Informationen zu "David Heyes Alfabia (Mallorcan Memories No.1) Double Bass Solo"
Verlag: Recital Music
Verlagsnummer: RM947
EAN: 9790570459476
ISMN: M-57045-947-6
Beschreibung
Alfabia was premiered by the composer on Sunday 19 February 2017 at Galicia
Graves (Conservatorio de Culleredo), Spain. 'I love it is a great piece.
Thank you for your fabulous works. I am very grateful to send me your work.'
[Glen Rodriguez] 'It's a fabulous piece... it is a wonderful addition to the
double bass repertoire ' [May Halyburton] 'Lovely melody David' [Diana Ford]
David Heyes writes: 'My newest work for double bass ALFABIA (Mallorcan
Memories No.1) was completed on 4/5 February 2017 and is named after a
beautiful old manor house and gardens on Mallorca. Over the years I have
given almost thirty recitals on the island and have also directed
masterclasses and workshops at the Palma Conservatoire and Inca School of
Music, thanks to my good friend Martin Gregg, Principal Bass of the Symphony
Orchestra in Palma. My first visit to Mallorca was in March 1998 as a guest
of the Mallorcan Tourist Board and 'The London Double Bass Trio', newly
formed for the tour, gave nine concerts over five days. The trio comprised
Ferenc Szucs (cello), Martin Gregg (double bass) and I, and our repertoire
was varied to say the least. Tony Osborne had composed 'Intrada, Romanza &
Scherzo' for Martin and I the previous year and we were able to play the
suite in each concert alongside music by Miloslav Gajdos, Rossini, Bottesini,
Bach, William Holborne and Thomas Weelkes. My diary entry for Monday 9
March 1998 reads: 'My free hire car arrived today. I didn't tell Martin that
I had never driven abroad before - it would only have worried him - and I
managed to drive 100 yards from the front of the hotel into the car park -
perspiring profusely! It's going to be fun tomorrow!... The first concert was
at Alfabia, a beautiful old country house set in magnificent gardens and
about 17 km from Palma. The short concert was only for bass duo and one of
the main rooms was turned into a mini-concert hall for the morning.
Afterwards we drank freshly-squeezed orange juice in the sunlit garden, under
the shade of exotic palm trees.' It's a tough life being a musician and we
all suffer for our art at times.... I have always remembered Alfabia, having
played there twice, also visiting as a tourist, and love both the house and
exotic gardens. The website description gives an idea about its history: 'The
structure of the house has Roman-Andalusian roots. We find features and
elements of different styles: Arabic, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Roman,
Rococo and even English in the decoration of the rooms...The coffered
ceiling, the work of Almohad craftsmen, was built in 1170. It is worked in
pine and holm-oak, with inlays forming beautiful and typical arabesques. On
the lower part are inlaid the coats-of-arms of the Arabic families who lived
on the estate, and next to those of the Moor Ben-Abet of the thirteenth
century, the bars of the Kingdom of Aragon and Catalonia superimposed. In the
frieze reads ?Allah is great. Allah?s is the power. There is no other God but
Allah?. The name Alfabia derives from 'al fabi', which means jar of olives
in Arabic, and I based my piece on the D (Shahnaz) maqam, a scale using the
notes D, Eb, F#, G, A, Bb, C#, D. The maqams (Arabic for position) are scales
or modes in music from the Middle East and I felt this particular maqam had
the correct feel to interpret this old manor house which has many
architectural influences, but especially Moorish and Arabic. 'Alfabia'
lasts around three and a half minutes and employs many effects possible on
the double bass, except percussion, notably arco, pizzicato, sul ponticello,
double stops in thumb position, col legno, two and three-part chords
alongside upper and lower drones. The maqam, with its semitones and augmented
intervals, already produces music of an exotic or Arabic feel and my aim was
to write a piece which had great energy and momentum from start to finish.
The repeat of themes and material, often changed or amended, was intentional
and the final few lines build in speed and momentum until coming to a
complete and sudden conclusion after such a build of energy and excitement.
'Alfabia' is dedicated to my good friend May Halyburton in Edinburgh, who I
first met on Mallorca when she was a bassist with the Symphony Orchestra in
Palma, and is both a great player, educationalist and teacher, but is also
passionate about the double bass in its many guises.' It was premiered by
the composer in Spain on Sunday 19 February at the 2017 Galicia Graves Double
Bass Competition & Workshop who also give its UK premiere at Green Hammerton
Hall (York, UK) on Sunday 5 March 2017. 'This piece very much follows the
tradition of unaccompanied pieces for the double bass in a quasi improvised
folk style such as we are used to from Rabbath, Gajdos and Grillo...Alfabia
lasts about three and a half minutes employing many special effects:
ponticello, col legno, pizzicato chords and drones. The performer needs to be
well acquainted with notes high on the D-strings and have a bass set up to
accommodate playing here whilst grazing the G-string. It is probably not as
hard as it first looks once the various effects have been learned. An
impossible page turn requires a photocopy or learning the first page from
memory. It is an effective concert/competition piece concluding with an
accel. molto al fine.' [Cathy Elliott / ARCO-ESTA] David Heyes studied
double bass with Laurence Gray and Bronwen Naish and later at the Royal
College of Music in London. He completed his post-graduate studies in Prague
with Frantisek Posta (Principal Double Bass, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra).
He has given recitals and masterclasses in 13 countries over the past few
years and has been a juror at a number of international competitions, twice
as chairman. David has been Specialist Double Bass Tutor at Wells Cathedral
School for 19 years and received a prestigious award from the David Walter
Charitable Trust of New York for his pioneering activities as a soloist,
teacher, publisher and commissioner of new music for double bass. He works
with composers throughout the world and is particularly interested to expand
the double bass repertoire, by commissioning new works and by rediscovering
forgotten ones. Over the past 30 years he has commissioned more than 500
works, from beginner to virtuoso, and from one to twenty basses. David has
transcribed more than 200 works for double bass, many published by Recital
Music, and in recent year has also composed a number of original works for
double bass which have been performed in Britain, America, Venezuela, Turkey,
Spain, Mexico, Germany and Czech Republic. David is self-taught as a composer
and his music has been described as lyrical, evocative and accessible, but
certainly of the 21st-century. See
http://contrabassconversations.com/2016/10/24/264-david-heyes-leaving-legacy/
