Product Description
This "Christmas Concerto" is probably not the one you may be thinking of when you first hear the title. It is NOT Arcangelo Corelli's famous "Christmas Concerto," Op. 6, No. 8, written c. 1690, and first published in 1714. This is by another baroque composer, Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709), his Op. 8, No. 6 (Torelli's wrote 12 Christmas concerti grossi in his Op. 8). Torelli copied Corelli's original idea of incorporating the dotted rhythm of the sicilienne (a shepher's dance) as a movement to represent the shepherds at the manger, making the piece suitable for church performance at Christmas time. Where Corelli's sicilienne is quite slow and sedate, Torelli's "Shepherd's dance" is quite lively, more likely representing the shepherd's joy at hearing the news from the angels of the Saviour's birth while still in the fields, rather than the solemnity of standing in adoration by the cradle as in Corelli's version. Torelli was only one of a number of baroque composers who followed Corelli's example by adding a "shepherd's tune" to a concerto grosso to make it suitable for Christmas performance. Here arranger Joel Jacklich (ASCAP) has reduced it from its original concerto grosso form with soloists, ripeneo accompaniment, and harpsichord, to just the four players of a string quartet. Add this arrangement to your gig list to bring something new to your standard Christmas repertoire.
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