Meadow of Dreams

A long time ago I wrote a piece for 12-string guitar, recorder and bass. It had a very Irish feel to it. The melody has never left my head, and I've always wanted to write a piece for chamber orchestra, so I thought, what better subject to work on than this tune that I love so much.

I can hear the opening section in my head: strings coming in quietly to introduce the stillness of the meadow at sunrise, followed by increasing snippets from the main melody played by clarninet, flute, and oboe. The strings crescendo to state the full melody with variations.

There's a nice minor section in the original recording, but it's really short and needs fleshing out in the orchestral version. It culminates in a crescendo back to major, where I envision the vn1/vn2 restating the theme with the violi providing the countermelody and the celli/bassi hammering away at a meaty bass part.

Finally, the day ends on the meadow. Strings return to a soft wash as a flute/piccolo duet playing to a snare drum and booming bass drum (that represents rolling thunder in the distance).