Symphony in B♭ ('Happy Holidays') - Second Movement: A Hymn for Christmas

Описание: This is the second movement of my Symphony in B♭ (‘Happy Holidays’). I had deemed this movement not good enough to be included, had composed a replacement (Variations on 'A Christmas Carol') and was going to throw away the manuscript. However, I ran the music through the software and found it much better than I remembered. I was also surprised by how well the orchestration had achieved what I'd hoped for. The piece suited the style of the rest of the symphony more than my replacement had, and thus I decided to reinstate it. The symphony aims to express aspects of the holiday season at the end of the year, with this second movement expressing a hymn-like character of music, such as that which one might hear in church at Christmas time. When I composed the symphony, I had no formal musical training, and little understanding of music theory, but I tried my best to put down the notes of the music that was streaming into my consciousness. Being the last of the four original movements to be composed, it has required the least correction. I had very little re-composing to do, a few harmony and counterpoint changes to make and next to no amending of the orchestration. Naturally, as a result, it is not as refined as the other movements, which were put through considerable correction, yet I think its original character has a charm that deserves to remain as untouched as it is.
The piece is performed by PreSonus Notion 6 software (2025).