"Dancing on the Nile" by Mohamed Saad Basha - Petrushka Project

Vestard Shimkus plays "Dancing on the Nile".

Read and download the score on Notafina https://en.notafina.de/shop/dancing-o...

The Petrushka Project is an unprecedented international live concert and commissioning initiative presented by Schott Music, boasting premieres of 75 solo piano pieces by a wide range of composers around the world. The Project affords a rare and unique opportunity for the infusion of a huge variety of new piano works into the international repertoire. Composers from 26 countries took part in Petrushka Project 2012, and the Project will be continued in the coming years.

"Briefly, I can talk about my piece as it is a very direct imitation to the popular music of Egypt, with its simple melody, harmony and rhythm... The idea is to present my own original interpretation of a frequently used rhythm in the Egyptian contemporary popular songs, called Malfouf, with a very simple melody based on the Hegaz scale characteristic interval (augmented second), which both can represent a real conservative simple and direct popular language of the environment. And the very important thing that it is always happens spontaneously in my music.

This kind of dance is very simple in form and language as a whole, and I applied such a musical construction to match the spirit of a festival. "Dancing on the Nile" is very descriptive title, for the musical elements I used: melody, harmony and rhythm. "Nile" as a symptom of life in Egypt, and "dance" for the lively character of the rhythm. And as continuity to its simplicity, the piece is not difficult to play; this is how to make it possible, as long as it could be."(Mohamed Saad Basha, June 2012)

Learn more about Basha at https://en.schott-music.com/shop/auto...
The entire "Dances of Our Time" collection is available at https://en.schott-music.com/shop/danc...