Rainbow
(1990) for orchestra
Duration: 12'
2222/4331/timp.3perc/hp.pf(syn)/str
Commissioned by the City of Glasgow to mark the opening of the new international concert hall and to celebrate the city as cultural capital of Europe

World Premiere:  5 October 1990, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Bryden Thomson, conductor

Publisher:  Novello & Co Ltd

Critical Acclaim:

Thea Musgrave, in her Rainbow, has produced an unusually direct and gorgeously exotic piece (I know some conductors who will make a beeline for this one). But its dreamy sensuality is only a preface for the more typical, fibrous Musgrave, which erupts with stamping rhythms, driving momentum, and sheer vitality.
— Michael Tumelty, Glasgow Herald

...Rainbow is a nature piece in which a serene mood is destroyed by a rapid, pulsating march that issues finally in a world of opulent colours, with cascades of rain in the strings, pools of harp glissando and an ethereal synthesizer.
— Raymond Monelle, The Independent

Composer's Note:

The work is a soundscape in both a literal and figurative sense. In nature, of course, a rainbow heralds the end of a storm and the reappearance of the sun. Here the rainbow is also intended to be a metaphor for a bright future which, hopefully, befitted the exciting occasion of the opening of Glasgow's new Concert Hall as well as celebrating the City as Cultural Capital of Europe.

Rainbow starts with a quiet expressive oboe solo accompanied by a sustained A major chord (representing the sun), soon to be overwhelmed by an approaching storm which erupts violently in a fast tumultuous section. Eventually the storm dies away and the rainbow appears. A lyrical theme is accompanied by three major chords (the rainbow being a spectrum made of the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue). The rainbow fades and the sun blazes out...the A major chord but with the initial oboe melody now played by all the violins. The brass add a chorale of thanksgiving. Rainbow thus ends in a mood of calm, confident fulfillment.

Top of Page   |   Home   |   Compositions   |   Chester Novello   |   G. Schirmer

Webmaster