My 24-minute Chaconne does not try to emulate Bach’s magnificent composition, but rather avoids all comparison. Instead it will be a review, or time travel through the history of the chaconne, looking at its origins in the New World, i.e., Havana (as a naughty little dance), to its return to the old world of dignity and high art.

I’ve divided the work into nine movements, A set of conversations between the piano & violin. The dances are variations on the chord pattern of the Chaconne, there is a  Fugue based on a sub-theme from the Allemande and the Sarabande is built upon Bach’s musical signature b-a-c-h, not all my dance forms would have been used in Bach’s time. In the Bolero and Jota for instance I was sexploring the idea of naughtiness as previously mentioned; but the closest I came could be called sensual, no pole dancing music here.
As a musical form, the passage of the chaconne through Spain and France before reaching Germany made its African features unrecognizable.  A chaconne by Bach hardly sounds like an African American musical form, but that's what it is.

In the nineteenth century, a Latin American dance craze swept Europe.  The habanera (from Havana, Cuba) and the tango (from Argentina), among others, penetrated into the inner precincts of European classical music.  Astonishingly, it is still necessary to remind people (even African Americans) that Latin American music is African music.  When African American diva Leontyne Price sang the Habanera from Bizet's opera Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House, she was an African American singing an African American musical form.  Debussy wrote piano pieces in the style of the habanera.  Cesar Franck's Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra breaks into a tango as it winds up to its conclusion.  The second theme in the first movement of Brahms' fourth symphony is a tango.

Chaconne for Violin & Piano

Notturno for Violin & Piano

Michael Colina Composer
Michael Andriaccio: Guitar Soloist
Ira Levin: Conductor
London Symphony Orchestra

Goyescana/ Fantasma Azul M1

Michael Colina: Composer
Anastasia Khitruk: Violin Soloist
Ira Levin: Conductor
London Symphony Orchestra

Baba Yaga (Vasalisa) Mv 1

Anastasia Khitruk: Solo Violin
Michael Colina: Composer

Der Golem for Solo Violin

Sobre Las Olas-Concerto for Organ
 based on a Theme by Juventino Rosas
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
Fabio Mechetti: conductor
Felix Hell: Organ Soloist
commissioned by; Fabio Mechetti & Dr.Ross & Jean Krueger

Sobre Las Olas-Mv 6 Ultimo Vuelo

Schordinger's Cat

Succubus

Nesting Dolls

DTS 1 DIsturbing The SIlence

DTS 5 the Lady of Arosa MP3

Chant D'Auvergne

Auvergne3Nai Pas

Chants D'Auvergne

Auvergne2 LouDizouBe

Auvergne1Brezairola

Bailero

Lyrics

canteremo
Dormiremo, 
sogneremo
Piange lacrime di luce splendente
baciato dalle stella
trascendendo la terra
circondato  con amore
Dove tutto ciò che sorge deve convergere

Translation
everyone Sing together
Everyone sleep together
Everyone dream together

weeping shinning tears of light
Kissed by a star transcending the earth
Surrounded with love
Where all that’s rises must converge

Poetry by:
Michael Colina & Laura Richardson Sharpe


01 Cantaremo

Tango is a dance that has influences from European and African culture. Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former slave peoples helped shape the modern day Tango. The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe. Associated with passion, jealousy
and machismo, tango always seems to have an edge of danger.
The Habanera from Cuba also shares common origins. Its iconic rhythm
is one of the most basic rhythmic cells in Afro-Latin music. 
The habanera rhythm is also known by several names, such as the congo, and the congo-tango.

Habango

Demo of the 2nd Movement to my 2nd Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto 2ND MV: Colina

Demo of 3rd movement of 2nd Piano Concerto

Tocatta 3rd Mv: Colina

1. Chaconne 3_4

2. Gigue Pizz

3. Allemande/Chaconne

4. Ex Fugue Me bach

5. Bowl ero

Awakening

DrumLine

Berceuse

3 movement Concerto for Classical Guitar & Orchestra
Michael Colina Composer
Michael Andriaccio Solo Guitarist
Ira Levin Conductor
London Symphony Orchestra

Colina: Three Cabinets of Wonder

Guitar Concerto, "Goyescana": I. Fantazma Azul (Tango)

 
Composer Michael Colina is a multiple GRAMMY® winning composer and producer. Though born and raised in the American South, Colina has deep musical roots in his father’s homeland of Cuba. “My musical core is more that of a folk musician than an academician, it just so happens that I have a very large musical vocabulary.” With a true passion for music, his vibrant mix of life experiences has given him a unique musical voice in contemporary Classical music. Much of his youth was spent traveling between the U.S. and Cuba. While simultaneously being exposed to Latin music and the soul and gospel sounds of the American South, he also discovered a great love of Classical music. “My early years were blanketed in the heat of racial unrest and my personal struggle against old family hatreds and prejudice. It was an unprecedented mix of sensory input, cultural fracturalization, intellectual and artistic counter-currents.” Colina studied composition at the North Carolina School of Arts with Vittorio Giannini, Louis Mennini (brother of composer Peter Mennin) and Robert Ward. He continued studies at the Chigiana in Sienna, Italy with Thomas Pasatieri and Roman Vlad, and was the first recipient of the Vittorio Giannini Memorial Scholarship award.
 
In his music, Colina embraces classical, jazz and Latin elements, often in an engaging and distinctive mashup that displays his love for the sheer diversity of his musical influences and resulting in a refreshing and honest musical language. His 2011 Naxos release Three Cabinets of Wonder received stunning reviews with nearly every major classical publication hailing the disc one of the year's best.  His 2012 release received equivalent praise. Colina has written music for television, film, theatre, dance and live performances on concert stages throughout the United States, South America, and Asia. As a jazz musician, composer, producer and engineer, he has won three Gold Records, an Ace Award for Best Film Score for the 1985 film Finnegan Begin Again, and three GRAMMY® awards in the field of Contemporary Jazz. He has worked alongside a wide range of artists including James Taylor, David Sanborn, George Benson, Michael Brecker, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Bob James and Herbie Hancock.


Michael Colina

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