Marshall University’s School of Music will present the Violauta Duo with “Sulla strada per l’Italia,” a recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, at the Jomie Jazz Forum on Marshall’s Huntington campus.
The duo, which consists of the school’s interim director, Dr. Wendell Dobbs, on flute, and associate professor Dr. Júlio Ribeiro Alves on guitar, has been playing together since 2006 and been called the Violauta Duo since 2008.
The concert will begin with “November Landscapes,” a two-movement piece written for and dedicated to the Violauta Duo in 2014 by Italian composer Giorgio Signorile. This first movement is a portrait of Signorile’s amazement with West Virginia’s landscape. “Tell me a Story,” the second movement, is centered on the ideas of friendship, relaxation and enjoyment. The piece will be followed by Katherine Hoover’s “Canyon Echoes,” which is inspired by a folktale depicting on the universal themes of love and loss, marked by constant and sudden meter changes, percussive sounds and the mysterious quasi-improvised melodies that emphasize the echo effect.
Well-known in the literature for flute and guitar, Jacques Ibert’s “Entr’acte” is an arrangement of the entr’acte he composed for the French production of “El médico de su honra” (The Surgeon of His Honour), a play by Spanish writer, poet and dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
“The arrangement features unequivocal Spanish character, portrayed by the gypsy-like melodies played by the flute and the guitar accompaniment that evokes the flamenco,” Alves said. “The Spanish atmosphere reaches its peak in the fourth section, which mostly features the solo guitar, joined by the flute after a loud ‘rasgueado.’ The conclusion resembles the exclamatory ‘olé’ typically heard at the bullfights and flamenco dancing performances.”
“Jobiniana No. 2” by Sérgio Assad follows with complex rhythms, melodic materials drawn from diverse cultures and a sophisticated harmonic language that combines, among others, elements from the music of Brazil, the U.S., and the Middle East. One of the pieces written by the composer, a member of the Assad Guitar Duo with his brother, Odair, is in homage to Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim.
“Assad’s style calls the performers for an ‘improvisatory mindset,’ even when the notes are all indicated on the score,” Alves said.
The last piece on the program is “Suite Buenos Aires” by Maximo Diego Pujol. The piece has four movements, each depicting a different neighborhood of the Argentine metropolis.
The Violauta Duo will travel to Italy from Oct. 23 to Oct. 30 for master classes, a televised performance and concerts at the “Castello de la Manta” (Cuneo) and “Palazzo Barolo” (Turin), as well as in the village of Piossasco.
For more information about the School of Music or the Violauto Duo, visit www.marshall.edu/music.