Edward McGuire: Zalongo Dance Elegy

in memory of my mother (1912-1922) who, in 1958, bought my first guitar, which I still use to compose upon and which I used in composing this piece.

NOTES

The piece uses material from the Greek folk tune “Dance of Zalongo”. This is associated with the defiant spirit of the women of Zalongo, who, in the early 1800s, with the murderous Turkish armies approaching, cast themselves from the mountain.

The opening should have an insistant, morse-code type of sound, like a pounding, palpitating heartbeat. The left hand finger should attack with some force to cause the sudden harmonic - other harmonics should arise as the crescendo grows, with strings being allowed to hit frets.