The Blossom: A Song History

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"The Blossom" is the last of the twelve pieces in Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 4, a book she publishes herself, and it is written there as a quartet, with four dulcimer parts in DAD tuning.[1] The table of contents pictured on the DulcimerDownloads listing puts it in 3/4 time on pages 53 to 56, and although that page names John Dowland beside two titles and Beethoven beside "Ode to Joy," it names no composer for "The Blossom."[1] The listing on Pratt's own website says the book mixes original pieces with traditional ones, all set for ensemble, and the sources consulted here do not say which of the two this piece is.[2]

Hanging scroll with a flowering plum branch in ink surrounded by columns of Chinese calligraphy

Wang Shishen, Plum Blossoms, hanging scroll; ink on paper, probably 1739. Shown for its blossoms; it has no connection to the piece.

Pratt began writing music for the dulcimer around 2004, and in the first-person part of her DulcimerDownloads biography she says she took up ensemble writing after joining a dulcimer orchestra in northeastern Connecticut and now has ten volumes of ensemble tablature to her credit.[3] None of the sources consulted here explains the title or mentions a recording of the piece.[1][2][3]

Our book that contains the song "The Blossom"

Sources

  1. Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 4".
  2. Ellen S. Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements for Mountain Dulcimer Volume 4".
  3. DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
  4. Image: Wang Shishen, Plum Blossoms, hanging scroll; ink on paper, probably 1739. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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