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This entry is dated in the future because I will most likely not be around to post it on the actual date...

After about a year of practicing, having my arms fall off several times, being discouraged more than once and wanting to abandon this project, it's finally ready! :D (Incidentally, this piece is where this came from. ^^)

I'm lazy to type again, so I'll just copy and paste the notes about the piece which I typed earlier.

If you would like to listen to it, you can download it here.


Notes for "The Union", Concert Paraphrase on National Airs (RO 269) composed by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 - 1869)

I'm heavily indebted to the liner notes found in the 2-CD collection "A Gottschalk Festival" (released in 1990 under the VoxBox label) as well as the score obtained from a collection of Gottschalk's piano music published by Dover in the 1970s (Unfortunately, I don't remember the entire title of this collection, except that it was something similar to "Collected Works of Louis Moreau Gottschalk - 26 Piano Pieces"). In addition, my own interpretation of the piece was also helpful in coming up with these notes. More information about Gottschalk can be found on Wikipedia as well as other sources on the Internet.

Gottschalk composed this piece in 1862, during the American Civil War, and originally dedicated it to General George B. McClellan, who had been dismissed by President Lincoln as the commander of the Union Army. However, the President also attended a recital in 1864 during which The Union was performed, and Gottschalk also performed it during a memorial service on board the ship he was travelling in after news of the President's assassination was received.

The piece is styled as a fantasy (although the title indicates that it was originally composed as merely a re-writing of these themes) and includes elements of "Yankee Doodle", "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Hail Columbia" intertwined throughout the piece.

The piece starts off with a furious passage of descending chromatic notes in the key of E-flat minor, followed by an equally furious ascending passage. The theme of the first two bars is repeated, this time in G-flat major. These two phrases are repeated throughout the first section of the piece, before it segues into a minor-key rendition of "Yankee Doodle" which leads into a rapidly descending chromatic cadenza to end this section. Following a brief ascending passage (that includes a change in key signature to F-sharp major), the first strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner" are heard, leading into a beautiful two-part melody that plays out on the upper registers of the piano. The piece then returns back to the furious passages of the first section, but just as one expects it to continue in the same vein, it abruptly ends on a B-flat major chord to transition into the next section.

The third section opens with a pianistic display of trumpets playing a fanfare followed by a corresponding echo. (Incidentally, Gottschalk included the notation "Trombe" at the beginning of this section, which makes it a matter of interpretation whether a performer wants to perform this section according to how a piano should sound, or according to how a trombone would sound.) After a brief pause, the section then continues as a bridge section reminiscent of "Hail Columbia", repeated in several different variations, and ends so softly that one is almost unaware that another section has started until the first note of "Yankee Doodle" (an F) is heard. This section consists of two separate, yet strangely harmonious, melodies intertwined as the right hand plays "Yankee Doodle" while the left hand plays "Hail Columbia".

This section closes with a fanfare of trumpets and a series of rapidly ascending and descending octaves before bursting into the final section with a majestic performance of both themes simultaneously followed by a flourish of chords culminating in a deep, sonorous E-flat major chord.

Overall, this piece is certainly appropriate for an intimate setting and can be performed as such, but it certainly feels much more at home in a concert hall performed by an orchestra and piano, or even outdoors.
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