Alexander Glazunov ― Chant du Ménestrel - transcribed for A-Clarinet and Piano

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - May 19, 2024 - PRLog -- Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC (NSM) is an online sheet music publisher, specializing in but not limited to flute and alto flute music, with a catalog of over 200 editions. They offer original works by distinguished contemporary composers, re-notated versions or facsimiles of rare historical scores, and unique transcriptions and arrangements of pieces from the classical repertoire. Selected NSM publications are offered as professionally-printed hard copy editions, while most are available as convenient PDF downloads from the NSM website.

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) was a major composer in the late Russian romantic tradition.  Highly precocious, he started to compose at 11 and at 15 began lessons in harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov.  When Glazunov was just 16, his first symphony was premiered by Balakirev in St. Petersburg, whereupon Stasov, Cui, and others pronounced him a "rightful heir to masters of the Russian national school" (Baker's Biographical Dict. of Musicians, 8^th edn, Nicolas Slonimsky, ed.).  Glazunov served as an instructor in composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and later was elected director of that institution.  At the height of his creativity and acclaim, he went abroad to conduct, study the curricula of the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music in London, and receive honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.  The final years of his career were spent in Paris.

In 1901, Glazunov published two versions of his piece Chant du Ménestrel, one for cello and orchestra and another for cello and piano, dedicating the work to Alexandre Wierzbilowicz, principal cello at the Russian Imperial Opera Orchestra and a professor at the Conservatory.  Chant du Ménestrel (Minstrel's Song) is a sorrowful, romantic piece that evokes the image of a Russian troubadour wandering the countryside, singing his sad songs.  The lyrical, expressive solo cello line is without double stops and readily transcribed for other instruments.  Written in the key of F# minor, this short work (average duration 3-4 minutes) adapts especially nicely for A-clarinet. For additional information about NSM's transcription of the work, visit the NSM listing page at https://noteworthysheetmusic.com/sheet-music/ensemble-tags/winds/1021-glazunov-chant-du-menestrel-trans-for-a-clarinet-and-piano.