Praise for Victoria Bond Compositions
"The lively music (Dreams of Flying) exploits Brazilian
dance rhythms and bird calls in a way that liberates the soul."
--The Music Connoisseur"
Dreams of Flying was commissioned by the Audubon String
Quartet in 1994. On its dramatic level, it is an exploration of
the sensation of flying, weightlessness, floating and speed. Musically
it is about four individual lines in the shift between interdependence
and freedom. The piece begins with Resisting Gravity, the
sensation of gradually lifting of the ground, which becomes Floating,
the ecstatic feeling of weightlessness. The third movement is called
The Caged Bird Dreams of the Jungle. For those imprisoned,
no matter what species, the dream of freedom keeps them alive. The
fourth movement is called Flight and is the exhilerating
rush of speeding through the air.
(Other Selves) "A bravura piece, romantic in impulse, but
contemporary in tonal language."
-- The Atlanta Journal
Other Selves trio was commissioned by the Jacob's Pillow
Dance Festival in 1979. It is based on a series of sculptures called
"A Woman's Journey" which portray typical scenes in a woman's life.
The musical structure is a theme and variations. Each variation,
which is a separate movement, becomes a new theme to be varied with
its own set of internal variations. This creates a macrocosm/microcosm
organization, unified by the single musical cell of a theme.
(Batucuda) "Sassy dance rhythms and dynamic contrasts."
--The Register-Guard
Batucuda is a theme and variations for piano solo based on the
Brazilian samba. Restricting the theme to its rhythmic element and
subordinating all other elements, it develops and varies the samba
pattern, casting the piano in the roles of both percussion orchestra
and dancers.
(Shenblu) "Changing moods from languid and expressive to
intensely driving, primitive and gutteral".
-- Flute Talk
Shenblu was written for Carol Kniebusch, principal flutist of the
Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. As Carol was going to China to lecture
and perform, I decided to write a work for her reflecting an element
common to both Chinese music and American jazz - namely the pentatonic,
or five-note scale. Also, I wanted to emphasize qualities not normally
associated with the flute - its earthy, animal nature. Carol raises
Pekinese show dogs, and the name of her kennel is "Shenblu". Assuming
this was a Chinese word, because the dogs originally came from Peking,
I decided to call the piece "Shenblu". When I asked Carol to translate
the name from the Chinese, she said "Oh, that's not a Chinese word
at all! It's a name I made up from the combination of Shenendoah
and Blue Ridge Mountains, where my kennel is located!" This being
a "bluesy" sort of Chinese piece, the title seemed that much more
appropriate!
(Sonata for Cello and Piano) "Craggy lyricism that is fresh
as any music in Elliot Carter's work."
-- San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
"An intense, brooding etude that effectively exploits sonority."
--Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The sonata is a rhapsodic aria of continually developing material,
based on the descending interval of the minor second. The cello
engages in a dramatic dialogue with the piano, ranging from long
singing lines to playful dance fragments. Although the Sonata is
in one continuous movement, the moods alternate suddenly and frequently
without transition. The harmonic language grows out of the twelve-tone
tradition.
- Dreams of Flying . . (Victoria Bond)
- Rage . . (Victoria Bond)
- Weddings & Bar Mitzvahs..(Victoria Bond)
- Other Selves . . (Victoria Bond)
- Introduction
- Country Fiddle
- Passacaglia
- Mechanical Dolls
- Rag
>
- Monologue
- Finale
- Batucada.. (Victoria Bond)
- Shenblu.. (Victoria Bond)
- Sonata for Cello and Piano.. (Victoria Bond)
Available from: Amazon.com,
other on-line stores
Available from Albany Records
www.albanyrecords.com
lpalbany@aol.com
Praise for Black Light on American Piano Concertos
"A celebration of jazz, while not a jazz piece, it is full of jazzy
syncopation...an homage to black jazz musicians, a fascinating alternation
of quiet ruminations and contrapuntal dialogue."
--Amazon.com
Victoria Bond's Black Light was composed in 1988 but revised and
expanded for pianist Paul Barnes and was given its premier performance
by Barnes in November of 1997 in the Czech Republic. The title "Black
Light" suggests the light that shines from the music of African
America - music which has had a profound effect on Bond's own compositions.
