October Rain
Michael Hopkins
About this work:
This is a piece about an October rainstorm in Vermont. Rather than trying to create a musical rainstorm, I was more interested in the emotional state that is experienced during typical October rain. Imagine, it is about 40 degrees outside, and you are inside your home looking out. You can see the rain hitting the street and the rooftops, the steam rising from the building heat vents, the umbrellas, the people in a hurry to get from their cars to inside wherever they are going. Yet there is also something warm and comforting and relaxing about being inside, and turning on the heat for the first time in 6 months.
The opening 12 bars feature the clarinet on a melody that depicts the dark mood of a typical October rainstorm in Vermont. The strings provide a cold accompaniment using harmonics. These 12 bars lead to several variations. For me, a rainstorm is an elegant variation on a theme of nature. Rain can feel busy, calm, intense, annoying, threatening, or peaceful, depending on the emotional state you are in when it rains. In bar 42 a free section depicting the rain falling at different speeds interrupts the variations. There is a break in the rain in the middle of the piece at bar 59, one of those moments where the rain stops, and it looks like the sun might break through. The rain returns, and the piece ends quietly, as it began.
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:08:56
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Clarinet, 1 Violin, 1 Cello