38th Sterling Zither Seminar

Have you recently participated in a zither event, or know where the history of the zither can be experienced firsthand? Share your experiences here.

Moderator: Dave

Post Reply
User avatar
Dave
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:55 pm
Location: Chestertown, Maryland
Contact:

38th Sterling Zither Seminar

Post by Dave »

Fall may have been in the air, but zither players were springing at Jane Curtis's Sterling Zither Seminar, number 38 in the series. In total, 14 zither players, representing five states along the East Coast of the U.S., attended the event. This seminar, we welcomed two first-time attendees — Gina Gerbasio of New Jersey, and Richard Twichell of New York.

Our open playing began Friday afternoon and consisted mostly of folk songs, with selections taken from the Sterling Zither Ensemble's monthly play-days. Afterwards, our collective rendezvoused for dinner at one of the local Chinese restaurants.

Early Saturday morning, the zitherists awakened to Napolean Reiss Aus!, a circa 1870 piece from Schöffau, Bavaria, composed during the period of the Franco-Prussian war. Several of the assembled players recalled this piece from the 29th Sterling Zither Seminar. On one play-through, Jane Curtis had some fun with this spirited and lively piece by gradually increasing the tempo. When the coda was reached, the zitherists had Napoleon III running along at a full sprint!

Our solo selection for this seminar, and the most challenging, was Vincent Youmans's Orchids in the Moonlight, arranged for the zither by Jane Curtis. Vincent Youmans was a composer of popular music for Broadway, mainly during the 1920s. This particular piece was also featured in the 1933 film, "Flying Down to Rio," starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Attention to key changes and syncopation was challenging, requiring careful coordination of both hands while playing. The zitherists may have started off with two left feet but with Jane Curtis providing the lead, much improvement was made by the end of the day.

Time to relax, we settled in for Josef Weidinger's Schwomma Tanz, a piece recalling the days of Old Vienna. This arrangement by Jane Curtis did not pose many technical challenges, started off languid, perked up, and then faded away to be capped by a light pizzicato. During the play-through, we learned that "Schwomma" also happened to be the nickname of the composer. Our group did have some fun postulating the origin of this moniker, but the question was not settled.

Afterwards, we steadily marched along to a selection by Johann Nikolaus Fischer, arranged for three zithers by Jane Curtis. In this arrangement of Fischer's Marsch, right-hand alternating basses figured predominantly and reinforced the 4/4 tempo. The seminar ended with a play-through of Emil Holz's Schreittanz, arranged for two zithers. The many rests required careful damping of the accented notes, with minor chords providing additional interest to the listener. When executed properly, the overall effect was clean and crisp.

The group departed in high-spirits, in anticipation of our Spring gathering, slated for April 13-14, 2012. All zither players are welcome to come and join us for two days of fun and zither music. For more information, contact Jane Curtis at zitherlady@yahoo.com.
Attachments
From left to right:  Don Tsusaki, Kathryn Prinz, Dave Kyger, Marie Skowronek, Mia Karlberg–Levin, Alexis Gerbasio, Kurt Maute, Gina Gerbasio, Jane Curtis (seated), Tom Groeber, Heidi Lugmayer, Bill Kolb, John Snyder, Karl Skowronek, Richard Twichell.
From left to right: Don Tsusaki, Kathryn Prinz, Dave Kyger, Marie Skowronek, Mia Karlberg–Levin, Alexis Gerbasio, Kurt Maute, Gina Gerbasio, Jane Curtis (seated), Tom Groeber, Heidi Lugmayer, Bill Kolb, John Snyder, Karl Skowronek, Richard Twichell.
sterling_zither_seminar_38.jpg (92.22 KiB) Viewed 2223 times
We do not take humor seriously enough. —Konrad Lorenz
Post Reply