String Orchestra - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1183534 Composed by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St. Georges. Arranged by Robert Debbaut. Classical,Contest,Festival,Historic,Multicultural,World. 28 pages. ROBERT DEBBAUT #783207. Published by ROBERT DEBBAUT (A0.1183534). How is it that one can be born a slave in French colonial Guadeloupe and rise to be among Paris’ musical giants, to become a colonel in the French Army as well as the frequent dinner guest of princes and potentates? The story of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, is surely an interesting one, even the stuff of which movies are made.Joseph Bologne’s father, Georges Bologne de Saint-Georges was a French planter. Saint-Georges was the name of his plantation. He impregnated Anne, the Senegalese slave of his wife, who bore him a son in 1745. Uncharacteristic of many of these sort of relationships he acknowledged the child was his and gave him his family name. When he was seven Bologne’s father took him to Paris for his education, enrolling him in a boarding school. Two years later he and the child’s mother returned to France and set up housekeeping as a family in Paris’ Saint-Germain-des-Prés district.At age thirteen Joseph’s father enrolled him in the Royal Technical Academy of Fencing and Swordsmanship. He quickly became the finest swordsman in the academy, perhaps in all of Paris. Upon graduation he was made an Officer of the King’s Bodyguard and a chevalier (an honorary knighthood). He went on to serve tours of duty in the French Army during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and later after the French Revolution, where he was Colonel and commander of an all-Black regiment of the Revolutionary Army. All this in spite of the fact that French law forbade him, a man of African heritage, to become a citizen, to retain his father’s royal title of “Gentleman of the King’s Chamber,� or to marry outside his class.There is limited information about Bologne’s musical training, but he was obviously so well-skilled that Italian violinist-composer Antonio Lolli (1725-1802) wrote two violin concertos for him and French composer François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829) dedicated his set of String Trios, Op. 9 to Bologne. Lolli may have worked with him on violin technique and Gossec composition, but this may be apocryphal. Bologne played in Gossec’s orchestra, and was later both leader and conductor of the group.As a composer Joseph Bologne was quite prolific, composing six operas, fourteen violin concertos, four symphonies concertantes, and numerous chamber works and songs. His Six String Quartets, Op. 1, Nos. 1-6 date from 1770-1771 and were published by the Paris publishing house of Jean-Georges Sieber (1738-1822) in 1773 (There are a total of 18 quartets: Six Quartets “au goût du jour� [up-to-date] from 1779 and the Opus 14 set of six which date from 1785). The Opus 1 quartets are dedicated to Anne Louis Alexandre de Montmorency (1724-1812), 7th Prince of Robeck (Robecq) and Grand Duke of Spain.The Opus 1 quartets all display a similarity to the Italian opera overtures from earlier in the Eighteenth Century (often called “sinfonia�) in that they have an overall “A-B-A� form with the ‘A’ sections being robust allegros and all ‘B’ sections marked “rondo.� As such, in arranging them for string orchestra it seemed quite natural to rename them “overtures.� Certain liberties were taken by the arranger in order to maintain the integrity of the classic Rondo formula. All six have been arranged in this manner for string orchestra. They vary in length from twelve to almost twenty minutes. If you wish to obtain parts, write to debbaut@gmail.com and pay $42 via venmo or $40 via personal check and they will be sent to you in pdf format.

Piano Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1490673 Composed by Nicole Elyse DiPaolo. 20th Century,Classical,Contest,Festival,Instructional. Score. 18 pages. Nicole Elyse DiPaolo #1067479. Published by Nicole Elyse DiPaolo (A0.1490673). Vignettes is a set of 5 short (2 or 3-page) late-intermediate piano pieces that introduce unique aspects of Maurice Ravel's piano writing that students tend to find challenging. Given that Ravel himself wrote very little at the intermediate level for solo piano (except the recently rediscovered Prelude in A minor), I saw a great need for appropriate Ravel-preparatory repertoire.Notes on the Pieces in Vignettes1.      Réminiscences d’EspagneThis work is an homage to Maurice Ravel's Habañera-styled pieces. It introduces techniques that Ravel frequently uses but that less-than-advanced students rarely encounter in repertoire at their level: numerous hand and arm crossings, 3-against-4 polyrhythms as evident in the habañera, very high registers, dissonances like German 7th chords and diminished thirds, and Spanish-flavored modal writing, to name a few. This piece also recalls my time as a cruise ship duo pianist aboard the ms Maasdam, which visited five ports in Spain.2.      Le jardin des papillons (The Butterfly Garden)Le jardin des papillons is an homage to Maurice Ravel's piano writing as shown in pieces including the Sonatine, Le tombeau de Couperin, and others. It introduces techniques that Ravel frequently uses but that less-than-advanced students rarely encounter in repertoire at their level: sometimes-awkward hand and arm crossings, extended tertian chords (9th/11th/13th voicings), whole tone sonorities, and some modal writing, to name a few, while still maintaining a clarity of voicing that students will find in Ravel's own music.3.      Le jardin englouti (The Sunken Garden)Le jardin englouti is an homage to Maurice Ravel's minuets (like the middle movement of the Sonatine and the minuet from Le tombeau de Couperin). This piece was inspired by the Sunken Garden, a former landmark on the Indiana University campus that sat across the street from the practice building in which I taught dozens of piano students, coached numerous singers, and learned piles of solo and collaborative repertoire before moving away in 2019. The Biology Building greenhouse now sits on the former Sunken Garden site.4.      Point PeléePoint Pelée is an homage to Maurice Ravel's toccata-style movements, like the finale of the Sonatine or the toccata from Le tombeau de Couperin. This piece can be programmed with Le jardin des papillons and Le jardin englouti to form a three-movement suite that roughly corresponds to the Sonatine. This movement was inspired by Point Pelée National Park, in Ontario, Canada, a frequent roosting spot for monarch butterflies making the long migration from Canada to southern Mexico. In this piece I tried to capture the flutters of the roosting monarchs' wings as they'd settle into the trees at night and venture out across Lake Erie after resting. You can find more information on the park here: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/on/pelee/nature/faune-wildlife/monarque-monarch5.      À la manière d'une PavaneÀ la manière d'une Pavane is an homage to Maurice Ravel's piano writing as shown in his Pavane pour une infante défunte and the Pavane from the Mother Goose suite. It combines Baroque-reminiscent polyphony with the clarity and delicacy of articulation required more widely in the Ravel repertoire.