Memorial Day Tribute - God Bless the U.S.A. (Recorded Live)

Recorded Live: (Matthew Hanna - Clarinet), (Christopher Tavernier - Piano), (Brenda Leonard - Cello), (Sharon Lawrence - Violin, Director of the Rutherford Chamber Consort),
Air and Simple Gifts is a quartet composed and arranged by American composer John Williams. It was the first classical quartet to be performed at a presidential inauguration.
The piece is slightly under 4.5 minutes. It is structured in roughly three parts. The first section presents the "Air" material, consisting of a spare, descending modal melody introduced by violin, pensively explored in duet with cello and piano accompaniment. The entrance of the clarinet, playing the "Simple Gifts" theme, signals the beginning of a small set of variations on that melody. The "Air" melody at first intermingles with the "Gifts" theme, though it is supplanted by increasingly energetic variations. Midway through, the key shifts from A major to D major, in which the piece concludes. A short coda reprising the "Air" material follows the most vigorous of the "Gifts" variations. The piece concludes with an unusual series of cadences, ending with chord progression D-major followed by B-major, G-minor and finally D-major.
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Very nice!