Waltz for the New Year, 2017 (mp3) (pdf)

Today's post marks the beginning of the second decade of this blog. Begun as an experiment in January 2007 I never for a moment imagined that I would still be using this platform in 2017. Of course for long stretches of time, most recently November and December 2016, I haven't added any content but with a new year comes new resolve.

On New Year's Day I wrote most of today's tune. I tinkered with it some on Monday and Tuesday and did some recording on Friday.

 I also had some fun this week working with a trio sonata composed by my old friend G.P. Telemann for transverse flute, violin and continuo. My Barenreiter edition tells me this was the "third of a collection of six trio sonatas with different instrumentation which Telemann had engraved in copper by Benjamin Kenckel", all six featuring the violin as one of the instruments.

In this post I am presenting an arrangement of part IV of the sonata, the concluding Vivace, for two mandolins (or mandolin and violin, etc.). In arranging this music for two mandolins I have pulled notes and phrases from the bass line to provide material for each player during what were measures of rest in the original. I will include recordings and the sheet music below.

Telemann: Trio Sonate in G, IV. Vivace (mp3) (pdf)

Finally, the photo above was taken moments ago (around 9:30 a.m.) looking out of my studio window. You will note that it is still rather cold here this morning, -4 or so last night, but it promises to warm up to around 17 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon.

I hope you enjoy the music.