A Festive Violet Pulse
composer: Nancy Galbraith (1997)
genre: symphony orchestra
length: 1 movement, 3:00 minutes
orchestration: 3fl(pic), 2ob, 2cl, 2bn; 4hn, 3tpt, 2tbn(bs), tba;
timp, 4 perc, hrp, pno; strings
publisher: Subito Music Publishing (ASCAP)
60 Depot Street, Verona, NJ 07044
mail@subitomusic.com • 973-857-3440
audio/video:  

world premiere: 20 February 1998
Pittsburgh Symphony OrchestraMariss Jansons, conductor
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
program notes: "A Festive Violet Pulse" was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to welcome its new music director, Mariss Jansons, who conducted the premiere in 1998. Galbraith’s terse opus—just three minutes long—showcases the composer’s rhythmic drive and bright orchestral palette in one compact musical moment.
composer's notes:

"A Festive Violet Pulse" opens with lively textures in the woodwinds which are used as accompaniment for a melodic statement in the violins. This melody is answered contrapuntally by the celli, and develops into a web of repeated melodic phrases. The middle section is very rhythmic, highlighting the percussion section and making use of many polyrhtyhms. A soft tremolo begins to emerge in the strings and gradually evolves into the foreground material. A repeated note theme enters in the celli and is answered sequentially by each string section. A strong statement of the original theme in the trumpets and violins climaxes the movement. —N.G.

source: nancygalbraith.com