Hazel Leach : Composer

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Bigband

Cerasarda

I wrote this in 2000 for the Blue Note Bigband of Sardinia. Every two years they hold a bigband composition competition (try repeating that- fast). I'd already taken part in it 2 years before, winning an award for "À La Mode" and was impressed by the sociable atmosphere and sheer hospitality of the musicians there. And Sardinia is a beautiful island...
"Cerasarda" was written for the "based on Sardinian folk-music" category, so writing it was an adventure in itself. The polyphonic vocal music of the "Tenores di Bitti" supplied the musical inspiration, with its overtone harmonies, shifting modulations and crossrhythms. The title is a fantasy-word, "Cera" implying something like "atmosphere".
My efforts paid off and I won the first prize, and very happy I was too!

The piece starts fairly authentically, with a trumpet narrative melody line over a shifting 2/3 rhythmic accompaniment. As the other instruments enter, the piece builds and changes gradually into a jazzier idiom. A tenor solo bridges a jazz 6/8 into the swing-4 tutti.

I'm including a .pdf file of the first few pages of the score. I re-arranged it for The United Women's Orchestra, who recorded it on the "Virgo Supercluster" cd in 2002. The mp3 file is an excerpt from this version.

UWO line-up: 2as, 2ts, bs, cl. 4 tp, 3 tb, tba, pn, bs, dm.
Length: 7'30"

There are several alternative versions:
- for a 'normal' line-up (without the extra clarinet, bass trombone instead of tuba)
- fl, 2as/cl, 2ts, bs, 4tp, 2hn, 3tb, gt, pn, bs, dm.

Information about ordering the music can be found on the "contact" page- see link above.

**Links**
United Women's Orchestra: about the band	"Virgo Supercluster" UWO cd

pdf file: Score pp1-3

mp3 file: Theme Cerasarda

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