Eighth Note Publications Suite on Canadian Folk Songs - Calvert - Concert Band - Gr. 4

Author/Composer:

CALVERT, MORLEY

Instrumentation:

CONCERT BAND

Grade/Level:

4.0

Model #:

CB2690

Composer: Morley Calvert
Format: Score and Parts
Instrumentation: Concert Band
Level: 4

Suite on Canadian Folk Songs was written as a Centennial project in 1967 and originally scored for brass band, although the music of the first movement had appeared in Suite from the Monteregian Hills in 1961. Until this edition, the concert band version has remained unpublished, although it has attracted the admiration of many band directors. The suite is in three movements; the first and last being arrangements of French Canadian folk songs, and the middle movement an arrangement of folk song from the province of Newfoundland.

The suite is in three movements; the first and last being arrangements of French Canadian folk songs, and the middle movement an arrangement of folk song from the province of Newfoundland.

I. Marianne s'en va-t-au moulin This is a "rewrite" of the first movement of the composer's own suite for brass quintet Suite from the Monteregian Hills. The English translation of the title is Marianne went to the mill, and is the story of a young girl who went to the mill to grind some grain. While there, her donkey was eaten by a wolf.

II. She's Like the Swallow This melody, in the Dorian mode, is typical of the slow-melody folk songs of the island province of Newfoundland with its simple, unhurried way of life, dictated largely by the isolation of the remote and myriad fishing villages dotting the vast and rugged coastline. The words of the first verse of this poignant love-song are as follows:

She's like the swallow that flies so high,
She's like the river that never runs dry,
She's like the sunlight on the lee-shore,
I'll love my love, and my love is no more.

III. J'entends le Moulin Another French Canadian folk song about a mill - I hear the mill-wheel. Cast in the form of theme and variations, time is taken out in the middle of the movement for yet another feature of rural life in the Province of Quebec - the country dance - complete with a fiddle-tune and hand clapping. The intensity of the movement increases from variation to variation, concluding in a swirling frenzy.
Duration: 8:20