Working as a music teacher is a bit like being a prospector. You sift through loads of pretty rocks before discovering one of those precious diamonds in the rough.
One of those rough cuts is Sean Doherty, 17. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) performs the world premiere of the St. Albert composer’s dynamic Rainstorm on Monday at the Symphony Under the Sky finale.
Having a composition performed by a professional orchestra is virtually next to impossible for young, novice composers. “I can’t tell you how happy I was. I felt so accomplished. But the feeling quickly subsided because I realized I had to write for a whole orchestra,” laughs the Grade 12 Bellerose High international baccalaureate student.
Doherty, a piano and composition student of St. Albert music teacher Ina Dykstra, started composing at the age of 10. As a pianist, he has written primarily for the ivories, however he has also penned ensembles for voice and flute. In his short career, he’s received many composition awards, including first place at the Alberta Provincial Music Festival.
Scaling the heights to the level of the ESO started in the fall of 2009 after he applied to the young composers program at MacEwan University, operated by the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association (ARMTA). As luck would have it, his assigned mentor was Alan Gilliland, the university’s head of composition.
“I remember when he (Doherty) brought it in. I thought immediately it was an orchestral work,” says Gilliland, former ESO composer in residence from 1999 to 2004. “It was written in the late romantic language. It had a perpetual motion to it that worked very well and he made bold statements that the brass could play.”
After the five-week ARMTRA program finished, Gilliland encouraged Doherty to submit Rainstorm to the ESO’s Young Composer Project. It was accepted and by January 2010 the two would meet regularly for the next six months.
While Rainstorm was loaded with energy, the piano-only composition needed to be lengthened from its original three minutes. “And it was very different composing for one piano to an entire orchestra. You have to write specifically for every instrument because they have different idiosyncrasies. Alan showed me how to write for different instruments and notate for them,” Doherty explains.
Technology was a huge asset. The composers copied the piece into a software program, Finale, where it notated the music and played it back with orchestral sounds.
The end result is a five-minute contemporary conceptual piece similar to a bell curve that starts quietly, builds to a fierce intensity and softly dies down. “The melody is introduced and bass notes represent the thunder. Raindrops increase and grow into a windstorm. You have all the instruments play intense arpeggios and it climaxes into an intense storm. Then it dies down and you’re left with raindrops.”
For both Doherty and Gilliland, their time together was a one-of-a-kind experience. Says Gilliland, “Getting access to an orchestra is very hard and the only way to learn to write for an orchestra is by doing it. Not everyone goes on to a career writing music. A lot arrange or copy for an orchestra. Just having had the experience puts you head and shoulders above the rest.”
Adds Doherty, “I’m very thankful the ESO is performing my piece. The only thing is, I hope is it doesn’t rain. That would be ironic.”
