Quartetti Classici

[vkioulaphides]

OK, friends:

As of today, all recipients are up-to-date, and have scores, parts, or both (as per their own choice) of the first four Quartetti. As soon as I get a chance to typeset Nº 5 and Nº 6, I will proceed as usual.

Fire up your picks!

Cheers,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

Dear friends,

at long last, and after countless delays and distractions, my Quartetto Classico Nº 5 is on its way to all the recipients on my list, in PDF format. I hope it is received with as good cheer as it was sent with.

Please let me know if you did not get all the scores and parts. Newcomers, please feel free to join; the price is right ($0.00)

David (Westwick): my e-mails were returned. Assuming you are still on board, please be kind enough to zap me your new, current e-mail address.

Cheers to one and all,

Victor

P.S. Scores/parts to Nº 6 will be coming soon.

[Embergher]

at long last, and after countless delays and distractions, my Quartetto Classico Nº 5 is on its way to all the recipients on my list, in PDF format. I hope it is received with as good cheer as it was sent with.

Many, many thanks Victor!
Although we knew it was coming, it's always a wonderful surprise to see those PDF files in the mailbox #
I just read it through - not played it yet - and it looks great fun to play and to listen to.
I'm very fond of this kind of 'pure' harmonisation with "only the notes that are needed, and nothing more" ... clear and transparent, like the sound of a mandolin!

P.S. Scores/parts to Nº 6 will be coming soon.

We really are getting spoiled ... first we didn't have any decent original mandolin quartets, soon we won't know anymore which one to choose ... #

[vkioulaphides]

Very kind of you, Ralf; thank you. Of course, the idea is that people should have something to choose from. I intended these to be unified enough as a set, yet different enough individually. I hope I accomplished what I set out to...

David, I got your corrected address and sent the music again—#to the correct one. Enjoy!

Cheers to one and all,

Victor

[Daymando]

#5 was well-received here, Victor, and muchas gracias! I'm looking forward to adding this to the mix -- and letting my quartet choose which we do when (once we get through them all!). I do like to be a benevolent dictator now and then...(but don't let that idea get spread around, m'kay?)

-Allen.

[vkioulaphides]

Well, Allen, that still beats the usual kind of dictators, of whom there are many.

But I know what you mean; first listen to your colleagues, then just disregard what anyone said.

Seriously, now: No. 6 will be coming by the end of this week, so this cycle will have come to an end. A happy one.

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Victor,


Thanks so much for sending your Quartetto Classico Nº 5!

Saturday The CONSORT will have its first rehearsal after the Summer holiday (a full day rehearsing all the works sheduled to be performed this season) and I'll give your new quartetto to the members of the 'Embergher Quartet' there. I am sure that No. 5 will be played first time our quartet meets!

By the way, yesterday one of your marvellous solo pieces for mandolin was performed here at the Conservatory; Ruth (Rouw) did her entrance exam because she has decided to become a professional music teacher.
For this she had to perform - among other things - a practical 30 minutes programme on her instruments; the mandolin and mandola. Her choice was to play solo pieces and compositions in combination with voice and with guitar and piano. One of the solo pieces was the one you composed while in Groningen titled: ´De Grote Markt´. Ruth played it and the rest of her programme with great enthousiasm and just the right feeling for each of the compositions!

The other members of the admittance commission were impressed by her performance on the mandolin and the music (all original works for mandolin) from which they liked in particular your piece.
Ruth will now start to study Music and Mandolin on a higher level at the Conservatory in Zwolle. #

Best greetings and thanks again!

Alex

Photo: Ruth Rouw.

[John Goodin]

Victor, thanks once more for the beautiful music. I especially like the country dance/fiddle tune type theme of the third section. Looking forward to no. 6.

John G.

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you, John. Indeed, I tried to balance the tender, introverted emotion of the 2nd movement with a more light-hearted, "country-fiddle" sort of 3rd movement. You know how it is, when cherry-trees are in full bloom...

Alex, please give my warmest congratulations to dear, young Ruth. She's a excellent musician, and will make a fine music teacher. Who would have known, that a little piece sketched on an airline napkin, en route from Amsterdam to New York (by a wretchedly jet-lagged composer ) would have gotten so much mileage! But, of course, the charm of the piece lies not in the composer's contribution, but in the most wonderfully joyous impressions said composer was bringing back with him.

Cheers to one and all.

Victor

[John Craton]

Alex, please convey my congratulations and best wishes to Ruth as well. I remember when I was there with you she was debating whether to pursue a music career, and I'm happy to see I didn't frighten her off the idea Her English was barely better than my Dutch, but we had a great time "conversing" before the concert. I fondly recall her delightful laugh (I'm good at making peope laugh — just look at my photo and the chuckles come naturally), and I'm certain she will make an excellent teacher who readily conveys the joy in music.

Congrats also to Victor for his worthy contributions to Ruth's and Sebastiaan's recent accompishments. Great job all!

[vkioulaphides]

Dear friends,

the long —but joyous—#journey is over, at least from the composer's end: as of a few minutes ago, I have sent out all the scores and parts to my Quartetto Classico Nº 6, thereby completing this Merry Sixpack. Now this music takes on its own life, in your hands, not mine. I hope it is enjoyed.

With all due modesty, I am very happy and proud to have completed this project within a year or so, ever since I set out on this path. Now, all sorts of colleagues are getting together, reading through my quartets, sometimes performing them in public, making friends, making music. I am happy to have been a bit of a "moving force" behind this wave of friendly music-making, in the noblest tradition of chamber music.

Pick on, friends!

P.S. No time to catch my breath; time instead to spend some SERIOUS hours on Carlo's Canzona!

[JimD]

Just arrived home and found a surprise in my inbox -- Victor's Quartetto Classico Nº 6!

Thanks, Victor.

Now, being one of the proud owners of the whole set of 6, I'm looking forward to a reading session (or 2 or 3...) with my quartet partners.

[JimD]

With all due modesty...

Forget modesty. Six quartets is quite an accomplishment.

Forgive my Irish (I'm just learning):

Fad saol agat agus go dtuga Dia fairsinge do chroí i gcónaí duit.
(Long life to you and may God maintain the bounty of your heart always.)

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Victor,

Congrats to you with the completion of this great project! There is all the reason to be proud!!! For with these six quartets you have within a year enlarged the repertoire of the Classical Mandolin Quartet with beautiful music!

I am sure the quartets will easily find their way to players ánd listeners! #


Many thanks,

Alex

PS. I'll forward John's and your congratulations to Ruth .

[Jim Garber]

May I add my hearty congratulations to the large heap of similar ones, well-deserved for a wonderful collection of beautiful and engaging music for our instrument(s).

Jim

[a12]

Victor,
You made my weekend!
Three days to enjoy.

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you, Bill, and all others.

I forgot to mention that, at the request of Carlo Aonzo, I have also made alternative mandola parts in 8ve-treble clef. His concern was that, generally speaking, the 8ve-instrument is more common than the CGDA mandola in Europe, and certainly in Italy.

Please do not be confused, however: the mandola —or rather mandoliola— part in my 6 quartets is written for the CGDA instrument, does not exceed its range, is "laid out" on its fingerboard, etc.

Still, if anyone wishes to have the part in 8ve-treble clef, for the sake of reading facility, well, just give me an e-holler. The price is the same...