
A Spanish Evening
(is the first piece in my upcoming album Orchestral Works. )
I first wrote this piece as an instrumental to play with my friend Michael Brauer… a cellist. It was for classical guitar and cello, written in 1991. This was the first sketch of A Spanish Evening and then was arranged for classical guitar and combo, I recorded it with the a group and it appears on my BLACK TIE album released in 1996.
This album was recorded, produced and mastered in my studio.
The orchestral version which will appear on my upcoming album Orchestral Works, was written in 1999 and recently updated. This piece features the power of the timpani combined with:
solo flute and flute section
solo oboe and oboe section
solo clarinet and clarinet section
solo bassoon and bassoon section
solo french horn and french horn section
trumpet section
timpani, snare drum and cymbal in the percussion section
solo violin and violin section
viola section
cello section
bass section
This piece clocks out at 8 min.
The piece starts with the solo flute playing the 1st motif echoed by the brass. The opening is the instruments layering and increasing in volume playing a different very short motif to herald the entrance of the timpani. The piece then ebbs and flows like the waves on the beach, with little fits of flurry moving the piece along. The motifs are then combined into the main theme and played by the full orchestra with the different sections trading off on the accompaniment and playing the main theme. The busyness of the evening is very evident here. The evening is then gently brought to a close.
GEEK SPEEK
I am creating the album using solely Spitfires’ BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro.
This Orchestra comes in 3 flavours:
- Discovery which is free or donation
- BBC Symphony Orchestra (which is paid)
- BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro( higher cost and more instruments and miking options and comes with the solo instruments)
All of these Orchestras have amazing sound but be warned that the Pro version takes up just under of a terabyte of space so before you get this orchestra get a very fast SSD HD or buy their’s with the HD.
The great thing about this product (besides the amazing sound) is that it was recorded by real people in a real space. This means that you do not have to pan the instruments or add any additional reverb (unless you want to). Spitfire Audio also offers templates for this product.
The next orchestral piece will be Birds at the Bath…. stay tuned.
Contact me
Landis plays hand-built guitars by Darrell Pura, Saskatoon, Sask. Canada.
Classical model: Recitalist
Electric hollow body model: Landis Custom
Acoustic model: OM6
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