Another Rag for Rags
For violin And Piano
by Dan Welcher
Chamber Music - Sheet Music

Chamber Music violin, piano

SKU: PR.164002890

For violin And Piano. Composed by Dan Welcher. NOT sws. Premiered by Paul Kantor, violin, and William Bolcom, piano, at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Contemporary. Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. Composed February 8 2000. 8 pages. Duration 4:30. Theodore Presser Company #164-00289. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.164002890).

ISBN 9781598068344. UPC: 680160621255. 9x12 inches.

Jorge Mester, musical director at Aspen from 1970 to 1990, had a beloved sheepdog Rags, who became the unofficial mascot of the Festival. When the dog passed in 1981, Mester asked Welcher for a "Requiem for Rags," which became Rag for Rags. This brass and percussion setting begins slowly, in the traditional New Orleans funeral style, then ultimately breaks into a faster, joyful section, "Rags trots into heaven." The brass version was played as a memorial during a concert that summer. Violinist Paul Kantor requested a version for violin and piano, for inclusion on his upcoming CD featuring Welcher's violin concerto. This new version is faithful to the original, including special cues for the violin - notably the special whistle that Mester used to call his dog.
This little piece is a transcription (and to some extent a recomposition) of a work I composed in 1981.  Jorge Mester, the longtime Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival, used to have an Old English Sheepdog named Rags.  The dog was, for all practical purposes, the mascot of the entire Festival.  Rags would attend rehearsals and sometimes concerts, and even climbed onstage and sat on Jan DeGaetani’s foot during a memorable performance of the Vaughn Williams Songs of Innocence.  When this beloved pet passed on, Jorge asked me to write a “Requiem for Rags”.  I thought about it, and decided that a “Rag for Rags” was a better idea.  The first version was for solo piano, then I arranged it for brass sextet and percussion in the style of a New Orleans funeral piece: the piece begins slowly, then (at the Trio section, marked “Rags trots into heaven”), ends joyfully at a faster clip.  This was the version that was played, as an intermission feature between the halves of an Aspen Festival Orchestra concert that summer, as a memorial to the dog.  Champagne toasts were enjoyed.I made this violin-and-piano version at the request of Paul Kantor especially for a CD he was preparing, which included my Violin Concerto.  While it follows the original in terms of notes, it adds several elements for the solo violin.  Most notable among these is a literal transcription of the special whistle that Jorge used to call his dog, rendered in harmonic glissandi.