Glenn Stallcop

Violin, Marimba, and Piano

Composer's Note:

Growing up in the USA, I didn't know anyone who celebrated Midsummer Night. I had studied the Shakespeare play in high school, but still didn't think of the summer solstice as a holiday that people celebrated until the late 1970's, when I went on an reading binge of the novels of Ursula Le Guin. In her Earthsea series, there is a detailed description of the celebration of Midsummer Night, which included dancing until dawn. All the holidays I had ever known were either religious or political and rather tedious, but this sounded like a holiday that I would actually enjoy celebrating!

The trio, Midsummer Night, was written for a concert of new chamber works in 1982 in Scottsdale, AZ. The work is in three lively movements. Jazz Dance does not refer to "swing" jazz so much as the Jazz Fusion that flourished in the 1970's, which is more rhythmically derivative of Hard Rock with straight eighth notes. The second movement, Waltz, is a little more subdued, but slowly picks up the tempo to a point where the dance swings freely in one.

The last movement, Tarantella, though not as fast as the original dance, is never-the-less fast enough! The syncopation and counterpoint make it seem faster than it is. The tempo never falters. and continues to drive forward to a wild almost Bacchanalian finish. I have often performed the Tarantella separately, as it is a show piece all its own.