related works

Eerste suite : suite pathétique, opus 14 A, voor fanfareorkest, 1986, revisie 1989 / Marc van Delft

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Fanfare
Scoring: 0000 6sax 4432 8bug 2barh 2euph 4perc

The spell of dance : for wind band, 1984 / Kees Schoonenbeek

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: 2151 3sax 4332 barh 3perc g-b (cb ad lib.)

Capriccio (opus 35 nº1) : voor harmonieorkest / Marius Flothuis ; bew. Alexander Comitas

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band

Estampie : Version for harmony orchestra / Bernard van Beurden

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: pic 2fl 2ob 3cl cl-b 2fg sax-s 2sax-a 2sax-t sax-b 3trp 4h 3trb 2tb db timp perc

composition

Michael's Day Symphony : for large wind orchestra; opus 152 / Marc van Delft

Other authors:
Delft, Marc van (Composer)
Description:
I - Creation
The composition begins with a passage which describes [like in my 3rd symphony, but then somewhat longer and somewhat different] the creation of the world in 4 steps, 1/the creation of warmth (fire, or the chaos, the savage and deserted world of the beginning of Genesis, before the first creation day), 2/of light and air (1st creation day),
3/of water [the oceans] (2nd creation day, but also the temptation of the snake in paradise…), and 4/of earth (3rd creation day, but also the Fall)

The creation of earth is then also the (sin) fall, described by the bible: the deterrence from Adam and Eve from the paradise and the fall from heaven to earth.

II - After the Fall
Now the choir sings about the fall and of the petrifying of the earth: man is now separated from heaven, the spiritual world, from God and the heavenly creatures, and must live a life of suffering and hardship on earth.

And earth is the kingdom of Satan (Ahriman), the adversary of God (and of Michael, his servant and general…).

Like in my 3rd symphony I describe the world of earth, the world of death, stones, rocks, mountains, a dark world of physical hardships…

III - Michael
After a tender intermezzo in the flutes and woodwinds, we get a hopefully ‘resurrection’-D major passage with a noble and majestic melody [D-Cis-A-B etc.] which describes the resurrection of Christ at Easter morning, and that Christ was the answer of God on the fall and of the ruler of the earth: Satan, and that Michael is the face of Christ, and that he fights against evil, and will help mankind to find the [lost] light of the spirit world.
And then: Michael appeared in dreams….
So, also the monte Gargano, the Mont st. Michel and the monastery of Lliria is mentioned in the text, and that Gargano and Mont st. Michel are built because Michael himself told to do so and to honour the archangel.
This theme could also be seen as (a sort of) ‘Michaels Victory theme’ [but it is a more lyrical melody as the Victory theme in the Michaels symphony opus 45], which will reappear at the very end of the work as closing apotheosis.
This passage ends with a boy’s soprano solo, singing the [Dutch] Michaels song [A-A-D, a majestic but simple pentatonic melody, beginning with a falling fifth].
[text: Michael, Michael, with your starry sword, give us power, give us force, doing good on earth]

IV - Apocalyps
The following passages will have some similarities with the 2nd part of the Michaels symphony [in form]…
Now the choir reappears which sings about the snake and the monsters from Hell in a threatening and sinister passage with many tritones (the ‘devil in music’…) , and their plans to attack humanity again, and that a new war with Michael begins in heaven and on earth….
Now a large fortissimo passage arises, which describes the battle between Michael and Satan, the dragon, a very virtuoso and dramatically passage with some similarities to Strawinsky’s ‘le sacre du printemps’, it is also the most difficult and [somewhat] dissonant and modern passage of the piece.

After the climax, the music collapses in an anti climax.
Now we get a sort of tender passage in the flutes etc. , a sort of sad mourning music, which ends with the consolation of the Dutch Michaels song which must be song by a boy’s soprano solo, in the key of Fis / Fa #, which is the tone scale of the zodiac sign scales / balance, which has to do with the month of the Michaels feast, because, also
Michael is pictured with a balance / scales, and his feast is in the month of scales/balance, which also is the symbol of ‘Vrouwe Justitia’, the ‘woman of Justice’…

V - Triumph / Victory
Now the music builds up to a new fortissimo of great and solemn, majestic victory music, which again goes to the tone scale of Fis / Fa #, and now I did succeed in it, using the merry Michaels song from Lliria, and of course, this will / can be song in Spanish! This song is called:
Gozos a s. Miguel de Liria (popular) (Miguel Alonso)
But of course, mixed with my own style sort of harmony, so that the music doesn’t become vulgar/popular, but sounds great, majestic, strong and solemn.
The Lliria Michael melody or fragments of it [the beginning] is / are varied and goes through many tone scales, at the end it is played as a whole in C major, and D flat major.
Now we get a passage with fanfare-like signal motives in the brass instruments, which goes at the end to D major, and again the Michaels song from Lliria sounds in a great and majestic form, which ends with the majestic motive [of falling fifths] of the Dutch Michaels song.
Then suddenly, the music [again] modulates to the tone scale of Balance : Ges major/Sol b major, and now the whole melody of the Michaels song from Lliria sounds in a spectacular form in which the mallet instruments / piano etc. can make pentatonic glissandos over the black tones [=des-es-ges-as-bes] etc., and with a melodic bass part in parallel quints / fifths…