Zarabanda for Guitar(s) and Orchestra Chamber Orchestra - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1828944

Although originally written for solo guitar and chamber orchestra, a version utilizing three guitars each playing a single line (instead of the original solo guitar playing polyphonic lines) was arranged for a performance on March 5, 2016, with Imperial Valley Symphony featuring Imperial Valley College Interim Professor of Music Daren Burns and two of his guitar students, Jose Alfonso Velez and Jeanette Mellen, when the originally scheduled soloist of the premiere of this work for one guitar was unable to commit to this work due to the time constraints of preparing both this piece amd the world premiere of Jacklich's Rondo in A minor for Guitar and Orchestra for the same concert. By splitting the polyphonic solo version into three separate individual lines, the piece was thus simplified (virtually by changing only a note or two), and the premiere was able to be performed on the scheduled date with the addition of the trio of soloists, and saving valuable rehearsal time. NOTE: Both the solo guitar version and the version for 3 guitars are notated in the score, and both the solo guitar and the trio of guitars are included in the parts.

Zarabanda refers to a dance, a poem, and a song (often danced while sung). Its origins are cloudy, some suggesting it originated in Spain in the twelfth century, others that it has African origins and was brought to Spain by the Moors, and still others believing it has Central American roots from Guatemala (named for the “beaked flute” of Guatemala). It was danced by a woman accompanied by castanets, with undulating erotic movements and grave (and often erotic) texts.

The zarabanda was even outlawed in Spain in 1583 and anyone caught performing it received 200 lashes, with men sentenced to six years service on a galley, and women sentenced to exile. Despite this, its performance continued, especially in the New World with priests even writing (sacred) lyrics and allowing its performance in Corpus festivals.

"For better or worse we know almost nothing of the actual dance in its
original form. Apparently it was once a sexual pantomime, for in Barcelona couples twisted their bodies to the rhythm of castanets, and by the time it came to Italy the breasts of the dancers were allowed to collide and the lips to kiss. But from being erotic it became a gliding, processional dance, and it ended up as part of an instrumental suite. It was introduced to the French court around 1588, and was a favorite of Louis XIII, not to mention his minister Cardinal Richelieu. It remained popular well into the seventeenth century, since Charles II of England often called for it to be played. Perhaps it is an example of what happened to the dances of the people once they got to the court: their rude energy was canalized into something fit for the most delicate disposition—even if they became somewhat anemic on the way."*

*Source; Peter Buckman, Let’s Dance: Social, Ballroon and Folk Dancing, p.88 (Paddington Press, London, 1978).