And in this particular concerto, several aspects of that influence
are explored. The first movement contrasts the first theme, a driving
aggressive tutti, with the second theme, a playful jaunty response
in the piano. These two themes develop independently at first, and
then eventually begin exchanging material. The movement closes with
a virtuoso display in the piano gliding over the powerful tutti
climax. The second movement was inspired by Jewish liturgical music,
and uses an actual chant as its main theme. It is a flexible and
soul searching motif, and is set against the orchestra, which plays
a rigid and martial figure in unison. Gradually the piano and orchestra
exchange material, but the movement ends with the piano, soft and
questioning. The third movement is inspired by the scat singing
of Ella Fitzgerald and uses a fast-moving bass line to re-introduce
the theme of the first movement. It is a combination of variation
and rondo forms, with each new introduction of the theme increasing
in intensity and speed. The plaintive second movement theme returns
transformed creating cool counterpoint with the first movement theme
culminating in an explosive, highly-charged conclusion.
- Black Light (World Premiere Recording) . . (Victoria Bond)
- Piano Concerto.. (David Ott)
- Allegro
- Adagietto
- Allegro
- Piano Concerto/Klavierkonzert.. (Joan Tower)
Available from:
Alex Djinov (Koch International):
Email: djinoff@hotmail.com
Phone: 972-841-2617
Fax: 972-208-8559
Praise for Thinking Like A Mountain on Live From Shanghai
"An ecological epiphany."
-- Roanoke Times and World-News
"As enchanting and magical and moody as the animal (wolf) for which
it was written."
-- The Billings Gazette
This composition for narrator and orchestra was commissioned by
a consortium including Explorer Park, Virginia; Billings Symphony;
Elgin Symphony; and the Shanghai Symphony. It takes its name from
an essay by the American environmentalist, Aldo Leopold. The focus
is on an incident in his life when, as a young hunter, he killed
a wolf. The impact of witnessing the fierce green fire dying in
her eyes had a profound influence on his life. He realized that
all life is interdependent, and devoted his life to advocating the
preservation of the natural environment.
The music is based on four notes from a traditional Chinese melody
which are used in variation throughout the piece. While not intended
as programmatic, the composition contains the unique feature of
the sound of wolves howling, recreated by sliding notes in the strings
(glissandi). Just as a mountain moves through various overlapping
life cycles, the piece moves through augementation and diminution
of the identical musical elements.
- SU-SAN Suite . . (Liu Tingyu)
- The Exile
- Recollection of Love
- The Complaint
- Thinking Like A Mountain.. (Victoria Bond) -Sound Clip
.mp3 469K format or Real
Media format 128KB --Get Real
One
- Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique".. (Tchaikovsky)
- I. Adagio - Allegro non troppo
- II. Allegro con grazia
- III. Allegro molto vivace
- IV. Finale Adagio lamentoso - Andante
- Stars and Stripes Forever.. (Sousa)
Available from victoria@victoriabond.com
Praise for The Frog Prince on Family Classic Audio Books
"A sophisitcated score. The narration, underscored with music,
is effective in building tension, and sharp-eared listeners will
detect the interplay between themes."
--The Knickerbocker News
"The showpiece of the concert was the Frog Prince."
--Roanoke Times and World News
The story of The Frog Prince has long held a fascination
for me. Within the context of utter simplicity, a parable of great
depth is revealed: Each character is transformed by a single act
of compassion. In writing the music, I strove to achieve both the
child-like directness of the text and inner emotions of the characters.
The Princess and the Frog begin at opposite ends of the spectrum:
She is romantic, dreamy, and wrapped up in her fantasy, while he
is clever and witty, aware of his physical handicap and philosophical
about it. In choosing the themes to express these polarities, I
conceived the Princess as belonging to the Old World of grace and
charm and the Frog to the syncopated world of American jazz.
-- Victoria Bond, Composer
- The Frog Prince. . (Victoria Bond)
- Peter and the Wolf. . (Prokofiev)
