February 25, 200620 yr If not, then wouldn't that just be an AWESOME thing to write? Maybe even a Duet Concerto for Steel Drums, Ukulele, and Orchestra, and it would sound sooo cool... Wow, wouldn't that just be awesome? I'm drooling at the concept, though I know it will take forever, and I have better things to do...jeepers I wish I could slow down time and write an entire opera in real-time one-minute. LIFE IS UNFAIR! No, actually, I'm serious. Has there EVER been any reasonably well-known piece that fits the above discription? I would just love to be the first. I mean, the ukulele...man, I just love that instrument. It's a small guitar, but it has just such a beautiful tone to it, though tuning it is a scallop, I must say. Also, it's always so...happy. Even when you try a dirge in a minor key on the ukulele, it always sounds as if things will just naturally get better :P It can be a virtuosic instrument. Hell, anything can be, even the triangle. Ok, well, maybe not the triangle, but I betcha a million bucks that the ukulele could work in an orchestral setting. Ever heard of the Ukulele Orchestra in the UK, where they just use Ukuleles? I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a standard orchestra - strings, winds, bangy things - and a solo ukulele-person playing the main theme or something. What d'ya think? :P
February 25, 200620 yr No I haven't...but what cool idea! I wrote a piece for kazoos once when I was a kid...which of course means it was for voices really, but whatever. If the ukelele had existed in Vivaldi's time, he'd probably have written for it. He wrote a concerto for just about every commonly used instrument of his day, I believe.
February 25, 200620 yr Author A banjo concerto could work. The banjos been used in an orchestral setting before. Look at Porgy and Bess, where the banjo is paricularly prominent, or the African-American Symphony by William Grant Still. A banjo is great at evoking the pastoral life, much like the english horn. And no, Mr. Canzano, a ukulele is not junky. I recommend you go listen to some Tiny Tim and Israel "Bruddah Iz" Kamakawiwo
March 11, 200620 yr I love making songs with weird instruments, but then, MIDI keyboards generally have no Ukulele.... :(
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