The Night Sea for orchestra - Viola

Orchestra: picc,2222 4231 timp 2perc harp strings. In my sketchbooks I played with three folk tunes off and on over a period of several years. The text of one of these songs was about a burial at sea, another was a sea chantey, and the third told the tragic tale of a young man poisoned by a vengeful sweetheart. In the ballad tradition folksongs are often sung without much "emoting" by the singer. But as I began to extend, develop, and embellish these melodies, my goal was to use them to compose a work that was dramatically expressive. So in my sketchbooks I worked to develop musical textures that might evoke at various times a sense of oceanic depth, the energy of an sea chantey, and occasionally some powerful emotional upheavals. Duration: 09:00