Minka's Sleigh Ride
Subtitle: On Old Russian Songs
General Info
Year: 2007
Duration: c. 2:55
Difficulty: I-1/2 (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Daehn, available through C.L. Barnhouse
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $60.00 | Score Only (print) - $5.00
Instrumentation
Full Score
Flute
Oboe
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Horn in F
Trombone
Euphonium/Bassoon
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Timpani (optional)
Percussion, including:
- Bass Drum
- Bells
- Sleigh Bells
- Snare Drum
- Suspended Cymbal
- Tambourine
- Temple Blocks
- Whip
- Xylophone
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Don your hat and scarf for this wintry medley. Two Ukrainian folk tunes, Minka and The Birch Tree, are combined with sleigh bells, tambourines and wood blocks to create the setting of a snowy Russian sleigh ride.
- Program Note from publisher
Minka is an old Ukrainian/Cossack folk song that has survived the test and time and even found favor with classical composers the likes of Weber, Hummel and Beethoven.
Beethoven arranged many folk songs for voice, including Schöne Minka, as it is often referred to, and wrote a set of variations flute or violin and piano (Opus 197, No. 7).
Freely translated, a few lines of Schöne Minka reads:
Lovely Minka, I must leave.
Oh, don't you feel the anguish…
On the mountains, in the groves
I call for you…
This setting also includes a quote from another Russian folk song, The Birch Tree, used by Tchaikovsky in his Fourth Symphony.
- Program Note by composer
Media
- Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
- Audio CD: Wando High School Symphonic Band (Sean McGrew, conductor) - 2007
State Ratings
- North Carolina: II
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- University of Charleston (S.C.) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (John Christian, conductor) – 8 December 2019
- Lincoln High School (Stockton Calif.) Symphonic Band (Cody Johnson, conductor) – 2018
- Wando High School (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) Symphonic Band (Sean McGrew, conductor) – 21 December 2007 (2007 Midwest Clinic)
Works for Winds by This Composer
- All Ye Young Sailors (as arranger) (2005)
- American Riversongs (1991)
- American Sketches (2014)
- As I Walked Through the Meadow (2019)
- At the Old Camp Ground (2017)
- The Band in the Square (2006)
- The Cat's Pajamas (2018)
- Caribbean Rondo (2009)
- Come to the Fair!
- A Cowboy Symphony (2008)
- Early One Morning (as arranger) (2005)
- English Country Settings (1997)
- Fantasy on a Fiddle Tune (2005)
- Great American West Suite, The (2013)
- In the Forest of the King (2000)
- La Bonne Aventure (2010)
- Legends and Heroes (2003)
- Minka's Sleigh Ride (2007)
- Music for the King's Delight (2007)
- Overture on a Minstrel Tune (1979)
- Prairie Songs (1998)
- Prospect (1983)
- Red River Valley, The (as arranger) (2001)
- Song of the Mountain Horn (as arranger) (2013)
- Songs of the Plains (2015)
- Suite of English Country Dances (2022)
- Suite of Old French Songs (2015)
- The Thunder and the Roar (2004)
- Travelin' Music (2018)
- The Voyageurs (2002)
- A Walk in the Morning Sun (2010)
- Winds A' "Whispering" (as arranger) (1920/2009)
- Yorkshire Folk Song Suite (2016)
Resources
- LaPlante P. (2007). Minka's Sleigh Ride: On Old Russian Songs [score]. Daehn Publications: New Glarus, Wisc.
- Perusal score
- Pierre La Plante website Accessed 5 February 2018