National Music Camp

1. Composers in Time
(About WAM/Writings)

...'. At National Music Camp this year, the four composers were asked to take the camp’s theme of rhythm and write a one to two minute work for untuned percussion. This composition then became...

2. Digital Rhythm Clock
(About WAM/Writings)

For those who attempted Musica Fever's "Rhythm Clock" and would like to see how well you fared, here are the answers...   1.     Richard STRAUSS – Don Juan 2.&

3. Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...uropean folk music is apparent in the final movement where he assimilates folk characteristics, textures, rhythmic pulses and dance steps from his homeland as a powerful affirmation of life. With the...

4. W. F. BACH (1710-1784)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

..., although even here Bach manages to undermine our sense of expectation, presenting unevenly proportioned rhythmic gestures to throw us off balance. The following Allegro is full of spirited musical g...

5. Anton WEBERN (1883-1945)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...pizzicato strings before being passed to the trumpet, and orchestral layers begin to steadily build, both rhythmically and colouristically. The chromatic music swells throughout, passing through vario...

6. A Night Not To Be Missed... Or Else
(News/Latest)

...n of which the audience responded with a variation on the piece, which, though enthusiastic, was far less rhythmically accurate. The second DVD was a documentary on Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony...

7. The Rich List
(Snippets/Snippets)

... George Gershwin, who made a multi-million pound fortune from Broadway classics like Summertime and I Got Rhythm, as well as shrewd investment in the art market. It is therefore no surprise to learn ...

8. The Power of Rhythm
(News/Latest)

“The power of rhythm is all around us: in the stars, the way the earth turns, the seasons. [It’s] one of the first things we become aware of in the form of our mothers’ heartbeats.

9. Ross EDWARDS (born 1943)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...arthy, robust and exuberant dance-chant style that Edwards names ‘maninyas’. The asymmetrical rhythms and obsessive repetition suggest a desire to restore the intrinsic spontaneity to musi...

10. An orchestral appetiser
(Gallery/Video Gallery)

... challenging repertoire chosen for each of the three orchestras reflects the camp’s theme of ‘rhythm’, and as a result, each work provides various rhythmic challenges for individual ...

11. Bedrich SMETANA (1824-1884)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...sing nearby hunters sounding the horn. Later, celebrations of a village wedding can be heard, where polka rhythms are used as a symbol of Czech country life (and evocation of Smetana’s youthful ...

12. I got rhythm
(News/Latest)

..., such is the secluded nature of instrumental practice. These ideas formed the core for the first of two rhythm workshops at this year’s camp, taken by Micheál McCarthy, Senior Lecturer ...

13. John ADAMS (born 1947)
(About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

...Maos.” Instead, he created a kind of “skewed impression of Hollywood,” featuring urbane rhythms and slinky, sentimental strings, but laden with all manner of unpredictable gestures a...

14. Interpreting Words
(News/Latest)

...The morbid affect of the poem is enhanced through Adams’ repetition of key phrases of the text. His rhythmic setting of the words is more constant than Copland’s, giving the music a monast...

15. Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Danse sacrée et danse profane [1904] There are all manner of situations under which a composer will write a piece of music. Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane was commission

16. Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Summer Music, Op. 31 [1955] Summer Music is intended to depict a summer’s day in quiet American suburbia. In the words of Samuel Barber himself, the music reflects “well-kept lawns&helli

17. Francis POULENC (1899-1963)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Sextet for piano and wind instruments, Op. 100 [1932-1939] I     Allegro vivace. Trés vite et emporté II    Divertissement: Andantino III   Finale: P

18. Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

String Quartet No.10 in A flat major, Op.118 [1964] I     Andante II     Allegretto furioso III    Adagio IV   Allegretto Shostakovic

19. Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Divertimento, BB.118 [1939] I    Allegro non troppo II   Molto adagio III  Allegro assai  A divertimento may be an unusual piece for Bartók

20. Selection of Tangos, arr. Fionnuala HUNT [2005]
(Archived/About WAM/Concert Program Notes)

Carlos GARDEL (1890-1935) Tomo y obligo Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) Oblivion Jacob GADE (1879-1963) Jealousy  For an Irish violinist with a repertoire consisting mostly of the classics and works

21. Forging a musical nexus
(Archived/News/Latest)

Don BANKS Nexus III. Third Movement Every morning the Words About Music program begins their day with a listening session.  Here the students will listen to provide commentary on a piece of musi