Dagh for solo trumpet

Abstract

"Sitsky writes: After two visits to Russia, which included Armenia, sometime in the late seventies, I fell under the sway of Armenian music, with its fascinating cross between Byzantine and Indian musics. The melodies of Armenian sacred and profane music are melismatic, elaborate, highly expressive; the rhythms often asymmetric and changeable. All this suited my personal rhapsodic style, and in 1984, during a year devoted to composition [while on a full-time Australia Council Composer Fellowship], I produced a large number of pieces for solo wind, all inspired by Armenia. Dagh, which is an Armenian word meaning 'hymn', was written for the trumpeter Paul Plunkett, then a Lecturer in the Brass Department at the Canberra School of Music. It is in four movements: 1. Andante con moto; 2. Con moto spirito, dance-like; 3. Allegretto; 4. Rhapsodically, with virtuosity. This recording was made some ten years ago. In the intervening period, the original digital session tape has suffered from ageing." -- Peter Campbell