Jenkins - Concerto grosso for strings 'Palladio' - I. Allegretto

The first movement, I. Allegretto, of Karl Jenkins's Concerto grosso for strings 'Palladio' is perhaps one of the most well-known pieces of modern classical music (imitating the Classical Period). Jenkins himself wrote a program note (1996), which I will quote from Boosey and Hawkes's website:

Palladio was inspired by the sixteenth-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, whose work embodies the Renaissance celebration of harmony and order. Two of Palladio's hallmarks are mathematical harmony and architectural elements borrowed from classical antiquity, a philosophy which I feel reflects my own approach to composition. The first movement I adapted and used for the 'Shadows' A Diamond is Forever television commercial for a worldwide campaign. The middle movement I have since rearranged for two female voices and string orchestra, as heard in Cantus Insolitus from my work Songs of Sanctuary.

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Mozart - Piano Quartet No.1, KV 478, III. Rondeau

I thought about this piece today as a celebration of the end of my junior year at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; this piece brings me back to a particular memory from sixth grade.

When not using computers in elementary and junior high school for homework and projects, the computer that I used to do assignments at home (mostly PowerPoint presentations, essays or stories in Word, and frequently things to print, cut, and paste for posters) was a silver and white laptop that we kept charging in the living room. I remember, among other things, playing the World's Hardest Game and watching YouTube videos on that thing. Good times.

Towards the end of the sixth grade, I got my first personal email account (I wanted to keep in touch with teachers from my elementary school). At around that time, I remember hopping on YouTube on that laptop and saw, by coincidence, a suggested video of some music by Mozart. I had never sought out classical music before this, but I recognized the name 'Mozart' and clicked. For my very first active exposure to classical music, this was a blast. It was the Rondeau of Mozart's first piano quartet in G major.

As I had just gotten a new email address, I emailed my junior high's orchestra director (also plays piano) about the music I had just listened to, and she said she had played the same piece before and could photocopy the music for me. I was overjoyed! On the last day of school, with my first ever yearbook in hand, I went down to the band and orchestra rehearsal room, and the director signed my yearbook and gave me a thick stack of sheet music. After going through some of the highlights of the music with the orchestra director, I skipped up the stairs to the library.

For the end of the last day (half-day) of school, the teachers decided to have a movie playing for all the sixth and seventh graders (the eighth graders graduated earlier and were no longer around); I remember ignoring the movie playing on the projector screen and just looking at the sheet music (I couldn't tell you what movie it was ... I have no idea). I didn't know if I'd get to play it, since I had only started playing piano two years before, but I was so excited to have the music right in front of me. (Over the next couple years, I discovered the IMSLP website and went absolutely nuts there, after exhausting tons of photocopies from books of solo piano works from my local library.)

I share all of this because I think of this story every time I get to a last day of school. Through nearly every year of primary and secondary school, the last day of school was really bittersweet for me. But, the excitement I had in sixth grade about this new type of music I was just learning about -- classical music -- overpowered whatever bittersweetness I must have been feeling at the time. It's a really positive memory that I enjoy thinking back on. So, today, I'm sharing the video I watched then here.

Mozart - Piano Quartet No.1, KV 478, III. Rondeau (video by Stephen Malinowski)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy it now or enjoyed it then!