Dog Days (a pastoral) | Dave Kenney

https://youtu.be/aH38PM-m30o
©2021 DAVE KENNEY

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The setting for my work, “Dog Days”, was inspired by the music of Vaughan Williams “The Lark Ascending”, Delius “Walk to the Paradise Garden” and some of the settings in Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe.” The music is scored for woodwinds, French horn, harp and strings; in particular I wanted to explore more of the colors of the woodwinds in my orchestration and I learned a lot by trying different configurations (juxtaposition, interlocking, overlapping, etc.). My sound library is East West Gold Orchestra (I wish I had the money to update to some of the new, more expensive orchestral libraries, oh well).

The music starts with shimmering strings followed by the repetitive figure by the harp which supports the entry of the clarinet, then alto flute and bassoon; through out the work I also used the English horn. There are two main sections to the music separated by a short solo from the bassoon (around 3’41”) . In the middle of the second section I created more movement using very fast staccato triplet chords by the woodwinds and violas which I gleaned studying Ravel’s score, “Daphnis and Chloe.” That work unto itself is a lesson in orchestration, he was such a master. The work concludes with the strings decrescendo, slight pause and a very soft augmented chord by the woodwinds, harp and strings.

I hope you enjoy and look forward to comments

Be well
Dave Kenney
davekenneymusic@gmail.com