Frank Bridge - The Hour Glass: The Dew Fairy (orchestration)

Hi to all.

I've now completed my orchestration of all three movements of "The Hour Glass" (originally for piano solo).

This second movement was the hardest of all to orchestrate: so any tips on how to make it better would be very welcome!

I found it especially difficult to create suitable harmonies for a string bed to go underneath the intricate arpeggios in the harp.

Not sure I've done it very well.

Also, some of the chromaticism in the harp part may be unplayable, because of the pedals?

Haven't got around to adding slurs and phrasing yet, and as usual, my dynamics are designed for midi only.

Frank Bridge - The Dew Fairy #28.pdf

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Alex Weidmann

Not a harpist, so I couldn't speak to the playability of this piece, however, just judging off of the difficulty in the reading of this alone, I would wager to say that it would be either extremely difficult to perform, and would likely be reserved for only the best of the best harpists 😅

as far as your question regarding string harmonies, I feel that it was done very well. it blends well, and it very much so fits the description that your title suggests. Very ethereal, whimsical, magical etc... I was also gonna comment on the fact that you had a pppp for piccolo while they were playing in the high register, which would be physically impossible, but as I thought that it was likely just for the playback, your description of it affirmed that suspicion lol so I'll leave that one be.

Though, I do wonder if this could be more legible if written in a different time signature? 🤔 Right this second, I haven't taken the liberty to subdivide what you have here, to suggest a specific time signature, however, I say this because the 11-lets & 15-lets, without having some sort of a split-beam, at least to me, become difficult to follow, and appear unsightly, but that's simply my own opinion on the appearance and readability of the score itself. The work itself is phenomenal! I'm simply unsure of how it would be best written to allow for the clearest interpretation while reading.

Thanks for sharing, and apologies on my lack of suggestions for alternatives :/ at the time I've decided to login, my brain is just not at its peak performance, as I've just made it back home from a repair job and it's currently 12:32am my time 😅