Christmas Symphony

This symphony came about via a piano concerto, which has itself been installed in Limbo to await my decision whether to shove it overside or save it. One of the themes in the first movement of the concerto sounded familiar, so I mentally went over about every composition I'd ever heard. When I couldn't come up with a match, I tried listening to the concerto theme in various ways, and when I slowed it down I thought it resembled "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."

It happened to be September of 2004. I had thought I would do something for Christmas and make a CD to send to family and close friends, but hadn't thought about the project for a while. The "Midnight Clear" resemblence brought it back to mind, and I began going over what I might do--a new setting of a carol, perhaps, or an overture, using some seasonal thematic material, or maybe a set of variations of "Midnight Clear." Somewhere along the way I wondered, idly, why no one had ever used the rich melodic pool of Christmas music in an extended symphonic work. It seemed like a not completely untoward idea, so I got to work.

There were only a couple of months left to do the work, so I concentrated on the sound, paying little attention to how it would look, if printed, or even if it could be played by an actual orchestra. Of course I fully intended to keep working on it, but didn't take it up again until October this year. It's still a distance from being ready for prime time, but I have taken care of a lot of the problems. There are still more (like scarcely any dynamic indications and none of the phrasing which would be crucial in a real performance), so perhaps I will trot it out each year until it's really finished.

The first movement needs considerable work on the rhythm, but that shouldn't be too audible, perhaps. The second, which should start after a normal pause, includes a saxophone as soloist in, I think, the third variation. The third is part standard waltz and part scherzo (maybe the waltz sections are something like trios). The fourth movement should start immediately after the third. Next year, I will put the two movements in the same file--for now I just load them both into Windows Media Player.

In next year's session, I will also, finally, get around to adding the choral, soprano, tenor and bass parts. I wish I knew enough about Japanese to have that carol from the third movement sung in that language. Maybe I'll take a shot at it, anyhow.

But that's for next year. For now, happy holidays to all.

mgj

<center><table border=1><tr><td>1st movement
Symphony 2 (85.7 k)</td></tr></table></center>
<center><table border=1><tr><td>2nd movement
Symphony 2 (35.1 k)</td></tr></table></center>
<center><table border=1><tr><td>3rd movement
Symphony 2 (83.9 k)</td></tr></table></center>
<center><table border=1><tr><td>4th movement
Symphony 2 (89.1 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Hello M.G.,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Somewhere along the way I wondered, idly, why no one had ever used the rich melodic pool of Christmas music in an extended symphonic work.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Well, you've done it! And very nicely.

I listened to all four movements from beginning to end. I did have to do support helpdesk and forum posts while I was listening, but I had to stop my work sometimes to tune in more carefully-- especially when the rhythms interestingly got off-beat in a sort of staggered way.

I feel like I'm getting to know your music better. Your harmony is consistently "somewhat quirky", which I find engaging.

The General MIDI (GM) orchestration for this came off very well. Your symphony can be held as an example how the standard GM instruments can do a good job. The orchestration has to adapt to GM, since GM won't adapt to the orchestration. You did a good job adapting your symphony to GM.

I believe that if you had a fast PC with lots of memory and a good sound library, such as GPO, you would be in musical heaven. But I can tell that you're not suffering from musical enjoyment and creativity too much with lessor equipment.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the comments. I was a bit apprehensive that perhaps the reason nobody has done a long work using Christmas themes was the fear that people would be put off by hearing the dear old-familiar developed.

quote: when the rhythms interestingly got off-beat in a sort of staggered way.

Nice perception. This is very much the case during the third movement--the most scherzoistic (I can invent new words too section of the movement. The first movement is all out of whack, but I was afraid to make a mess shifting the inital attack for all staves back into an added first measure by an eigth note. Next year.

quote: The orchestration has to adapt to GM...

I still consider the limitations of midi unfortunate. There are themes played by the strings in the 1st and 4th movements that GM makes herky-jerky while they scream for legato. Part of this is my fault; for some reason I snapped the performed to notated values for all staves. Next year I can go back and RE-adjust the performed attack and duration in the measure where it's necessary.

I also wish that MS Wavetable had a better sound (or at least more comparable to the Creative synths). It would provide more GM channels for making recordings, at least.

quote: you're not suffering from musical enjoyment and creativity too much with lessor equipment

Yeah right....

I'm off now to make one last attempt at finding Audigy 2 Zs sound card, which will improve things at least 300%. Was about to order on line at Computers4sure--wouldn't you know they just discontinued it?

all best,
mgj