Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1190435 Composed by Thomas Oboe Lee. 20th Century,Chamber,Classical,Contemporary. 34 pages. Thomas Oboe Lee #790011. Published by Thomas Oboe Lee (A0.1190435). Instrumentation:FluteClarinet in BbHorn in FViolinViolaCelloDoiuble bassSeptet, opus 77 … “Variations on a Shaker Tune†was commissioned by Mark Ludwig for his educational series in the Western Berkshires of Massachusetts.  When he approached me about writing a “theme and variations†work for the purpose of illustrating musical form, texture and orchestration to a young audience, I thought what better thing to do than to use as a theme a Shaker hymn from near Hancock Shaker Village.  As it turns out Deborah Leah Rentz, a mezzo-soprano who is Mark’s assistant at the TerezÃn Music Foundation, has been researching into and transcribing from a Shaker Hymnal, ca. 1850, created and compiled for the Hancock Shaker Village.  (Deborah’s project is sponsored by the Hancock Shaker Village and the Richmond Performing Series.)   So I asked her to put on a DAT tape (those were the days before CDs or digital distribution… ) a number of these hymns for me.  I immediately fell in love with the very first one on the tape, “Grateful Remembrance.† It had a soulful, melancholic core; an almost “bluesy†feeling to it.  In this performance, Deborah will sing the hymn a cappella at the beginning.   Then, the seven variations will follow.I. Grateful Remembrance … An instrumental version of the hymn.II. Grateful Chanting … Featuring the B-flat clarinet in a pentatonic “chant†setting.III. Grateful Funk … The “bluesiness†of the hymn is transformed into a funk riff.IV. Tango Remembered … A four-note fragment from the hymn is transformed into a sultry tango.V. Sambinha agradecida … The yearning “flat 6th†in the hymn is transformed into a samba Carmen Miranda would’ve have liked.VI. Canonized Remembrance … The hymn is treated to a canonic transfiguration.VII. Grateful Groove … The pentatonic nature of the hymn is spun out in an Afro-cuban dazzle dazzle finale!
