a rainBow of orange above the Green-Rhapsodic Variations for Triple Horn Choir (2021)

This composition - a rainBow of orange above the Green - includes some joyful references to some of my past visits to the BGSU campus-as well as the many happy remembrances of four and a half decades of college teaching. This set of rhapsodic variations depicts a day in the life on a college or university campus starting from the colorful dawn-walking across the campus, hearing the fragments of music in the warm-up sessions in the music building, the classes-some informative and some pedantic, the inspiring moments of repose in the library and art gallery, the excitement of the band playing at an athletic event, and a concert where singers and instrumentalists all come together on stage to perform a final hymn of the school. Like many of my compositions, this work is a set of variations on a theme. Sometimes the theme is a hymn tune or a chorale. Sometimes it is set of variations on a more abstract cantus firmus. In this case, it is a theme found in the letters B, G, C, F, and A! The Three Horn Choirs consist of Choir I: Horn 1, 2, and 3; Choir II: horn 4, 5, and 6; and Choir III: Horn 7, 8, and 9. Within the Three Horn Choirs: 1, 4, and 7 are High Horn Parts; 2, 5, and 6 are middle Horn parts: and 3, 6, and 9 are the Low Horn Parts. As the conductor studies the score, one will see that this provides for many opportunities for antiphonal effects, solo passages for all ensemble members, and symphonic sonorities as one performs the composition. Grade: 5