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Study in Orange (2006)
String Orchestra
Approximately 10 Minutes
Study in Orange was commissioned by the Orange County High School for the Arts. Their Jr. High school string program premiered the piece on May 15th, 2006.
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Click here to listen to Allen Gross conduct Study in Orange with the Occidental-Caltech Chamber Orchestra.

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Study in Orange was commissioned by the Orange County High School or the Arts, and was premiered there by their Jr. High string program in 2006. It is one of my most straight-forward pieces. It is in an ABCBA form. The A sections are slow and built on a whole-tone-scale tonality (a scale made up of only whole steps), the B sections are a bit faster and Octatonic (a scale in a half-step/whole-step pattern), and the middle C is in a vaguely major tonality. I think of the middle section as kind of an interlude… it’s got a lighter tone than the surrounding material. But there is absolutely no programmatic background for this piece…it doesn’t have a story. My intention was to luxuriate with the sound possibilities inherent in a string orchestra, which is one of my favorite sound worlds to work in. It was a very fun piece to write.

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