Monthly Archives: June 2011
News!June 2011
CFMTA CALL FOR COMPOSITIONS WINNER!
‘Arctic Voices’ has won the CFMTA 2011 Call for Compositions in the Grade 3/4 category! The music will be made available up until Canada Music Week in November to all teachers across Canada from the CFMTA website at http://www.cfmta.org/student_competitions/CallforCompositionsWinners2011.php. You can download the file here and listen to the sound sample. This piece is part of a Collection called ‘Little Arctic Suite’ that has not been published as yet.
ReviewMay 2011
‘Soundplay‘ was reviewed by ORMTA Notes Magazine.
“Soundplay by Susan Griesdale, is a set of eight short, one page character pieces for solo violin. Each piece features a double stop from the unison to the octave and each is based on a different scale or mode – whole tone, chromatic, blues, octatonic, Dorian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Pentatonic. For easy reference, as set of scale samples is found at the back of the book.
The result is a charming collection of works for violin students in the RCM Grade 5 to 8 range, offering contemporary yet tonal compositions that convey many musical moods.
The pieces are very accessible, mostly in the 1st and 3rd positions, but including spots in the 2nd and 4th positions, and ‘Water Sprites’ reaches the 5th position. The pieces have bowing and fingering suggestions, but there is ample room for students and teachers to add their own choices. The ‘Highland Fanfare’ with its catchy Scottish flavor offers an unusual challenge using fifths: ‘Banter’ features a good workout in octaves, tempo changes and dialogue; ‘I Remember’ and ‘As I Wander’ are more contemplative in nature. ‘Will You?’ requires nimble fingers; ‘Stomp’ is energetic and colorful giving good practice switching between 5/8, 4/8 and 3/8 time signatures; the ‘Jolly Rondo’ with its spirited rhythm is especially suited to the violin and will quickly become a favorite!”
AdjudicatingApril 2011
I spent many hours reviewing and evaluating about 60 compositions from students of ORMTA teachers as I adjudicated the submissions for the Province. There was a wonderful variety of music, all of it well presented. It was very difficult to decide the winners! Congratulations to all the up-and-coming composers! It’s great to see our students are so engaged in such a rewarding activity.