©2021 DAVE KENNEY
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IONIATE POWER RUBRIC
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The hot, humid, languid setting for my work, “Dog Days”, was inspired by the music of Vaughan Williams, Ravel and Debussy. I was striving to convey a lazy summer day through soft, fragmentary themes bundled in different “visual tableaus”. 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, soft “drone like” figure by the harp, which supports the entry of the “blues-like” 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