The year before his death in 1968, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed The Persian Prince on the name of David Blumberg, the last in his occasional series of musical Greeting Cards. Never previously published, the duo is Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s only work composed for viola and harp. This chamber miniature is now available for the first time from Ricordi.
The Persian Prince was dedicated to the composer and arranger David Blumberg, a student of Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Blumberg, who died in 2010, composed classical works as well as film and television scores. He is best known for his work at Motown, where he created arrangements for Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and other leading figures in African-American music. Renowned for his use of strings, Blumberg also collaborated with Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton, and Ray Charles. In film, he worked as orchestrator or arranger for Herbie Hancock on four films including Round Midnight, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1987.
From 1953 to 1967, Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed 52 Greeting Cards as gifts for interpreters, friends, and students whom he wished to delight with short portraits in music. The composer assigned notes on the ascending and descending chromatic scales to each letter of the alphabet, and, with the letters of the subject’s name, developed the thematic material for a composition in their honor.
This publication is part of an ongoing project by Ricordi to publish Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Greeting Cards. A volume of the complete Greeting Cards for Guitar, edited by Frédéric Zigante, was published in 2019; a volume of the complete Greeting Cards for Piano, edited by Luca Ciammarughi, was published in 2021; and Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s only Greeting Card for String Quartet, Ein Quartett-Satz on the name of Walter Arlen, was published in 2022. Additional volumes in the series are scheduled for publication this year.
The Persian Prince is available at Ficks Music and other online outlets.