Chevaliers
Orchestra | Grade 5+ | 13′ | 2021
Score + Part (Digital PDF)
(This piece is available upon request)
“Once upon a time …”
Chevaliers for orchestra have drawn inspiration from the story, the tale and the legend of the mediaeval knights appeared in various mediums throughout the history: literature, fiction, children’s stories, folklore, films, games, etc. Looking at the mediaeval period through a modern lens, it is interesting to see how the different ways of life are portrayed or imagined in the mainstream media. Therefore, I wish to create the version of my own of the music along with the story of the chevaliers in different scenes, going through their noble quest, depicted throughout this orchestral piece.
This work is inspired from how the composers in the romantic period depicted stories in their music, for instance, Tone Poem and Symphonic Poem. Thus each scene in this piece is represented through different thematic materials and musical stylistic approach.
Chevaliers starts with the Prologue scene featuring the brass fanfare, inviting the audience into this imaginary world. Following with The Chevaliers scene, introducing the main characters of the story, the chevaliers, through various instruments solo passage. Then the music leads into Adventure Begins—the Kingdom scene, in which this scene I would like to create the atmosphere where the main characters mounting on the horses riding through town, the music imitated the music of renaissance period through the renaissance contrapuntal writing and antiphonal polychoral writing. The Dance scene is composed in the manner inspired by the mediaeval fiddle dance music, followed immediately by the Battle scene where the music turns more chaos. In contrast to the former energetic and chaotic music, the Courtly Love (Amour Courtois) scene with more subtle and prolonged music expressed the conception of love as appeared in the mediaeval literature, where the knights went out for a quest, performing their good deeds and their service because of their courtly love. Finally, the Epilogue—March of the Chevaliers brought back the glimpse from the previous scenes’ music as a reminiscence of the story told throughout the piece, concluding the whole adventure of the Chevaliers.
Scenes in Chevaliers for orchestra
- Prologue
- The Chevaliers
- Adventure Begins—the Kingdom
- Dance
- Battle
- Courtly Love (Amour Courtois)
- Epilogue—March of the Chevaliers
Viskamol Chaiwanichsiri
Composer
