Return to Gwyneth Walker Music Catalog
Read Composer to Write Music for School by Dale White, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Read Pupils' Request Music to Ears of Composer by Ellen Moses, The Bradenton Herald.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the first movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the second movement of this work.
View/download a PDF file of selected sample pages from the third movement of this work.
Suite for Strings is a 3-movement set of short pieces commissioned by the Harllee Middle School String Orchestra in Bradenton, Florida. "First Run" is an energetic movement filled with 16th notes and rapid bowing. "Bradenton Waltz" demonstrates a more leisurely approach to string writing. The "Waltz" unfolds gracefully, with pizzicato flourishes. "Portable Rhythms" involves rhythms of snaps, taps and vocal effects recurring (i.e. carried about) through the music. The title was inspired by several factors -- the moving rhythms, the fact that the Harllee Middle School is temporarily using portable classroom units (!) and the life of the traveling composer who created this movement while on the road and moving out of a house!
Walker first came to the Sarasota-Bradenton area in the Fall of 1994 when her overture, Open the Door, was performed by the Florida West Coast Symphony. After one of the performances, Dale Jensen introduced himself to the composer and requested a new work for the Harllee Middle School String Orchestra. As time passed, the commission unfolded and Gwyneth Walker returned to Bradenton to meet with the students and prepare for the creation of the music. The resulting Suite for Strings is her first work for middle school orchestra. But she has so much enjoyed this collaboration that she plans to do more!
Notes by the composer