Haggis Steeped In Whiskey (miniature suite)

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to share a work I'm writing for a Chamber Orchestra concert next year.

The brief was to write a suite of 3 miniatures, lasting no more than 5 minutes in total.

Have written the 2nd and 3rd movements so far, which are both inspired by Scottish folk music. (You probably guessed that from the title!)

They're both based on material from a suite of 7 short movements that I uploaded here ages ago; but have been greatly modified and enhanced with new melodic layers.

I've used the new Berlin Brass and Spitfire Chamber Orchestra extensions for MuseScore, along with woodwind from Muse Sounds.

N.B. The extreme dynamics are required to produce well balanced audio from MuseScore; but will obviously amend these when I come to make the scores for real musicians.

Hello @Alex Weidmann

I like how authentically rural this two pieces feel. The choice to make the piece (or a big part of it) a Dorian mode is very thoughtful and evoques the ancient autumnal mood in my head

The driving rhythms of the third movement remind me of some types of Spanish music (while also fitting a Scottish mood). I like how majestically the piece ends, though it feels unfinished in a way. Was this your ending or are you going to change it?

If you can tell me, was the inspiration behind the different moods of the movements?

Thanks for sharing and good luck with the concert

Manuel

1 hour ago, Jqh73o said:

Was this your ending or are you going to change it?

Hi Manuel, glad you like the piece!

I am planning to change the ending, by adding faster rhythmic elements in the bassoon and maybe in the doublebass.
That way I can keep the energy going until the very end.

Not sure what inspired me really. As I mentioned it was based on an old piece of mine called "Peripheral Moods" (which wasn't very good).

I took two of the movements from that work, and improvised melodic and counter-melodic lines over the top, using my iPad's on screen piano keyboard. Just played whatever came to me.

The rhythmic pulse from original piece sounded quite folky at times: so I decided to take it further in that direction.

I have the first movement sequenced now; but haven't made the score yet. It's also based on an old piece called "The Celestial Dance"; but again I've had to re-orchestrate quite radically, because it featured lots of percussion instruments that are not available in the chamber orchestra.