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Cafe Music

(Paul Schoenfield)

This piece of chamber music for violin, cello and piano was written by Paul Schoenfield and originally thought of in 1985 at Murray’s Restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

After Paul Schoenfield performed there with the house trio as a substitute pianist he thought of writing a work that could be performed in a high-class restaurant or at a concert hall.  The piece uses the influences that were used by the Murray’s trio and these include a wide variety of genres such as Viennese, jazz, Broadway, gypsy, Ragtime, Yiddish and some light classical.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra premiered the work in 1987 after having commissioned it. It lasts about 15 minutes and consists of 3 movements which are:

  1. Allegro con fuoco
  2. Andante Moderato
  3. Presto

The music was released on a Grammy nominated CD in 2001 and then the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra released a recording of it in 2007.  The piano trio Triple Helix has also recorded it.

Sources:

  1. http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=208
  2. http://www.paulschoenfield.com/id2.html
  3. http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Schoenfields-Cafe-Music-Schoenfield/dp/B00005AAZ2
  4. http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Schoenfield-Parables-Souvenirs-Music/dp/B000TZ8PVM
  5. http://www.triplehelixpianotrio.org/music.html