Chorale
Chorale is an orchestration of a short homophonic piano piece. I felt the piece was possible of a greater expression of force through an orchestral medium when I imposed a simple and singular condition: continual growth in scale. The piano chorale originated from my interest in hymns of the First World War, although the piece takes more general inspiration from English hymn music. This influence has been filtered through the lens of my own harmonic interests and is a melody of my own creation. It is freely harmonised, with bitonal inflections and influence from other 20th century sources and techniques.
The lamenting sighs of its opening phrases on the reeds rise and fall, repeating in an unregular fashion and creeping onwards to its inevitable crushing climax employing the whole orchestra. When orchestration the final phrase additional pitches were added in the upper register, heightening the dissonance and calling to mind the upper partials of an organ’s mixture stops.