Northern Lights
by Alan Lee Silva
String Orchestra - Sheet Music

Item Number: 20441704
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Orchestra Cello, Contrabass, Piano, Viola, Violin 1, Violin 2, Violin 3 - Grade 1.5

SKU: CF.FAS103

Composed by Alan Lee Silva. SWS FS. First-Plus String Orchestra (FAS). Set of Score and Parts. With Standard notation. 16+16+2+5+5+5+3+8 pages. Duration 2 minutes, 51 seconds. Carl Fischer Music #FAS103. Published by Carl Fischer Music (CF.FAS103).

ISBN 9781491146446. UPC: 680160903948. 9 x 12 inches. Key: G major.

Featuring a lovely and appropriate use of pizzicato with optional piano under the soloist opening section, Northern Lights is evocative, melodically distinguished, and cleverly scored to help a young orchestra sound its best. The natural minor of the beginning melody contrasts nicely with the grander, major mode theme introduced later, and this contrast is maintained throughout this very effective piece.
Beginning softly and elegantly in E minor, Northern Lights sets a mysterious tone, featuring a dramatic legato violin melody (mm. 3-4) over a root-fifth ostinato pattern in the piano and pizzicato second violins. The A-melody alternates between the violins and the cellos in mm. 3-20, and pizzicato basses lightly punctuate the theme, beginning in mm. 11-12.In mm. 19-20, swelling high strings, an ensemble crescendo and a poco ritardando lead gloriously to the grand B-theme in the relative major in m. 21. The difference in tone of the A-theme (serious and solemn, minor key) and the B-theme (exultant, major key) should be emphasized in rehearsal and performance.Violin 1 resumes the A-melody in m. 29 with short, answer motifs in Violin 2 over pizzicato low strings. Another gradual build (mm. 35-38) leads again to the resplendent B-melody in m. 39 and the energy continues into the bridge at m. 49.A molto ritardando sets up the final statement of the B-material (m. 59) in a slower, majestic ensemble treatment. This features espressivo violins soaring over sonorous and resonant mid and low strings. Accented tutti eighth-note scalar lines (mm. 68-69) lead to the final chords, ending the piece with excitement and energy on the closing unison downbeat in m. 72.