New Wolfhead titles

[John Craton]

Wolfhead music finally released its fall titles today after a two-month delay. No new mandolin works per se, but we have published three works for violin that have been long out of print and may translate well to mandolin. They are suitable for the advancing violin student and should work well on mandolin, though I haven't had time to try them out on mando myself yet. Just re-released in new editions are the first two concertinos for violin and piano by Rene Ortmans and the Dancla 3 Romances for violin and piano, op. 57. Mando pluckers may find them of interest.

And while I'm posting I may as well take the opportunity to plug one of our mandolin titles that has been vastly underplayed, in my opinion -- fantAsia by Chicagoan April Mok is a delightful piece for mandolin and piano that captures the spirit of Asia while using predominantly modern Western tonalities. A brief mp3 sample can be heard from the website.

The 2009 Wolfhead Music catalogue is at http://wolfheadmusic.com/catalog.htm Be sure to check out our other mandolin titles there as well, including our own Victor Kioulaphides' marvellous Rhapsody and Jim Dalton's Gifts of the Bard. (Did I overlook any of our Cafe composers?)

[John Craton]

I forgot to mention one other new release that could possibly have a mandolin conversion. That would be my own 12 Variations on "La Follia" for violin & piano. Written largely in the style of Corelli and Salieri, both of whom wrote far better variations on this memorable theme than I, some of the variations are too idiomatic to the violin to be easily transferable to mandolin. Others, however, may work quite well. On the other hand, it could be that my forgetting to mention this release was the right thing after all.

[MMDavis]

Wow - what a wealth of mandolin repertoire is herein contained! "The [amazing] Gray Wolf!" Your estimable and underplayed Mandolin COncerti! Hey, you have Betty Beath's "Mikri Thallasa" (great piece ) for quartet - cool! And the Hasse AND the Caudioso! AND Victor's excellent "Rhapsody for Mandolin and Piano!" AND a whole bunch of stuff I never heard before! People check this out - not only can you read about the composer and see their picture - but you can often hear excerpts from the works listed. I was personally blown away by Jim Dalton's "Gift of the Bard" - especially that flute like melody played with eBow! Pretty clever!
Excellent site, John, and kudos for making available so much excellent new repertoire!
Mark

[John Craton]

Wolfhead Music released several new titles today, all by yours truly. Only one new mandolin title was among the mix, however: Dioses aztecas (Aztec Gods). This work was written for the inestimable Dutch mandolinist Sebastiaan de Grebber, who you can hear performing the first of the gods (accompanied most ably by Eva van den Dool) on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMSCyKHIEqo. Sebastiaan was most kind in allowing us recently to lift the embargo on this set of five concert pieces for mandolin and piano.

The first, third, and fifth movements of Dioses aztecas all use standard mandolin tuning, while the second and fourth employ scordatura. In the second movement the G course is tuned up a semitone to A-flat. The fourth movement utilizes a rather interesting tuning combination: it requires tuning one string on the E course to E, the other to C-sharp; likewise, the D course is tuned with one string playing D, the other B-natural; the A and G courses are tuned normally. I am most interested in seeing what others think of this rather convoluted process and what it offers in terms of resonances and overtones.

Other titles released today include two works for violin (which may or may not be feasible on mandolin), two for cello (would mandocello work?), a string quartet (probably far too idiomatic to the instruments to be useful with plucked strings), and two woodwind works (not likely good candidates for conversion). The violin works are "Dance of the Fey" for violin and piano, and "3 Duettinos," a collection of three 3-movement works for violin duo. The cello pieces are both for cello and piano: "In Memoriam: George Kirles" and "L'Ombre de la tour d'horloge (The Shadow of the Clock Tower)."

The Wolfhead catalogue may be viewed at http://wolfheadmusic.com/catalog.htm.

[mandobuzz]

John, I just purchased Dioses aztecas. Can't wait to start looking it over. The video of the first movement on youtube was beautiful, and I am intrigued by your scordatura descriptions of the second and fourth movements.

[John Craton]

Attached below (I hope) are the notes that accompany Dioses aztecas and which perhaps give a little more information about the scordatura tunings. (As an aside, there are mp3s available of the Sibelius playbacks near the bottom of the page at http://www.craton.net/music/aztec.htm . These are only computer-generated recordings, but they'll give an idea what the pieces should sound like.