Symphony no 2 Litanies of Love et Rain - Sheet Music for orchestra - score only Carson P. Cooman

This is the full score only.
The orchestral parts are on rental from the publisher.

Symphony No. 2, "Litanies of Love and Rain" (2004) for orchestra is a symphonic work in onemovement. It is dedicated to Marisa Green.

The work is inspired by a poem ("Desiring the Solicitude of Rain") by American poet KathleenWakefield. The landscape of rich imagery in Wakefield's poem drives the extra-musicalinspiration of this work. Musical material from the earlier vocal work is re-imagined in a purelyorchestral context.

Wakefield's poem contains images and messages of love and journey amidst the desire for thecoming of rain. It is these ideas which provided the poetic conception of the work.

Throughout the piece, the winds and brass play an extensive lyric and melodic role. A strand ofsinging lyricism runs throughout. Instruments are always exploring and highlighting theresonances in melodic and contrapuntal lines of other instruments.

The work is cast in three sections (slow-fast-slow) plus a coda. The opening section begins witha forceful gesture that returns throughout the work as a "signal." A melodic idea (containing thebasic material of the work) is presented in the clarinet and it is developed throughout the rest ofthe section. A faster section emerges in a burst of energy as instruments hocket off each other.

The next section is marked "slow, ritualistic." The strings create an otherworldly "harmoniccloud" of gradually shifting and overlapping harmonies. Through this cloud, bassoon, trumpet,and flute solos emerge. Finally, the opening music is recalled in the coda as the potential energycontinues to build. The work ends with a surge of anticipation -- the rain is about to come and itcan be imagined just beyond the horizon.