Zyra - William Stahl
W. Stahl - Zyra (Excerpt)
W. Stahl - Zyra - Full Piece Recording
Composer: William Stahl (1869-1940)
William C Stahl lived in Wisconsin and ran a publishing firm in Milwaukee and sold instruments.
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Date: Published in 1908
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Original Instrumentation: Mandolin (or Violin), Guitar
Why this one:
When I was looking to add some guitar to the Lazarus Music Project I stumbled on this short piece. Since I had never recorded with a nylon string classical guitar before, I wanted to find something that looked like it wouldn't break my spirit. I thought it would be a good easy first piece with a classical guitar. but as it turns out it was a touch more difficult than I thought it would be and it wasn't the first guitar piece I recorded.
This piece is subtitled "Mexican Intermezzo," so I thought it might be fun and different from the other pieces I've done. ​
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Description:
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Key: D
Time: 2/4 BPM=65
Zyra has a tempo marking of "slowly and delicately" and a structure AABBCC after a brief intro with a pedaled A.
It's pretty harmonically simple, with the guitar mostly hanging on the I and V7 chords (D and A7, respectively) in parts A and B. There is an unexpected E7 in part A, which is non-diatonic for the D major.
The C section modulates to G major but has two non-diatonic major 7 chords, E7 and A7. Brief Intro with a pedaled A, then an D chord.
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Performance:
I did the guitar first and then the violin in a different recording session. I didn't really have any trouble with either part.
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Errata:
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This is the first Lazarus Music Project piece that actually was written for a mandolin.
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Album Art:
I took this picture of my friend Nicky when I visited her in Milwaukee. Sadly, the Fonz statue did not exist when Stahl lived in Milwaukee.