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I'll update this page from time to time as I complete new works. The most recent addition was on July 6, 2000: the Mozart "Dissonant" String Quartet. Just prior was July 5, 2000: another movement in the Octet by Franz Schubert - now we have three.

All of these works are copyrighted to some extent by Virgil Barstad, the originator of this web site.

Original works of my own belong to me, of course.

In other cases, the pieces themselves are public domain, since they were written by such long-departed talents as Mendelssohn, Bach, or Joplin. But certain aspects of these presentations represent my own work, to the extent noted in the copyright notice at the bottom of each first page. Usually it's an original arrangement or orchestration, but occasionally it's just some rather clever bowings to keep a string orchestra looking snazzy while they're performing.

Again, any feedback you'd like to send would be terrific. Email me at virgil@xpressweb.com.

Here's the music:

Albéniz, Isaac

• Sevilla is part of a longer work: Suite Española, with each movement named after a location in Spain. There's lots of Spanish fire in this one. I've written an arrangement for strings from a guitar arrangement. I believe it was originally written for piano.

• The most famous Bach, Johann Sebastian, had lots of children, a few of whom grew up to become fairly celebrated composers in their own right. Johann Christian Bach moved from Germany to France, became known as Jean-Chrétien Bach, and had a reasonably successful career. A couple hundred years later, Henri Casadesus "discovered" a C Minor Viola Concerto by J.C. Bach, "reconstituted and harmonized" it, and got it published. It's very doubtful that J.C. Bach ever encountered this work. It is also reported that Henri Casadesus composed the Mozart "Adelaide" Violin Concerto in 1930. Writing something original and attributing it to someone else: reverse plagiarism? In any case, it's a nice work. The middle movement is lovely, and the other two are lots of fun. There's probably an orchestration somewhere, but I derived this one from a piano accompaniment.

• The Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, Strings, and Woodwinds includes one of the two most beautiful Adagios ever written by anybody (the other one being the Adagio from Bach's C Minor Concerto for Violin and Oboe). This is my opinion, of course, but it's an opinion shared by many musicians. I (humbly?) decided that this work might benefit from an added section of the orchestra, or at least could give more musicians a chance to join in, so I added some interplays between the strings and the woodwinds to the mix. My violinist friend Joyce Meade helped me rework the phrasings and dynamics for this concerto somewhat. Perhaps we'll work up the third movement sometime as well.

• The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 is part of a very popular collection of six works - each of them very different from each other, but each lots of fun. He wrote this one for strings, continuo, and four soloists: flute, oboe, violin, and a piccolo trumpet (which plays extremely high notes).

• I don't know what to say about this composition except to hope that a large symphony orchestra will sometime find itself in a very silly mood and wish to perform this piece! Picture a deep dark forest around midnight, with night birds quietly singing and deer whispering secrets to each other, when a large grizzly lumbers into a clearing, rears up on his hind legs and begins Waltzing. What do all the forest creatures make of such a spectacle?! It's a symphonic tone poem called If a Bear Goes Waltzing in the Forest, Will His True Love Put On Her Tutu and Join Him? I'm debating whether to picture the grizzly in a top hat or not. What do you think? May 2000 update: Gary Caldwell, conductor of the Southwest Symphony has promised me that his orchestra will premier this piece for me at some point. Listen for me snuggled deep in the viola section (where it might be safe from bears who may be waltzing, but who are far from tame).

• Dancin' On the Green is an original work by yours truly with some help and encouragement from Dr. Virginia Stitt. We haven't performed this yet, but we hope to do so with the Southwest Symphony String Ensemble sometime. It tells a rather fanciful story of a dance held on the Green outside an imaginary Irish village. The soloists (in order of appearance) are the Village Mayor on flute, the Elf Queen on oboe, and the Leprechaun King on the 5-string fiddle. Merilee Terry of Kanab, Utah, who plays a mean set o' bagpipes among her many other accomplishments (bagpipes are among a tiny number of instruments who can live up to the work "mean"), assisted me in helping the oboe's opening solo to sound like 'pipes.

• Serenade for Strings. Dvorak drew from his rich knowledge of Eastern European folk songs to write what in my opinion is one of the most beautiful works ever written. I understand that Dvorak wrote it in sixteen days, which is remarkable! (Even with my software, it will take me far longer than sixteen days just to input the notes and get it looking nice on the page!) There isn't much of me in this except for some corrections from the edition I used for a source: Dvorak did a nice, thorough job. It has five movements, and so far I offer you only the first.

• Concerto Grosso No. 5 (from 6 Concerti Grossi, Opus 3). This is from a collection often called the "Oboe Concerti", since Handel wrote most of them for 2 oboes and strings. Sometimes he added other instruments as well. I think the Second Movement of this one lends itself very nicely to an orchestral approach, even though it basically contains only three different parts.

