two of my extended shape note style settings of Paul Laurence Dunbar poems.  MARIPOSA (1998) for his poem "Religion" and SANCTUARY (2000) for his poem "Right's Security".  Live performance at Grant Hall, Brown U, Providence, RI, Sept. 27, 2013.  Singers Peter Blasser, Hallie Blejewski, Elena Chidlowsky, Nathan Friedman, Gabriel Kastelle, Dina Maccabee, and Cristohper Ramos Flores.  Thanks!

MARIPOSA + SANCTUARY

The music is 4-part choral a cappella, composed published and copyright 2014 by Allen Gabriel Kastelle.  All trax sung by me, phonoright 2014, Gabriel Kastelle, in lieu of a group of singers...  Genuine audio cassette 4-track master, mixed-down to digital .wav and .mp3 recorder! :-) The awesome text is an interesting example of Quaker poetry from a time when Quakers were ambivalent at best about enjoying or even allowing the arts (text by Bernard Barton, 1832, public domain).  The chopped-off bit of footnote in the picture tells of the sorrow with which Barton was beheld by a visiting Quaker minister, due to his versifying--sorrow like unto that had he been "bitten by a mad dog"--rabies!!  So are artists seen...


BARTON.   L.M.

live at Firehouse 12, New Haven, Oct. 27, 2007.  free improv with New Haven Improvisers Collective from our first CD Interference.  this is track no. 2, "Microkairos", used by permission, opening with amplified viola solo by Gabriel Kastelle, continuing with the collective.  

Microkairos

Happy Juneteenth!  
my arrangement for solo violin of the music by J. Rosamund Johnson (brother of James Weldon Johnson who wrote the text) 
My style owes much to the daily singing of this tune by the students in Huey Elementary School, 52nd and Pine in West Philadelphia. 
:-)  :-)  :-)  
when I was teaching in the Philly public schools, I was asked once to play "the National Anthem" at an assembly--so I started it, and the principal said "no, no--not that one!"... ...me: !!?? 
but I learned!  and this one was the right answer ;-)

solo violin arrangements

Lift Ev'ry Voice

Deconstructed reconstructing string quartet through my strategic improvisation Hubris and Nemesis structure. Leading solo Hubris and undermining Nemesis battle it out on an even playing field of collaging loops. Fun to hear constantly shifting orchestration of roles. Performance by West End String Quartet, Dec., 2012, Middletown, CT. Thanks! That's one way. There are many ways to realize this score!

Hubris & Nemesis G6a

PLANGENT  COMPOUND 
  [ 1 ] Vistas 
  [ 2 ] Resignation 
  [ 3 ] Rrefreshment 
  [ 4 ] Albacross 
  [ 5 ] Prisms 
KOLA NUT Dances 
  [ 6 ] Happy KOLA NUT 
  [ 7 ] Drunk KOLA NUT 
  [ 8 ] Nostalgic KOLA NUT 
BONUS TRACKS 
  [ 9 ] Plangent Compound - loops only 
  [ 10 ] KOLA NUT Dances - loops only 

only myself, violins and amplified viola  
(c) / (p) 2005 Allen Gabriel Kastelle

02 Resignation

runs through the head, 
sometimes sincerely, sometimes satirically, sad to say... 
poco allegro agitato variation, perhaps. 
just a whistle draft for now.

KnowByTheLove

from Thomas Commuck's 1845 INDIAN MELODIES, in (!!) shape notes!  He is Narragansett, and joined the Brothertons in upstate NY, then led the second Exodus "west of Green Bay" before it was Wisconsin.  His own wonderful footnote to this tune, p. 63, reads:  "The Narragansett Indians have a tradition that the following tune was heard in the air by them, and other tribes bordering on the Atlantic Coast, many years before the arrival of the whites in America; and that on their first visiting a church in Plymouth Colony, after the settlement of that place by the whites, the same tune was sung while performing divine service, and the Indians knew it as well as the whites.  The tune therefore is preserved among them to this day, and is sung to the words here set."

Thos. Commuck OLD INDIAN HYMN shapes + vv 1,2 by Gabriel Kastelle

three or four of my favorite tunes from Wesleyan Theater Department's Spring 2013 production of The Peony Pavilion, from my own original score, re-scored by me for Western chamber / small full orchestra, graciously played in reading rehearsal by the Wesleyan University Orchestra, with guests, impresarioed by Prof. Neely Bruce and conductor Noah Horn, featuring Neely conducting and Noah on trumpet!  (and me on viola!)  :-)  Thanks!  


Raven Love Dream

Hovhaness' wonderful solo viola piece 
CHAHAGIR -- (Armenian -- "torch-bearer") 
What better for upload 5 January 2020, 
Epiphany, 
the true light come in to the world. 
:-)

VikingRaven

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