Orchestra (2/2/2/2-4/2/2/1-timp-strings), 10min
July-October 2019
Commissioned by the West Island Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Score and parts available through the Canadian Music Centre.
Recording
Notes
This composition is inspired by it’s recipient. In writing for a youth orchestra, I wanted to translate the youth (or small) aspect into various characteristics of the work such as instrumentation, difficulty of execution, musical complexity and duration.
This work is a micro-symphony of 10 minutes in three short movements. The first movement is a sort of traditional sonata form with an exposition of two themes, development and recapitulation. The second movement, for strings only, is more lyrical and in a continuous form. The last allegro movement is of folkloric character and in a rondo form that uses material from the first movement as it’s second theme.
The musical material is generated through the use of a 10-note mode. The mode is used in it’s entity in the first movement and in generally abridged forms for the other two movements. The leading note is always absent and I often use very consonant harmony without it’s tonal functions.
G.S.
Performances
May 12, 2019, Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, Montreal, Canada, West Island Youth Symphony Orchestra; Jean-Pascal Hamelin, conductor.