Description
Program Notes Raindrops
Work on composing Raindrops was begun in 2007 and completed in bits and pieces through 2010. The overall idea is to ponder on the concept of water. Water is to the planet what blood is to the body. It cleanses, nourishes and redistributes resources.
Theme A - Raindrops: Raindrops begins with a musical theme in the piccolo with sparse accompaniment suggestive of a drop or two of water. This section of music is reminiscent of a penny-whistle playing an Irish folk song. The drops of water quickly build into a rainstorm suggested as the melody is repeated by the entire orchestra. The water falls upon the mountains of the Earth, such as the Rocky Mountains.
Theme B – Stream: In the highlands, streams begin to flow and in the music the sound is like a transition (which is what a stream is,) until the streams merge to become a raging torrent, with ripples and waterfalls and intervals of placidity.
Theme C – River: Then these streams again merge to become mighty flowing rivers, with some ripples and rapids here and there, in this case represented musically by a waltz beginning with the main theme played by the strings with harp (or piano optional) accompaniment.
Theme D – Lake: The rivers flow into lakes, somewhat more calm and serene but with occasional storms and wind and waves to add interest. In the music the lakes theme is represented as a playful piece symbolic of the multitudinous recreational uses enjoyed by we human beings.
Theme E – Ocean: The lakes again flow into rivers that merge into the ocean and become one with nature. In the case of the music, the river is represented be a brief accelerated reprise of the River Theme ending with a cascade into the ocean. The ocean is represented musically in a vast swelling and pounding in an attempt by the composer to mimic the majestic eternal force symbolic of the creative force of the universe.
Theme F - Ocean Storm: The ocean turns even more fierce as the music engages in crashes and clashes of dissonance and a series of diminished chords and scales where melody becomes lost in the cacophony of howling winds and rolling thunder in the timpanis and and lightning in the woodwinds.
Theme G – Raindrops Theme reprised: Then the rainstorm begins and evaporation occurs to start the whole cycle again. Only the raindrops music diminishes to one single piccolo fading out, symbolic of the potential for our water sources to dry up if we continue on the path of man-made destruction of the environment in which we are engaged.
At a deeper level, Raindrops is symbolic of the human life cycle as we progress through life, merging with another life and creating new life while coping with tragedy, humor and all aspects of turbulence and joy, recycling into a new life for ourselves.
So the music flows as the natural rhythms of water upon the Earth.
Gary A. Edwards 11/4/2010 (208) 699-0848 gedward@roadrunner.com
PO Box 3528 Coeur d’Alene ID 83816-2520 www.EdwardsMusicSite.com