Suite levantine

Debka for trumpet and piano, from Suite levantine, op. 15.

Debka

My Suite levantine (trumpet/piano) comprises four dances:  two Arabic and two Israeli.  When I recently put up the Debka (men's line dance from Syria),  I said it was only temporarily, so as to celebrate Eid.  This because I only had a synthetic recording I made at the request of prospective performers.  Then the U.S. Supreme Court pusillanimously decided to temporarily instate measures from Trump's travel ban (knocked down theretofore by district courts across the land...) until they reviewed it formally this fall.  I decided to swallow my pride and leave that number up after all, and now proffer this companion Arabic solo woman's dance to boot.

Beledi (Belly Dance)

for trumpet and piano; op. 15, no. 1

(14 IX 17) The social media can be useful in sharing original music, and after a career spanning decades I have a backload of recordings to share when appropriate, or should I say in appropriate ways, or should I say to the appropriate extent.

I recall how happy I was when, on the day that the Day Without Immigrants ...what to call them? celebrations? protests? were scheduled, I received a fine recording of my Rumba for woodwind quintet, the first ideas for which I recall jotting down in grad school in southern Florida.  That is to say, among the many Cuban immigrants who were my neighbors there.  I immediately posted the fresh recording here, and shared it exultantly online.

This year, at the Eid celebrating the end of Ramadan, I thought it would be fun to post the synthetic demo recording I had recently made of the Debka from my Suite levantine for trumpet and piano.  This I made at the request of a Portuguese trumpeter who was intent on playing it next season.  I did not allow for downloads, and planned to take it down within a few weeks.  But then our Supreme Court upheld aspects of the president's travel ban, and I decided to leave it up, even though I generally share such demos only with other musicians.  Suite levantine has a mixture of Arabic and Israeli dances, and I decided to register my protest by putting its other Arabic number, a Belly Dance, up to boot.

A spike in listening to these numbers ensued, and I am thus disinclined to take them down.  Now, I thought I was leaving them up only until I got the Portuguese recording slated for next season.  But then I learned that the trumpeter passed on suddenly!

The handsome young man you see in the picture accompanying my A Wedding Processional (trumpet and string orchestra) track here, yes, is gone.  I made the syntho recording of the Suite just because I could not bring myself to share the amateur recordings I had of it from the 80s with an artist of his caliber.  Now, I have determined two things.  First, I want the Israeli numbers to go up too if the Arabic ones are going to stay.  I had heard about the extensive musical cross fertilization between Jews and Palestinians in Israel, and my set was conceived as a celebration of their Semitic brotherhood in music.  Second, I wanted to replace the recordings with ones of higher quality than one needs in a reference recording just for prospective performers.  Still synthetic, but more painstakingly convincing musically, as one might hear, say, in many movie soundtracks today.  

I spent the better part of today doing this for the opening number, a Mayim.  This is a circle dance to celebrate the discovery of water in the Israeli desert.  Over the next few weeks I will replace the two Arabic numbers (Beledi, or Belly Dance, and the Debka)with improved aural representations, and finally I'll share the Suite's concluding Hora.  I hope you enjoy the music, or at least can resonate to the spirit of camaraderie behind it.

Mayim

Fourth and final number from Suite levantine for trumpet and piano, op. 15.

Israeli circle dance imported by immigrants from Romania.  The first four notes heard in the trumpet are a motto that gets heard in all the succeeding sections, right up to the number's final peroration in double time.

Hora

Scores are available for study or performance for the asking, in pdf form or as hard copy.

VFrost2468@gmail.com

Suite levantine

Victor Frost — composer