Scored for String Orchestra
Works well for String Quartet
Scottish Scenes - Full Score & Parts
This work was commissioned by Chris Holmes and the Broken Arrow High School Orchestra.
This work is a through-composed chamber work which celebrates the four traditional folk dances of Scotland, the aire, strathspey, reel, and jig, while telling a story:
It is morning and a dense mist rises from the ground . Birds awaken on the hill tops. Sunlight begins to break through the clouds and the world stirs and gradually comes to life...
A shepherd is up with the dawn and gives his thanks to the morning in prayer. As he watches his sheep grazing lazily on the hilltops, he remembers his youth, and his thoughts take him back to that time. He remembers attending a fine ceilidh where an animated fiddler played a jolly welcome tune. One by one, he sees the guests begin to dance! At last, after a long, but wonderful, evening, he heads for home under the beauty of the vast night sky aglow with millions of twinkling stars!