Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. ,,The Nightingale". Notes

Instrumentation: flute and piano

Year of publication: 2021

Arrangers: Vilmantė Kaziulytė and Kristina Ivanauskaitė-Čiurilienė

Music engraver: Robertas Budrys

Publisher: Music Information Centre Lithuania

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis works’ arrangements for flute and piano Lakštingala (The Nightingale) were made and proposed to be published by the members of the ensemble Duo FluPia – flutist Vilmantė Kaziulytė and pianist Kristina Ivanauskaitė-Čiurilienė.

The arrangements are originally for flute and piano, but the set may also be performed by violin and piano. It is intended for anyone, from students to professional musicians, who want to include Čiurlionis’ music into their repertoire.

The arrangements are based on M. K. Čiurlionis’ early pieces. Such as Nocturne in F-sharp minor (VL 178) which include a prevailing pastoral and contemplative mood, subtle shades of harmonic changes. Also, the pieces written in the summer of 1901 in Druskininkai (VL 186, VL 187) which bear many features of Lithuanian folk songs. The remaining arrangements are based on works created after studies at the Leipzig conservatory (VL 239, VL 248, VL 268, VL 270, VL 294). The predominant chromatic harmonic language and intense polyphonic factures reveal a considerably more concentrated set of the composer’s emotions.

While setting up the eight miniatures, Kristina and Vilmantė scrutinised the compilations of the composer’s piano compositions edited by Jadvyga Čiurlionytė, Vytautas Landsbergis and Darius Kučinskas.