Greensleeves Variations

Transcription

1 Richard Stehan Kjos String Orchestra Grade 4 Full Conductor Score SO60F $7.00 SA M PL E Greensleeves Variations Neil A. Kjos Music Comany Publisher

2 SO60 The Comoser Richard Stehan earned degrees rom the State University o New York at Fredonia and the Eastman School o Music, with advanced work at the University o Bualo and Brigham Young University. He taught instrumental music in the ublic schools o Bualo and was an orchestra director and Coordinator o Music in the Hamburg, New York, schools or thirteen years. In 968, Mr. Stehan joined the aculty o the Crane School o Music, S.U.N.Y. at Potsdam, where he was the symhony orchestra conductor and string education roessor or the ollowing thirty-two years. Mr. Stehan has aeared as a guest conductor/clinician in New York, Ohio, Utah, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Ontario, Canada. He conducted the oening ceremonies o the 980 Winter Olymics and in 984 was honored with a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to lecture and conduct in Australia. His Fanare and Friery was the 986 National School Orchestra Association Comosition Contest winner and he has over three dozen ublished works or string, ull, and studio orchestra to his credit. Since his retirement rom teaching in 000, Mr. Stehan has continued his writing and guest conducting. The Comosition I have always had a dee regard and admiration or the melody that we now know as Greensleeves. Using this as a basis or a set o variations was quite attractive to me. However, ater much thought and with resect or the beauty o this time-honored tune, I decided to base the variations on the imlied harmonic structure o the iece rather than on the melody. The original melodic resentation should grow rom the simlicity o the legato celli statement to the ull, balanced harmonization at measure 9. Both the theme and the irst variation are best served with long, smooth bowing. The ermati between variations should be as brie as ossible, allowing only enough time to reare hysically and mentally or the next temo and style. The odd-numbered variations (with the excetion o the last one) are generally in a slow temo and are to be layed with attention to beauty o tone and sensitivity to hrasing. The even-numbered variations (excet Variation IV) need to be aroached with both vigorous, irm bowing that digs well into the string, and with strict adherence to a lively, steady temo. Pizzicato movements can easily end u racing to the inish. To maintain a steady, unrushed ace in Variation IV, have the students subdivide the beat by counting the ands while you conduct the iece in one. A ew other details need to be considered, including the delicate staccato on beat two in Variation III; the balance in the second hal o Variation V allowing the cello line to redominate; the accents that create the rhythmic dissonance in Variation VI; and a controlled ritard sread over three measures returning to the majestic Finale. Although the melody must come through clearly, it is also imortant that the divisi harmony voices are balanced roerly to obtain the desired richness o texture. I hoe you enjoy! Instrumentation List (Set C) 8 st Violin 8 nd Violin 5 Viola 5 5 String Bass Full Conductor Score Additional scores and arts are available. Learning Bank Each student art includes a Learning Bank eaturing historical inormation about Greensleeves. The Learning Bank is also rinted on age 3 o this score.

3 3 Learning Bank: The History o Greensleeves The song Greensleeves has a long and comlicated history that sans over 400 years. Originally written by an anonymous English musician during the Renaissance, Greensleeves has traveled on an intriguing journey to reach our modern songbook. In the mid 6 th century, it was very common or ieces o music to enter oular consciousness through anonymous sources. Legend has it, however, that the true comoser o Greensleeves was King Henry VIII (49-547). Modern scholars know that the English king was an active musician and that he wrote lyrics to the Greensleeves melody or his riend Anne Boleyn. Desite this evidence, the theory that the amed Henry VIII wrote Greensleeves has been reuted by many music historians, who claim that the Italian-inluenced style o the iece did not start aearing in England until ater Henry s death. The true origin o one o the most wellknown songs in Western culture, thereore, remains a mystery. Lyrics to Greensleeves were irst ublished in 580, but the song almost certainly had a history in the oral tradition beore that date. It was so oular in late Renaissance England that William Shakeseare even mentions it in his lay The Merry Wives o Windsor (c.60). At the end o the 6 th century, lute layer Francis Cutting wrote variations on the Greensleeves melody ( variations are musical structures that reeat the same theme with dierent modiications each time). Unlike Richard Stehan s Greensleeves Variations, which states the melody at the beginning, Cutting s iece never states the actual melody. Many scholars agree that the tune was so oular at the time that the lute layer did not need to lay it at all; indeed, he simly needed to imly the melody through his variations or the audience to understand the musical reerence. The large number o humorous arodies o the song rom the same eriod also attest to the ubiquity o Greensleeves in late 6 th century English lie. In addition to its early history as a love song, Greensleeves was irst given Christmas-themed lyrics in the mid 7 th century ( The Old Year Now Away Has Fled ). This new holiday context or the song remains with us to the resent day. In the 860s, the Englishman William Chatterton Dix wrote yet another set o lyrics to Greensleeves and ublished his version under the title What Child Is This? Dix s version endures today as a well-loved Christmas carol. SO60

4 4 Full Conductor Score Arox. time 8:00 Greensleeves Variations Richard Stehan Violins Viola String Bass Peaceully, Smoothly (e = 90) m 5 Viola cue m end cue m m 4 9 Play m Stately 008 Neil A. Kjos Music Comany, 438 Jutland Drive, San Diego, Caliornia, 97. International coyright secured. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. WARNING! The contents o this ublication are rotected by coyright law. To coy or reroduce them by any method is an inringement o the coyright law. Anyone who reroduces coyrighted matter is subject to substantial enalties and assessments or each inringement. SO60

5 Variation I 7 Calmly m m m 0 m 3 4 izz. m SO60

6 Var. II Aggressively (q = 35) arco SO60

7 m m m m m Play m m st Time Tacit m m st Time Tacit Play m izz. 58 m m Var. III Daintily (q = 90) SO60

8 , SO60

9 m m m m 83 m arco oco oco oco 86 Lively (h. = 58) 87 Var. IV 88 izz. izz. oco oco izz. izz izz. 94 SO60

10 SO60

11 3 4 5 Var. V 9 Peaceully (q = 78) arco arco 8 4 arco arco 6 (izz.) SO60

12 m m m m m arco Var. VI Vigorously (In One: h. = 60) SO60

13 3 49 simile simile simile simile simile SO60

14 simile simile simile simile simile , m, m, m SO60

15 5 85 Var. VII Joyully (in the same temo) unis. div. m 9 m m m m m 95 m 00, SO60

16 div. div. unis. SO60

17 6 div. unis. Finale Majestically (q = 80) div unis unis. 6 3 izz. 7 SO60

18 8 33 m gradual m m gradual gradual m gradual arco m gradual 34 div unis div. div div molto molto unis. molto div. molto molto SO60

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