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Description
It is April just after sunrise. The wooded hills are just starting to catch the first rays of the sun as it climbs over groves of olive that march down the slopes. Other leaves are not yet out, waiting for warmer days later in the month to burst forth their viridian life. The new sun glows weakly through the early morning haze as the pastel mist slowly rolls and plays with the trees on the hillsides. All around are the distant sounds of a new day as they soar across the waking valley.
I was very fortunate to spend time near Cortona Italy this April and to have the chance to do some composing on my laptop in the open air (a form of musical impressionism?). This is the first of a cycle of pieces that I wrote while in Italy or that are based on influences from that time. As time permits I hope to complete and release more music in this new collection.
I decided as I put this together that it felt right to keep this orchestration very small - almost like a chamber piece but not with 'stardard' instruments. I thought that various flavours of the environment could be well expressed by solo instruments that wove slowly around each other. I found a real challenge with finding a solo oboe or cor anglais that played well in legato. The JamPack instruments for these parts were pretty good but sounded electronic and a little shrill next to the other sampled orchestral samples (EWQL Play Symphonic Orchestra was used for most of the strings). The english horn from EWQL SO did not play the highest notes I had written for the line (the synth english horn from the Jam Pack does play higher) and the oboes from SO just didn't seem to play a believeable legato no matter what I did to them - even with legato samples and settings in Play. I found a French Oboe in my Kontakt samples and with a legato setting it seemed better, although I think a live performance in this line would be way better. Surprisingly, the clarinet and flute are quite good I think as they are, and they are from the Jam Pack. Go figure.
Thanks to Paul F. Page and Drakonis for many well considered comments on early in-progress versions of this work that I found to be so helpful in shaping it to what you hear today. Guys, I am most grateful for your ears, thoughts, time and of course the gifts of new music you give to all of us here at MJ.
This piece is dedicated with much deep affection to my wonderful coach Jill who always has been such an inspiration for moving me forward in artistic and other fulfilling pursuits.
This is also dedicated to Luigi and Stefania who were the most welcoming and gracious of hosts while we stayed at their villa. Grazie mille!!
I hope you enjoy a little slice of a quiet early April morning in Tuscany.
Doug
I was very fortunate to spend time near Cortona Italy this April and to have the chance to do some composing on my laptop in the open air (a form of musical impressionism?). This is the first of a cycle of pieces that I wrote while in Italy or that are based on influences from that time. As time permits I hope to complete and release more music in this new collection.
I decided as I put this together that it felt right to keep this orchestration very small - almost like a chamber piece but not with 'stardard' instruments. I thought that various flavours of the environment could be well expressed by solo instruments that wove slowly around each other. I found a real challenge with finding a solo oboe or cor anglais that played well in legato. The JamPack instruments for these parts were pretty good but sounded electronic and a little shrill next to the other sampled orchestral samples (EWQL Play Symphonic Orchestra was used for most of the strings). The english horn from EWQL SO did not play the highest notes I had written for the line (the synth english horn from the Jam Pack does play higher) and the oboes from SO just didn't seem to play a believeable legato no matter what I did to them - even with legato samples and settings in Play. I found a French Oboe in my Kontakt samples and with a legato setting it seemed better, although I think a live performance in this line would be way better. Surprisingly, the clarinet and flute are quite good I think as they are, and they are from the Jam Pack. Go figure.
Thanks to Paul F. Page and Drakonis for many well considered comments on early in-progress versions of this work that I found to be so helpful in shaping it to what you hear today. Guys, I am most grateful for your ears, thoughts, time and of course the gifts of new music you give to all of us here at MJ.
This piece is dedicated with much deep affection to my wonderful coach Jill who always has been such an inspiration for moving me forward in artistic and other fulfilling pursuits.
This is also dedicated to Luigi and Stefania who were the most welcoming and gracious of hosts while we stayed at their villa. Grazie mille!!
I hope you enjoy a little slice of a quiet early April morning in Tuscany.
Doug
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Calchas
...for the minds eye. In this piece the aural and the visual merge into a unified sensory experience. Sunrise in the countryside is wonderful pretty much anywhere in the world I'll wager.
A tremendous amount of work went into this, yet it doesn't sound cluttered at all.
Simply lovely Doug. Thanks for sharing this.
Be well friend!