Its dark in here, click to read me
It's very dark here, click to read me!
It's very dark, click to read me!
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Recorded on September 19, 2022 at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris
Jacques Ibert
Three short pieces (1930)
1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Quite slow-Allegro scherzando
Composed in 1930, these three short pieces were originally intended for a incidental music for a comedy entitled Le Stratagème des roués, written by Irishman George Farquhar. If the chamber music score now no longer depends on the theatre, it however, reflects the general spirit of the comedy which tells the adventures of two ruined gentlemen in search of a rich heiress. The Three Short Pieces have in common their transparency of writing, their melodic elegance and their freshness of character which make it a piece a must in the wind quintet repertoire. In addition to the humor that shines through throughout the play, Jacques Ibert knows also delicately nuance the colors, interweaving the lines of the flute and clarinet during the Andante or by introducing a very theatrical at the beginning of the third piece.
Malcolm Arnold
Three Shanties op.4 (1943)
1. Allegro con brio
2. Allegretto semplice
3. Allegro vivo
Composed in 1943 by Malcolm Arnold, The Three Shanties are based on three popular songs sung on Anglo-Saxon ships at the beginning of the Twentieth century. Sea shanties are traditional work songs. They were developed on tall ships to accompany and coordinate rhythmically group work such as hoisting the sails or lifting anchors. The first movement of Arnold's work takes up the text of the popular "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?” (What are we going to do with this drunken sailor) and includes a passage played in the manner of a tango creating a burlesque effect. the contrasting second movement corresponds to the song “Boney was a Warrior” (Bonney was a soldier) and the last refers to “Johnny come down to Hilo” (Johnny comes to Hilo), always in the same humorous and requiring the same dexterity.