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-   -   New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow (http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=3088)

adrianallan 02-27-2010 01:29 AM

New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow
 
This is my new one.

http://composersforum.ning.com/video/angel-meadow

Worked on it obsessively for 3 weeks.

I won't give a Youtube link, as I will have to cut it in Youtube as it's over ten minutes long.

I started this on notation composer, then exported it to Sibelius for the finer score details and parts and then to Cubase for the mock up.

I have, as usual, made a video for the music, because there is a real story to tell:

The modern day filming (which I have "aged" with a sepia tint) is of an area of Manchester of great historical importance.

Angel Meadow was one of the most notorious of Victorian slums, where whole families would live in so-called "cellar dwellings". The slightly better off lived in back-to back terraced housing.

Charitable institutions were set up to provide relief for the poor, often with an undercurrent of Christian missionary work, One such society, the Ragged School Society, still has two buildings that stand in the area that was once "Angel Meadow". Sharp St and Charter St Ragged Schools feature in my filming.

The contemporary footage mainly comprisies shots of Manchester from 1902 by pioneering film-makers. One film is actually of a march through Manchester. Look carefully and you will see "Ragged Schools Society" on a banner. It's also clear that one of the marchers has bow-legs, a result of the disease rickets, which resulted from a vitamin D deficiency.

Other stills are from paintings by LS Lowry who, more than anybody else, captured the bleak outlook of industrial society in the North of England.

My aim in this music is to create an aural portrait of the life in 19th century Manchester. Its bleakness, auterity and pity were at the forefront of my mind in this piece - a mood hopefully conveyed by the euphonium solo. The missionary zeal of the reformers makes an appearance in the march, which comprises the second theme.

However, three quarters of the way through there is change in mood. There is hope to be found in the human spirit, which always seems to find a way to triumph in the face of adversity.

Angel Meadow has now turned full circle. It is a thriving inner-city park amidst an area of urban renewal.

"City Living" is now an bourgeois aspiration, rather than a ****ation and curse that befell those of little means in Victorian and Edwardian Manchester.

adrianallan 02-27-2010 01:32 AM

Re: New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow
 
Now, not allowing the word d-mn (last paragraph)... as in d-mnation

Isn't that a little Victorian !:D

adrianallan 02-27-2010 11:19 AM

Re: New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow
 
Here it is on Youtube in 2 parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZyTEka5UQc

part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp551c28rAk

However Youtube does some hideous compression to the original sound, so the link on the first post is the best.

mgj32 02-28-2010 07:38 AM

Re: New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow
 
Hi Adrian,

A bit Victorian. Agreed. The composersforum version is superior. Agreed. I very much like the music. I am not a huge fan of program music, but some of my favorite compositions are just that, though in most if not all cases I have forgot what a specific passage or theme is supposed to represent. I mean, I know The Moldau is about a river, but the details long ago got lost in the music. Anyhow, "Angel Meadow" is quite compelling.

all best,
mgj

Sherry C 02-28-2010 10:23 AM

Re: New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow
 
Hi Adrian,

Angel Meadow is indeed compelling. I've switched back and forth listening to it with and without the visual. It works well either way. The video does add an element of explanation, but I think the music stands quite well and communicative on its own. Once again, your use of instruments in their proper places, as it were, moves the music without becoming muddled at all. Great job on the orchestration and how it communicates the theme with this piece :)

ttfn,
Sherry


p.s. Re. the Victorian behavior of the forum screening software. That's actually a default behavior, and we've kept it. We want our forum to be inviting to even our youngest musicians (my own kids read posts here and listen to music such as yours :) ). While your use of d--nation is certainly appropriate in context, alas the forum software is not intelligent enough to distinguish between appropriate and superfluous usage. Therefore, it errs on the side of caution. I don't think our communications are any less effective for the want ;)

adrianallan 02-28-2010 11:05 AM

Re: New Symphonic Poem - Angel Meadow
 
Thank you both for listening.

Yes, of course I knew it was the software at "fault". I was just surprised by its prudishness.

Over time certain swear words become less extreme - as in

"frankly my dear I don't give a -----".

Now who would have considered "Gone with the Wind" a movie worthy of censorship ?


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