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Chamber Music Concert
T
he first chamber music concert of this year
was given by the brass quintet with members
of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra featuring Ga-
reth Griffiths and Andreas Giannakouras (trum-
pets), Kelly Alijani (French horn), Ross Lyness
(trombone) andAndreas Theocharous (tuba).
The Programme included the following works:
Anon.:
Del Bankelsangelieder
(arr. Mark King)
Gabriel Faure:
“Pie Jesu”
from
Requiem
(arr.
Scott Mousseau)
Samuel Scheidt: Battle suite for brass ensemble,
SSWV59, 1
st
movt.
Αndreas Theocharous:
To yiasemi
(Cyprus folk
song arrangement)
Romanian Gypsy Dance (Traditional)
Georges Bizet:
Carmen Suite
(arr. Matt Kingston)
Camille Saint-Saëns:
“March of the Royal Lion”
from
Carnival of the Animals
(arr. Karl Kramer)
GarethWood: Finale from Quintet for Brass
The concert took place on 26 January at the Pallas
Theatre, Paphos Gate in Nicosia.
More about the programme
Anon.:
Del Bankelsangelieder
(arr. Mark King)
Daniel Speer, reputed to be the writer of this
piece, was a man of many talents. Apart from be-
ing a composer, Speer had also been active as a
writer, on musical and political matters. His mu-
sical treatise (1687) gives an important account
of performance practices dating from the middle
Baroque period, giving focus on the art of trom-
bone playing. Much of Speer’s output consists
of works written for the brass instruments of
his time, such as the trombone, the cornet and
the sackbut. The Sonata was discovered as part
of a collection entitled Die Bankelsangerlieder,
meaning The Songs of the Bench Singers. These
individuals were at that time itinerant musicians
who often performed in the local taverns while
standing on benches. This lively work is unusual
in the ebullient quality of its themes and even
more so in the antiphonal effects produced by
the answering back and forth between various
groupings of two and three instruments.
Gabriel Fauré: “Pie Jesu” from
Requiem
(arr.
Scott Mousseau)
Contrary to the secular music played in taverns,
a requiem was a mass pertaining to Roman
Catholic Church practices performed for the re-
pose of the souls of the dead. Fauré composed
the
Requiem
between 1887 and 1890, presum-
ably as a reaction to the death of his father in
1885, despite the fact that he later declared that
it was “composed for nothing…for fun, if I may
be permitted to say so!” The “Pie Jesu”, the cen-
tral movement of the Requiem
,
is a prayer to the
“good Jesus” for everlasting rest.
Samuel Scheidt: Battle Suite for brass ensem-
ble, SSWV59, 1
st
movt.
Scheidt was a highly influential composer in the