Ukrainian Suite for orchestra

Today I submit a suite I composed 6 months ago, this is a piece in four movements that was comissioned by Málaga's Promúsica Orchestra as part of a project called "A life in Ukraine", and my task was to portrait four of diferent "stages" of life in my home country. 

Intrumentation: 2 Flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, choir and strings.
The four movements are: birth, party, maturity and death.
The first one, birth, is an evocative landscape of the begining of life, from quiet tremolo and solemn fifths. Later on, a simple melody begins and reassures (C) major as the key. After this theres an episode still in the same beginning atmosphere but in a more tense way leading to G minor, this episode introduces a secondary theme that is developed in canon moving to the key of E flat major in which comes the climax of the piece. This climax states the motives of the beginning and the secondary theme in a broad forte passage that finally reaches and relaxes leading to the recapitulation. The recapitulation is quite similar but stays in a stable C major and the piece ends with a small coda in a peaceful strings chord.

The second piece, party, is an ukrainian dance (kolomeika) in A minor as recalling the youth times. It alternates different themes in a 'ABACA' form. A is the most typical dance in a modal A minor with augmented seconds and with some satirical and dark comic moments. Sometimes recalles themes from a song 'Chornobryvtsi nasiona maty' mixed with the archetypical kolomeika motif. The B and C sections are trio like episodes that take the music to more relaxed moments, these are both in major keys, C major and F major. B is based in another ukrainian song and C is more like influenced by Dvorak Slavonic Dances. This piece ends with a relaxed coda in A major, but surprisingly a last A-E fifth blast in the last beat of the piece leaves an open sensation from the listening.

The third piece is a valse that pictures the melancholy and nostalgy of the young times. Maturity is a piece in a ternary form. The first section starts with a lyric theme in G minor, then follows a repeat, then a B flat major passage for contrast and later on repeats again the main theme. The middle section is relaxed and optimistic based in two folk songs that go through G and D major, the last one follows to the coda of this section as dominant of the main key G minor, leading to the recapitulation. The main theme repeats again once, and the coda then starts with the theme from middle section (G major turned now into the minor) that leads to the most drammatic point that unwraps into simple pizzicati in basses D-G.

The last piece, death, is an Elegy in C minor in a free form which starts with an inversion of the secondary theme of the first piece used here as the main theme. This sorrowful melody leads into a transition in which the oboe and the clarinet have rhapsodic solos going from C minor to A flat major and then to E flat major, the relative key. Here the music tries to establish a happy moment with the canon beetween violins and the basson leading to a section in E flat major that the only thing that can do is to fade away and resign into the recapitulation of the main theme. The theme appears again but now with a new countertheme in the violas. The second part of the theme repeats, but suddenly the music is in C major and, not without doubt, leads into a major recapitulation of the beginning of the first piece, that eternal tremolo and fifth in Flute and Oboe. Then a choral in clarinet and bassoon leads the music into the climatic moment of the whole work. The music is stopped and only the octave tremolo in first violins can be heard. Then for first time the voices appear, and they recall a well-known ukrainian song based in Taras Shevchenko poem, "Testament", in which the author asks to be buried in his home country with really powerful words. The voices are accompanied by a really quiet tremolo lines in violins divisi, then imitated by clarinets then by the basses and finally the music reaches the coda. The coda starts with a distressing canonic moment beetween the strings confirming the reaching of the eternal peace in C major. The horn call a final hope motive imitated by the flute and the piece comes to its end in a peaceful and extinguishing C major strings chord.

As you can imagine, this work is really important for me, and I hope you like it.

Suite.pdf

Such a beautiful work, I can tell you put your heart and soul in this piece.  Congratulations!

Slava Ukraini!

This is a beautifully crafted work.  It has a rich texture and concise orchestration with a wonderful balance.

I enjoyed the piece very much!

Mark

I’ve only had time to listen to the first movement, but I love it so far! The opening pastorale scene is incredibly evocative, and transitions smoothly into the more lyrical section. I also like the interplay of the counterpoint and how each melodic voice complements each other. And I also thought the way you returned to the opening theme was awesome!

Thank you for sharing! I’ll let you know what I think of the later movements when I’ve had time to listen.

-gmm

Hi @Nazariy!

Great to hear your wonderful work once again.  My favorite movement was by far the middle - "Madurez" which apparently translates into English as "maturity".  The last movement had many moments which reminded me of Elgar's "Enigma" Variations.  Btw, is your PDF score up to date?  I heard some bassoon notes at the end after the score ends in the very last moments of the last movement.  Thanks for sharing!

P.S.:  Estoy aprendiendo Espanol con Duolingo en mi celular!  Pero necesito mas palabras para escribir mensajes en este foro!  Adios!