SKU: CF.BAS31
ISBN 9780825860874. UPC: 798408060879. 8.5 X 11 inches. Key: C major.
One of the most recognizable folk songs of all-time is presented in a fine new Doris Gazda arrangment for beginning strings. Optional part for bells, tone blocks or chimes will give you the opportunity to involve other students in performing with the string orchestra.The Volga River is the longest river in Europe (about 2,300 miles long) and the principal waterway of Russia. The Volga has played an important part in the life of the Russian people, and in Russian folklore is called Mother Volga. For centuries it has served as the chief thoroughfare of Russia and as the lifeline of Russian colonization to the east. It carries one-half of the total river freight of Russia and irrigates the vast steppes of the lower Volga region. Grain, building materials, salt, fish and caviar (from the Volga delta and the Caspian Sea) are shipped upstream; lumber is the main commodity shipped downstream.The folk song The Volga Boatman is supposed to represent the rhythmic rowing of the hard-working oarsmen who took their boats and rafts up and down this long waterway. The boats carried goods for trade, travelers and the armies and invaders who fought throughout the Russian lands.Close your eyes while you listen to the song. Imagine that you have a boat carrying grain and fish for a long distance. Then pretend you are rowing your boat in rhythm to the melody.
SKU: CF.FAS39
ISBN 9780825863301. UPC: 798408063306. 8.5 X 11 inches. Key: D major.
Virginia Croft's experience as a string player and educator is evident in the care with which she has scored this beautiful folk tune idiomatically for young string players. Relatively easy to play, Skye Boat Song is a great opportunity to develop lyrical playing habits with a developing string group.Here is a very playable setting of a beautiful Scottish folk song. It commemorates one of the most exciting moments in Scottish history in the middle of the eighteenth century during the Jacobite Rebellion. At this time, a small group of men escaped by night in a tiny boat across the rough sea to the Isle of Skye to save the life of the young lad whom they believed to be the rightful heir to the throne of Scotland.As you play this music, can't you feel the boat rocking and the oarsmen straining at their posts against the sea? The long diminuendo from m. 51 to the end passes the final melodic fragment down through the voices until the small boat has vanished into the distance, leaving only the water.The words of the original folk song are:Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wind;Hark, how the seagulls cray!Carry the lad that was born to be kindOver the sea to Skye!.
