May's Final Composition
"SUNSET AFTER RAIN"

"Sunset After Rain" is a soundscape composition written for the celesta, piano, violoncello, trumpet and French horns. For my composition, I was inspired by the pictures of a sunset after the storm. In the pictures, you can still see the water droplets on the window -- remnants of the rainstorm -- while a magnificent sunset in the colour of fiery orange is happening in the background, accompanied by other beautiful colours. I wanted to show the dynamic of the clouds and the sunbeams in my composition by layering flowing sounds over each other. Throughout the composition, each instrument was assigned to represent a colour of the cloud/ sun. In this case, the colder colours are characterized by low-ranged notes, drones and minor chords in the chord progression while the warmer colours are characterized by high-ranged, flowing notes in the form of a semi-counter melody, and the major chords in the chord progression. Moreover, I decided to experiment with my chord progression for this piece, branching beyond diatonic chords by changing the D minor chord into a D major chord in order to give my chord progression a bright resolution.