better... I believe the project is of real importance and it is something really worthy. Let’s help the guys to bring it to life!

Hava Nagila, Jewish ‘business card’

“Hava Nagila, Hava Nagila…” and Jerusalem flags pop up in the head with the image of happy dancing people at the traditional Jewish wedding sing in excitement holding the just-married on the two chairs as an old-time tradition. That’s exactly the rejoicing in its pure form as sung in the lyrics of Hava Nagila – “Let's rejoice and be happy”, in translation from Hebrew.

Jewish wedding

So well-recognized today, the song has a long and pretty obscure story behind it and not many are familiar with its roots. Would you be surprised if found out that its homeland represents a mixture of Russia and Ukraine, where this Hasidic melody first was born being called a ‘nigun’ – a single melody not accompanied with any words.  After some time the nigun immigrated to Jerusalem and Avraham Idelsohn – the father of Jewish music – gave it a second birth in a form of a folklore song. There is was, a business card of the Jew with a mix of German, Russian, Yemenite communities’ features in it. The song with lyrics taken from the Psalms was included into the Hebrew folklore songbook and was selected as a celebration song to mark the defeat of Turks by the British during the World War I. The tune caught up immediately and soon the whole Jerusalem was performing it.

Rabbi

So many times was the song re-made, re-sung, re-arranged that counting them would be barely possible. At a certain point it even became the object of various parodies and humor sketches by both Jewish and non-Jewish artists. But let’s stick closer to the beautiful original-like versions. And here’s a lovely one – arrangement of Hava Nagila by Tal Zilber. And the author himself performing his work on piano:

Danza Margarita: Manuel Gregorio Tavarez

He died long ago – in 1883 – but is still deeply respected and remembered by his people. Manuel Gregorio Tavarez up to date presents an endless inspiration source for new music generations of Puerto Rico. Though not completely a Puerto Rican (his father was French and his mother from Puerto Rico), Tavarez grew up a very talented and patriotic boy who became a zealous pianist at an early age. The French roots helped a lot too as after studies in San Juan he was granted a scholarship for courses at the Music Conservatory of Paris. Despite the health problems Manuel returned to his homeland and sat down to work on his masterpieces.

Manuel Gregorio Tavarez is mostly renowned for splendor in the so-called genre of “danzas” - short piano pieces that were flourishing during his lifetime. Tavarez even received the title of “Father of the Puerto Rican Danzas” and critics say that his music style can easily be compared with that of the famous Polish colleague’s – Frederick Chopin. Among the greatest works are such danzas as Rendencion, La Sensitiva, Un Recuerdo. But his biggest pieces in many sense is of course the passionate Margarita. If composers were to give out business cards – Margarita would surely be the one for Tavarez. Here’s a transcription for advanced intermediate piano for those who like some challenge in a piece of classics.

Schindler's List on piano

An epic drama with deep sense, exceptional director’s work and, of course, stunning music scoring – that all gives a faint image of one of my favorite movies ever - Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg. And for those who still haven’t watched this piece of art I strongly recommend doing it at the first opportunity available.

It’s never been easy to reflect properly the events that took place back in the history. And if those events bear a very negative emotionally character the task gets even harder. One has to be somehow spiritually connected with the subject to make people re-live the history watching the movie.  Steven Spielberg used to hear a lot of stories about Holocaust from his granny and his Jewish roots made the needed connection work for him. He did want to create a film about those shocking events but didn’t feel mature enough to take up that ‘unmanageable’ work. But time came and he gathered the team and pulled himself together. Not hoping for big success and rather expecting the movie to flop, Spielberg set a small budget and shot a black-and-white documentary in Krakow within 72 days. He didn’t even use expensive cameras opting for handheld cams for a more realistic effect. According to witnesses, most shooting days were full of tears, for the director himself experienced hard times going through all the horrible scenes.

The choice of music was an especially responsible and challenging task for that would make half the impression. That’s when Spielberg turned for help to John Williams asking to compose the score to the whole movie. William, too, felt immature, despite the fact that he had an impressive music experience in his baggage. The composer was stunned by the film itself and got to work with great effort. Once the piano score to Schindler's List was ready, Williams also hired Itzhak Perlman to perform the main theme on violin too. The result was rewarding. The score was awarded “Best Original Score” at the 66th Academy Awards Ceremony along with the other 6 awards.

Unexpectedly for Spielberg, his B&W film was a box office success being rumored as one of the greatest movies made ever.