String Orchestra Music, Medium Difficulty:
Love and Joy - A Setting of "Here We Come A-Wassailing" for Strings
The Composition
Love and Joy is a setting of the traditional English carol Her We Come A-Wassailing. Although a carol, the setting treats the source material as a secular folk song.
Form: Measures 1-12 is an introduction splits fragments of the melody from the harmony.
Measures 13-26 continues the fragments with a call and answer between viola and cello/bass.
Measures 27-35 brings the melody fragments together in violin over pizzicato harmony.
Measures 36-46 is the most traditional setting of the “love and joy” section in the piece.
Measures 47-65 features a minor version of the “here we go a-wassailing” melody over an ostinato loosely based on a retrograde version of the melody rhythm, and the first five notes of a blues scale.
Measures 66-70 transitions back to the “love and joy section with the violin 1 returning the “here we go a-wassailing” rhythm from retrograde.
Measures 71-81 is the full tutti return of the “love and joy” melody with semi-functional harmony until measure 79 when the piece is finally traditionally harmonized.
Measures 82-87 is the coda which features a shortened return to the introduction material.
Skills
Meters: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8
Keys: D Major, b minor, D blues (first 5 notes)
Techniques:
- Hook bow
- Pizzicato
- Optional 4th position shifting for violin 1
- 16th notes, when used, are always move diatonically in order by scale degree without skips.
Melody: At some point in this piece every instrument gets to play the melody for lead line.
Instrumentation
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Bass