Kynaston - Concert Variations on a Theme by Henry Purcell for Bayan Accordion Ensemble and Percussion

Commissioned by “Sam” Falcetti for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra in 1983, Kynaston has been performed by virtuoso accordion ensembles in concerts and competitions around the world. Inspired by the Errol Flynn-like theatre career of Edward (“Ned”) Kynaston, the English Restoration leading man who triumphed in swashbuckling costume heroic dramas and romantic comedies, Kynaston traces the actor’s changing moods in a series of variations based on Henry Purcell’s “Music for a While,” originally composed as incidental music for the 1682 revival of Oedipus. Beginning with a simple statement of Purcell’s theme, Kynaston follows with a buoyant “España; a lilting “Valse,” a devilish “Scherzo,” a lofty “Fuga,” a tender “Ballade,” and a spirited “Moto Perpetuo,” before returning to a grand recapitulation of Purcell’s theme.


John Franceschina, composer, has created scores for the National Shakespeare Company and the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Baltimore's Center Stage, Washington’s Ford's Theatre and the Arena Stage, the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, Geva Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Papermill Playhouse, Music Theatre Works, and the Moscow Art Theatre, in addition to the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, where he acted as composer-in-residence from 1976 to 1993. His Fanfare for the Fiftieth was commissioned by Philippe Entremont for the fiftieth anniversary of the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra in 1985; his secular oratorio, Houtebeen, for male chorus, string orchestra and accordion ensemble, toured the Netherlands in 2014, and his opera, Scenes from the Jungle toured the Netherlands in 2019.