• Concerto Grosso No. 7 (from 12 Concerti Grossi, Opus 6). Handel wrote most of these works featuring a couple of violinists, who took turns hiding within, then emerging from, a string orchestra. In this particular work however, he left out the soloists. My only contribution to the work as presented here are some dynamics, and a rather syncopated approach to the phrasing. In Handel's (Baroque) time, composers tended to leave subtle shadings of dynamics and phrasings to the performers. I may have stepped a bit beyond the bounds that Handel intended. On the other hand, anybody who writes a hornpipe (last movement) deserves all the off-balance rhythms he gets.

• The Cascades. The "King of Ragtime" wrote this hot number for the World's Fair in 1904 (another big hit written for the occasion was "Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, Meet me at the Fair..."). He wrote it for solo piano. I distributed his notes throughout a string orchestra. I'm probably not the first to do so, but any others who've arranged this most likely made some different decisions along the way.

• Quartet No. 17, the "Dissonant". In Mozart's his time, harmonies tended to be quite simpler than they can become in our time. For this one, Mozart decided to become rather adventurous, and many people thought his tonalities were dissonant, hence the nickname. This effect is particularly noticeable in the opening Adagio.

• Quartet No. 25, for Flute and Strings. Mozart brought a wonderful elegance into his music. He also brought some really intricate interplays between the various instruments. These qualities are nicely reflected in this Quartet. And do you remember the scene in Amadeus when Mozart is dictating a score to Salieri? He writes a gorgeously lyrical melody and Salieri thinks he's finished with that section, but Mozart says "Now we add the fire!" And he dictates a really busy passage for some other instruments, and sure enough, the sweet lyrical melody and the busy, almost angry notes underneath set each other off with a wonderful contrast! Remember that effect? There's another example of that same idea in the Rondo of this piece: The violin and viola compete with each other for busy virtuosity, while the flute floats serenely and lyrically on the top.

 
• Quartet No. 27, for Oboe and Strings. I don't know for sure, but it's my guess that Mozart wrote this for a virtuoso oboist with a winning personality. He liked to show off, and was able to enlist three talented friends to cheer him on. The three string players get to have some fun, but the oboist really goes to town - especially in the finale. Again there's lots of intricate stuff here, lots of tossing motifs around like a game of rapid-fire "Catch-me-if-you-can," but the oboist wins.

Octet in F Major. (First three movements only so far, Edition progressed on 7/5/2000) Music theory students agonize over a composing technique called "Counterpoint". In principle it's very simple: write a gorgeous melody, and entwine it with a different gorgeous melody. Schubert must have gotten an A in counterpoint: such lovely melodies, and such lovely entwining!

• Concerto in G Major for English Horn and String Quartet. (Arrangement completed on 8/7/1999) Telemann wrote this for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, but in the Grand Baroque Tradition of rewriting works for whoever's in town this week, I changed a few things to make it work for a different assortment of instruments. (I'll let you know when and where we'll be performing this, but first we need to learn to play it.)


This work is possibly the very first concerto anyone ever wrote for the Viola. Until the onset of polyphonic music in the time of Bach and Telemann, the Viola just sat in the middle of the orchestra and played the middle parts of chords. {"Boom-Chuck. Which do we get this time, Arcangelo, the Booms or the Chucks? The Chucks again? Thought so. Ho hum."} Then composers like Telemann and Bach came along, and finally the Second Violins and Violas got to have some fun!
 

• Concerto in B-Flat Major for 3 Oboes and 3 Violins. (Edition completed on 5/21/2000) Speaking of fun, (see above) Telemann sometimes got a bit weary of the standard instrumental combinations (string quartets, chamber orchestras, trio sonatas, etc.), so he liked to experiment with new combinations. Here's an absolute romp, in my opinion - lots of fun! 3 oboes and 3 violins  sharing a light conversation, with the basso continuo adding a phrase or two from time to time. I scored the 3rd violin part for viola, thinking of my friend Victoria. Victoria is violin-challenged, but plays viola better than just about anyone else around. When we perform this, it would be nice to have her as part of the septet.

 

• Sonata in C Minor for 2 Violins and String Quartet. (Arrangement completed on 10/12/1999) Veracini wrote this for 2 Violins and Continuo. The "Continuo" probably meant a harpsichord and cello, but the precise makeup was usually intended to be optional. Joyce Meade and I performed this Sonata on October 10, 1999 at Orchestra Hall in Cedar City accompanied by Merilee Terry on piano and Virginia Stitt on bassoon, which worked very well. But here I've arranged it accompanied by a string quartet. I've called it the Baldwin Edition in honor of (in my opinion) the most enchanting violin duo in Southern Utah - Dr. Philip Baldwin and his wife Dorothy. (May 2000 update: unfortunately for Southern Utah, Dr. Baldwin and family are moving to Oregon in order to take up a new teaching position. Utah's loss is Oregon's gain!

 

That's all for now. More will be forthcoming as I get around to it. Any comments?