Russian Sketches – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Instrumentation: Violin I & II, Viola, Cello, Bass

Duration: Approx. 14 minutes

Date Written: 1995

Additional Information: Russian Sketches was written in 1995 in response to a request from the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM)-International for a piece to celebrate the opening of a show by their Russian sister organization, ART-MISSIA, at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Its three movements are short fantasies, each based on a Russian folk song. The first tune, “Up the Hill I Climb,” is lively but elusive; it doesn’t appear intact until the very end of the movement. The second, a mournful lament entitled “Where Have You Been,” is heard immediately after a short introduction. The brief, repetitive melody of “The Rustic Castle” is first heard in the bass some sixty measures into the energetic last movement.