Inspired by Gary’s Christmas post, I thought I’d share this little ditty, which comes from a larger ditty! On December 6, we will have the premiere of a work I composed for young musicians, using a children’s story. It is a commission from the Red Deer Symphony (my orchestra) and the two youth/community orchestras in Central Alberta: Rosedale Valley Strings (under RDSO’s Concertmaster Naomi Delafield) and the Red Deer Youth and Community Orchestra. All three orchestras will be on stage, with our guys mentoring the young instrumentalists. It’s a “Wintery-Christmassy” piece based on a children’s story about a fiddler who makes Northern Lights dance. The piece will also feature our intrepid concertmaster Naomi as solo fiddler, and her daughter as solo recorder, as well as solo pipe and tabor. We also have a wonderful narrator to tell the story.
I have constructed the piece so that both junior and senior members of the youth orchestras can participate – an actual double string orchestra. This is something I have never done before, and is meant to accommodate both the beginners and the more advanced players. Here is a MIDI mockup of a short excerpt called “Fiddler’s Fugue”. It is based on the main melody I wrote wrote for the piece to represent the magical fiddler. You will also recognize “Noël Nouvelet” quoted in there. I’m quite happy with the results! For the rest: some folk material, some baroque material, some original material from yours truly, foot stomping, shouting etc… Writing this 20 minute work with Dorico was pure joy – truly. The software is so flexible. I created all sorts of layouts easily: the main section layouts have both the juniors and seniors parts for example. I used the Lines tool quite effectively in other parts of piece. Working with flows was a given. The output is gorgeous, etc… And the speed… I wrote this excerpt in about three hours, composing right into the software.
I have a concert work being recorded to a record label this coming January, but I thought I would share this today instead because I also love writing kids stuff. The feedback from students and parents has been awesome!
It if was to be performed by the youth orchestras alone, I could post something after the performance; but since they’re playing with us at RDSO, we are of course not allowed. The office might post a five-second excerpt of the dress for publicity, but the concert is already sold-out so they might not even do that. However, sending a copy of Sinfonia Canadensis to claudelapalme at shaw dot ca won’t hurt. I’ll take a look: I promise!
Thank for that comment about the structure. I sometimes use a flow as a scratch pad, but I find I do so less and less. I was happy with the sense of direction of it. I had no idea what I was going to do after writing the exposition, but ideas kind of presented themselves and achieving a reasonable structure happened quickly. Of course it’s not a very long movement. Still, I’ve done way more orchestration, and especially arranging, than composition; but I find composition becomes considerably easier if you keep doing it - like anything else that requires practice. I’m less embarrassed listing “composer” as part of my musical makeup nowadays, even though my endeavours in this area are arguably more modest.
I hope they do post an excerpt. I know that the union rules here in Québec allow for diffusion of up to 2 (I think? it might actually be 3) minutes of music without breaking contracts with the musicians. Things might be different out your way.
And thank-you for the contact. I’ll send a score and a link to a recording.
