Phillip Brookes: Shenandoah, op. 51 - fantasy for cello & orchestra (1993) - new upload

I wrote this in 1993 as a sort of experiment in creating something based on a folk-tune, but where the folk-tune doesn't appear until near the end. The first two-thirds of the piece consists of musings in different tempos and tonalities on aspects of this most beautiful of sea-shanties. Then, after a climax, the Welsh tune Lisa Lån is heard - a very distant variant of the source tune of Shenandoah - followed at last by the tune itself, which rises to a greater climax before a quiet ending.
Two ideas - a chordal five-in-a-bar figure, and the interval of a tritone - provide a sort of idée fixe to hold the different moods together.
The original song that became Shenandoah dates from the early 19th century, probably emerging among Canadian fur traders travelling by canoe down the Missouri. It soon became associated with the tale of a trader who falls in love with the daughter of the Oneida Chief, Shenandoah. A perfect work song, it quickly appeared onboard ships and was widely sung throughout the English-speaking world bi the second half of the century.
It is song 324 in the EFDSS Roud Folk Song Index.
Most of the pictures are from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.
The sound is computerised using Note Performer 3, and the new upload has much improved balance.

[@alejandroherreradelaparra3977]

Congratulations. A very fine work. Lovely done. I expect to hear more from your musical talent. Regards from Mexico City.

[@pabmusic1]

Thank you.

[@alexkije]

So very well done! Computer apps are great and sometimes add another dimension to instrumentation.