Petite Suite Historique  Ref: JM35SC

Petite Suite Historique is a Concert Suite in three movements for the unusual combination of the duo for Viola and Violoncello. Although much care always has to be taken in such a duo to carefully 'blend' the voices together, in the present work it is the voice of the Viola that has generally the more noble 'cantabile' lines. This should not be seen as an historical work in a most pure sense – rather, the title of each movement is for guidance and descriptive purposes (in a similar vein to composers like Respighi, for example). From this orientation, although the first movement 'Prélude Baroque' rather looks back to the preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach, one can also witness a real modern 'intensity', especially towards the close of the movement. The second movement, 'Chant Romantique' is exactly as its title suggests – the beautiful voice of the viola captures a lyricism which could have been, if one uses a little imagination, a popular song from a French opera from the nineteenth century. The last movement, titled 'Marche Neo-classique', is a 'finale' constructed as a lively march in ternary form with occasional small harmonic and rhythmic references to Milhaud and Prokofiev. However, above all, the intention has been to produce some light-hearted and good-spirited music. The total duration in public performance is about 14 minutes. With gratitude to Spanish Television 'Telecinco S.A.' (and a special thanks to Isabel Morales of the programme 'Nocturnos') for permission to make the publication of this work possible. Each movement has been dedicated to some long-term and fond students of the composer: I Prélude baroque: dedicated to Paula Moriones Jiménez II Chant Romantique: dedicated to Luis Lorenzana & Cristina Aznar III Marche Neo-classique: dedicated to Haizea Sola