S'vivon

Liven up your holiday concert with a cut-time, mostly pizzicato Hanukkah tune (S'Vivon is the Hebrew word for dreidel) that will not only add a multicultural spin but also provide teaching opportunities with its harmonic minor melody that will necessitate playing D# in most of your string sections. Also work with your students to bring out the melody, which can be tricky with pizzicato, but it is always marked one or two dynamic levels higher than the contrapuntal harmony. As the arrangement builds, arco is added section by section, some involving double up-bow patterns that often need a little woodshedding. So there is work to do, but with a very festive, vivacious vehicle.