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Zyra - William Stahl

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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. â€‹

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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.

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