Monday, November 12, 2007

Doing the seguidilla in Pittsburgh

This past weekend I had the great pleasure of playing with El Mundo, a group run by Richard Savino, who plays lute and guitar with us frequently. The program, entitled Zarzuela y Opera!, was for the Renaissance and Baroque Society of Pittsburgh: rbsp.org

The music -- by Sebastian Duron, Domenico Zipoli and others -- is full of infectious rhythms and melodies. For me, it was kind of a baptism-by-fire in Spanish Baroque, complete with improvised fandangos and seguidillas!

And on another subject: if you need a good laugh (at Pachelbel's expense), have a look at youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Having just spent the weekend realizing such bass lines -- Spanish music has lots of ostinatos for the continuo players -- I can definitely relate, though I'm much fonder of Duron, Zipoli and all the rest than this guitar player is of poor Pachelbel!

4 comments:

Kinga Skretkowicz said...
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Kinga Skretkowicz said...
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Kinga Skretkowicz said...
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Kinga Skretkowicz said...

Re Pachelbel:
I sympathize with Ron. I just sang at a big wedding in town and had to listen to the Canon repeated 57 times, before the bridegroom finally decided to appear in all her splendor.It's a lovely melody but enough is enough!