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Programme:

Braw Braw Lads – Robert Burns (arr. McFall)

Rattlin’ Roarin’ Willie – Robert Burns (arr. McFall)

La bella Cubana – José White (b. 1836 Cuba, died 1918 France) (arr. Zenaida Romeu)

[José White, a violinist from Matanzas in Cuba, was encouraged and, indeed, largely funded, to go and study at the Paris Conservatoire by pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the first classical composer to incorporate Afro-Caribbean elements from his Creole background into his otherwise classical piano music. José White carried away all the prizes at the Paris Conservatoire and went on to tour internationally as a violin virtuoso. La Bella Cubana (The Beautiful Cuban Woman) is his best known composition].

Jurame – María Grever (arr. Chucho Zarzosa/ McFall)

Cuando vuelva a tu lado – María Grever (arr. Chucho Zarzosa/ McFall)

[María Grever was a singer, pianist and composer. For the first six years of her life she lived in Mexico City. She composed her first song, a Christmas carol, at the age of four. After her father won the lottery, he moved the family to Europe, to his home city of Seville. During this period, her father sent María to Paris to study composition with Claude Debussy and Franz Lenhard. After her father’s death, the family moved back to Mexico, where she continued her studies under the guidance of her aunt, who ran a music school.
At the age of twenty-two, she married an American oil executive, Leo Grever, became a US citizen and moved to New York City. In 1920 she began work as a film composer for Paramount Pictures and for 20th Century Fox studios. Although she continued to visit Mexico, the political situation during the Mexican revolution made it more or less impossible for her husband Leo to accompany her there. However, although firmly based in New York, she continued to write songs in Mexican style, in particular boleros, a dance rhythm which originated in Cuba. “Jurame” was María Grever’s first big international hit. Both of these arrangements are by the Mexican band pianist and arranger, Chucho Zarzosa (1919 – 2008)].

Sic a Parcel ‘o Rogues in a Nation – Robert Burns (arr. McFall)

Earl of Essex Galliard/ Sir George Whitehead His Almand – John Dowland

[Melancholy was all the rage in Elizabethan England, and John Dowland was the most stylish composer of his time. "Semper Dowland, semper dolens" was his motto, and much of his music is indeed exquisitely dolorous. Although he was a talented singer, Dowland mainly followed a dual career as a composer and lutenist. He was the period's most renowned and significant composer of lute solos, and especially ayres (also called lute songs), and a gifted writer of consort music.
In 1580 he went to Paris in the service of the ambassador to the French court. Dowland converted to Catholicism during this time, and later claimed that this excluded him from employment at the Protestant court of Elizabeth I in 1594 (actually, the court was cutting costs and left the position unfilled for five years). In 1598, Dowland became lutenist to Christian IV of Denmark, but he was dismissed for unsatisfactory conduct in 1606. Between 1609 and 1612 he entered the service of Theophilus, Lord Howard de Walden, and finally in 1612, he was appointed one of the "musicians for the lutes" to James I of England].

Little Wing – Jimi Hendrix (arr. McFall)

Frida Kahlo’s Visit to the Tay Bridge Bar - Michael Marra (arr. McFall)

Performers:
Jamie MacDougall – tenor
Gordon Bragg – violin
Robert McFall – violin and mandolin
Brian Schiele – viola
Su-a Lee – cello
Rick Standley – double bass
Graeme McNaught – keyboards
Stuart Semple – percussion and harmonium

A fiennes.org site

Mr McFall’s Chamber is a registered charity: SC028348

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