When Christ Is Born... Christmas Carols and Pastorales
for Solo Violin
Christmas carols those popular Christian songs sung during the festive period - appear every year in various kinds of arrangement - vocal, vocal-instrumental and instrumental - in Polish catalogues of publications.
''Christmas Carols and Pastorales'' for solo violin, presented here, were written with young violinists in mind, with the intention of providing them with the opportunity of playing such songs in a concert version.
I considered quasi-capriccio, i.e. a short show-piece, the most suitable form for that type of work. In addition to the basic melody, the player will find here a whole range of virtuoso effects: for example, double stops, chords, passage work, arpeggios, tremolando, cross-string bowings, bariolage, ricochet, double staccato, chromatic glissando, harmonics, left-hand pizzicato and even sul ponticello. The similarities between the carols included in the collection and the caprices by Paganini, Wieniawski and Ernst as well as the solo compositions by Bach and Ysaye are not accidental. I have made stylistic diversity my aim.
An assessment of the harmonic experiment used in the only non-Polish Christmas carol (''Silent Night'') is left to the performer.
The degree of difficulty of the selected carols is differentiated, ranging from those which are relatively simple - to be used in primary schools - to more difficult ones, intended for advanced violinists. In the arrangement of the whole, I have applied the principle of contrast, i.e. the more lively works have been interspersed with quieter numbers, and the strictly virtuoso pieces with more poetic arrangements. I hope that young, ambitious violinists will include ''Christmas Carols and Pastorales'' in their solo repertory. The mastery of the pieces and their presentation at all kinds of Christmas and New Year concerts should be a cause of both satisfaction and advantage to them.
So let us play and sing to the glory of the Lord! [A. Cofalik]
- Cover Design: Agnieszka Dobosz
- Illustrator: Agnieszka Dobosz
- Editor: Antoni Cofalik
- ISMN 979-0-2740-0265-7
- Language of edition: eng, pol
- Number of pages: 24
- Cover: softcover
- No. of edition: 8
- Published: 2022
- Type: instrumental solo
- Size: A4 vertical (210x297 mm)
Table of contents:
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Cofalik Antoni |
An angel told the shepherds |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Silent night |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Go to the stable, ye shepherds |
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Cofalik Antoni |
This day in Bethlehem |
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Cofalik Antoni |
When Christ is born |
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Cofalik Antoni |
When the fair Maiden |
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Cofalik Antoni |
When the fair Maiden (bis) |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Jesus, the little one |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Jesus, the little one (bis) |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Lullay, my little Jesus |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Wise men of the world |
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Cofalik Antoni |
In the quiet of that humble stable |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Hey, little one |
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Cofalik Antoni |
It was at midnight |
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Cofalik Antoni |
They came running to Bethlehem |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Joyful sounds from heaven came down |
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Cofalik Antoni |
Hail to the Divine Being |
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Cofalik Antoni |
In the stillness of the night |
