Nigel Goldberg: Sounds Of A Rainbow Vol.2: Violin: Instrumental Album

The violin pupil can be accompanied either by the violin teacher (as a violin duet) or with piano. The optional alternative piano accompaniments are by Heidi Rolfe.'I can still remember the thrill I felt as a child of 8 when my violin teacher introduced me to my first concertino. Learning playing and eventually mastering the famous Küchler Concertino in D major made me feel privileged and grown-up as if I were joining a very special club.That was a long time ago yet for me concertinos still hold a distinctive place in the teaching repertoire. Having now taught the violin for the last thirty years and seen how happily my pupils respond to learningduets - that distinctive sense of enjoyment at playing with an adult the improvement of intonation and tone production the liveliness of the lesson - I have composed three new concertinos inspired by the duet form.Taking three great keys for the violin - G D and A minor I have endeavoured to combine emotionally engaging and technically educational music in the 'Olden Style'. Uniquely I have written a second violin part for the teacher to play alongside their pupil's part and there is also a piano accompaniment for use alternatively in concert settings.I very much hope that these concertinos prove as popular and as helpful as the series of duets in my previously published books Sounds of a Rainbow and that they ignite that sense of wonderment and purpose I experienced while playing the Kuchler all those years ago.'Nigel Goldberg

Grade 2-Composer's Description:Whether a student or a great artist the desire to make a beautiful sound is a constant in the life of any musician. Sound is the musician's voice the means of communicating an artistic vision to the audience and it should be the aim for children of any age or standard to be engaged in good tone production.The inspiration for writing these pieces came to me from the wish to give the young children I teach music which would develop their ear for both good intonation and beautiful tone production. All the pieces have a strongly implied harmonic structure allowing them to be played without accompaniment. The purpose of the second violinpart is therefore to enable the teacher to underline the harmony as well as to influence the student's tone production and intonation through his own sound as much can be taught by good example.Finally I think that children enjoy the challenge of expressing different moods and emotions musically and I hope that the range of ideas implied by the keys and the titles of these pieces will fire their imagination.