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Original

Violintango Concerto.

Translation

Violintango Concerto.

Original

Violintango Concerto composed by Melani Mestre. For violin and string orchestra. Published by Editorial de Musica Boileau. BO.B.3671. The piece, structured in three movements, Allegro - Lento - Allegro, is written, as its name suggests, for a solo violin accompanied by an orchestra -a string orchestra, in this case. Its name aims at relating the composition not only to the instrument for which it was conceived, but also to the genre that marks the aesthetic content of the work. this is the only existing original concert for violin and orchestra of this category to date. The piece was written in February 2009 in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, while I was the conductor of the city's Symphonic Orchestra and we were rehearsing a concert in which we would interpret an instrumental suite from Astor Piazzolla‘s Operatango Maria de Buenos Aires, that had been written some time before. Therefore, the use of the language of tango in the composition of this concert was certainly not fortuitous, but although it seems contradictory, employing it was not an intentional act either. The work itself intends to explore the language of tango by means of all the technical and musical resources offered by the violin, but without letting this become an excuse to just write a tango for violin and orchestra or a tango-style concert. In fact, the piece shows a will to develop and experiment with the several diverse ways in which the language of tango can be presented, with all its dialects and its variants. The language employed in this concert explores all these postulations and develops them, starting from a few rhythmical cells of their own that are juxtaposed and intertwined throughout the three movements, forming an indivisible unit. The accents take a special relevance and become a significant part all the way through the musical discourse, as do the different rhythms that not only shape a particular kind of orchestral accompaniment, but also make up a specific counterpoint to the expressive and melodic needs of the solo violin. Not only does the orchestra accompany its soloist, but in many cases it becomes a soloist in itself. The counterpoint, never used as a compositional tool or as a merely acrobatic display, confers structural meaning to a language that allows a dialog between the couple made up by the soloist and the orchestra, in which they can both speak at the same time without any of the two sides being pushed into the background. The second movement, Lento, the aria structure used is typical from Bach -not so much from Johann Sebastian as from his son, Johann Christian. This structure allows for the juxtaposition in one milonga melody, of a solo violin with a basso continuo by four, whose tempo is marked by the strings. The third movement attempts to explain, gradually and in a linear way, the evolution of the metric of tango, as it moves from a bar of 4. typical of tango. to one of 6. Havanera-like. , thus demonstrating the historical origin of tango as deriving from Havaneras, and the various transformations it has undergone. We then reach the coda of the third movement where, after one of the two cadences of the solo part, all the tunes that have been emerging throughout the concert overlap contrapuntally with all the polyrhythms they make up together, expanding and contracting by way of the internal accents of the music itself and producing the feel of being simultaneously listening to a bar of 4. 4, a 3. 4 and a 6.

Translation

Violintango Concerto composed by Melani Mestre. For violin and string orchestra. Published by Editorial de Musica Boileau. BO.B.3671. The piece, structured in three movements, Allegro - Lento - Allegro, is written, as its name suggests, for a solo violin accompanied by an orchestra -a string orchestra, in this case. Its name aims at relating the composition not only to the instrument for which it was conceived, but also to the genre that marks the aesthetic content of the work. this is the only existing original concert for violin and orchestra of this category to date. The piece was written in February 2009 in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, while I was the conductor of the city's Symphonic Orchestra and we were rehearsing a concert in which we would interpret an instrumental suite from Astor Piazzolla‘s Operatango Maria de Buenos Aires, that had been written some time before. Therefore, the use of the language of tango in the composition of this concert was certainly not fortuitous, but although it seems contradictory, employing it was not an intentional act either. The work itself intends to explore the language of tango by means of all the technical and musical resources offered by the violin, but without letting this become an excuse to just write a tango for violin and orchestra or a tango-style concert. In fact, the piece shows a will to develop and experiment with the several diverse ways in which the language of tango can be presented, with all its dialects and its variants. The language employed in this concert explores all these postulations and develops them, starting from a few rhythmical cells of their own that are juxtaposed and intertwined throughout the three movements, forming an indivisible unit. The accents take a special relevance and become a significant part all the way through the musical discourse, as do the different rhythms that not only shape a particular kind of orchestral accompaniment, but also make up a specific counterpoint to the expressive and melodic needs of the solo violin. Not only does the orchestra accompany its soloist, but in many cases it becomes a soloist in itself. The counterpoint, never used as a compositional tool or as a merely acrobatic display, confers structural meaning to a language that allows a dialog between the couple made up by the soloist and the orchestra, in which they can both speak at the same time without any of the two sides being pushed into the background. The second movement, Lento, the aria structure used is typical from Bach -not so much from Johann Sebastian as from his son, Johann Christian. This structure allows for the juxtaposition in one milonga melody, of a solo violin with a basso continuo by four, whose tempo is marked by the strings. The third movement attempts to explain, gradually and in a linear way, the evolution of the metric of tango, as it moves from a bar of 4. typical of tango. to one of 6. Havanera-like. , thus demonstrating the historical origin of tango as deriving from Havaneras, and the various transformations it has undergone. We then reach the coda of the third movement where, after one of the two cadences of the solo part, all the tunes that have been emerging throughout the concert overlap contrapuntally with all the polyrhythms they make up together, expanding and contracting by way of the internal accents of the music itself and producing the feel of being simultaneously listening to a bar of 4. 4, a 3. 4 and a 6.