Dog Days (A Pastoral) | Dave Kenney

https://youtu.be/OdGOYAWwJ6s
©2021 DAVE KENNEY

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The hot, humid setting for my work, “Dog Days”, was inspired by the music of Vaughan Williams “The Lark Ascending”, Ravel and Debussy. The music is scored for woodwinds, brass, 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 and a Roland sound module for the oboe and solo flute.

The music starts with shimmering strings followed by the repetitive, languid “drone like” figure by the harp, which supports the entry of the clarinet, flute and bassoon. 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 that I gleaned by studying Ravel’s score, “Daphnis and Chloe.” That work unto itself is a lesson in orchestration; he was such a master of color. The work concludes with the strings decrescendo, slight pause and a very soft augmented chord played by the woodwinds, brass, harp and strings.

I hope you enjoy

Be well
Dave Kenney
davekenneymusic@gmail.com