Sheet Music

In 1999, I recorded my fifth original album, Five Bells, for the Sony Music/Bonton label. For the first time, I used a notation programme to write down the scores for the CD – considering the number of bars and the number of instruments, these were among my longest compositions – and thus, my bad habit of editing the sheet music from one rehearsal to the next has lost all constraints (the greatest of them being the notion of having to stick pieces of paper with new notes on them over the old ones or having to erase them, not only in the score itself but also in all the instrumental parts). At the same time I and my colleagues from the studio started to perform on a more regular basis as an ensemble which we named somewhat descriptively, Michal Hromek Consort, having failed to come up with a name that would be beautiful, original and to the point. Our repertoire (i. e. adaptations of Irish and Scottish baroque tunes for harp and lute, variations on traditional melodies, original compositions…) has always drawn from all my albums and includes also pieces that have not yet been recorded. It consists of compositions that correspond with our instrumental setup or their versions adapted to suit such a setup. These are scores for a quartet consisting of

• flute (or  recorder, whistle),
• viola (or violin, viola d’amour),
• guitar,
• and percussion (these are sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional, in which case the particular composition may be performed in a trio version).

Nevertheless, Daniel Mikolášek, who plays the percussion most of the time, is a capable multi-instrumentalist and singer, therefore, the usual wind, stringed and plucked string instruments are sometimes joined by a fourth melodic instrument such as the recorder, vocals, and occasionaly the piano, harpsichord or organ. Violist/violinist René Vácha is sometimes substituted by a cellist and thus some compositions also have a version with the violoncello. As we had been performing with a guest singer/harpist Kateřina Doležalová for several years, some compositions from our repertoire exist in an extended quintet version with a harp. We have performed a number of adaptations of Scottish, Irish, Slovak and Czech songs in this arrangement. I have also recorded an album called Da Mihi Manum with K. Doležalová, containing a number of duets for harp and guitar. Especially in the 1990s, I regularly performed in a guitar duo called Celtic Guitar which played mostly my adaptations of Turlogh O’Carolan tunes (which are also an integral part of the repertoire of the quartet or quintet). From time to time I perform in a duo with flute and my repertoire, obviously, also contains guitar solos.

  As I said, I have started to make the notations for the above-mentioned instrumental setups electronically after 1999 but many other compositions from the previously recorded albums (i. e. Celtic Guitar, Beyond the Lion & Unicorn) have in some form been transcribed using the notation program. With the exception of several guitar duets from the “Insular Duets” publication, published in 2004 by Editio Bärenreiter, all my compositions and adaptations are free (meaning I may use them freely) and available in PDF format.