Snowy Walk and Sleigh Ride
An early morning walk through fresh snow with expectation of a treat to come. Passes through different snowy scenes, a little shivering in the cold, then warm up as you pass into the sunlight. Ends with a great gallumping sleigh ride.
It features sleigh bells from 0:40 and a fresh out-doors breezy feeling at the start which makes me think of a happy and carefree early morning walk in the snow. There are also trills, like shivering with cold and excitement, passed around the orchestra in the first section. After passing the first main theme around the orchestra, string soloists take over for a while against light orchestral background. A warm tune is then heard in brass which is repeated in a close canon then taken over by strings. Cold sets in and there is some shivering but the sun soon comes out to reveal a glorious snowscape. A light and carefree tune follows, then a build up to the climax of the sleigh ride which quickly gets going at full pelt by 4:27. The music for the sleigh ride is taken from the opening motif and is extended and repeated a number of times, but each repeat is slightly twisted, emphasised differently and with changes to the orchestration. The sleigh ride gives me a strong image of how the horse would look trotting rapidly, muscles twitching and mane swishing and hooves kicking up the snow. I would maybe like to make the section from 4:27 to the end into a 3 minute or so piece on its own of just the sleigh ride (with a build up).
This is part of an experiment in orchestral writing, where I'm writing a suite of Orchestral pieces, trying out different moods, orchestration techniques, effects and ideas all as part of the foothills to my ambition which is to write a decent symphony.