Song from a Secret Garden

by Scott

A few months ago we reached out to our supporters of several years, Elizabeth and Arnold Huang, to ask if we could arrange something for them and if they had any requests. Elizabeth mentioned that she liked the album Songs from a Secret Garden by the Norwegian-Irish classical new-age group Secret Garden, so I took a listen to several of her recommended tracks from the album. I immediately loved the title track, Song from a Secret Garden, and decided to arrange it for Clare and me to play and record!

It’s a beautifully simple piece that uses rich harmonies and orchestration, and a catchy melody that undergoes transformation and appears in different instruments and registers. I was attracted to the variety of voices in the original music, and thought this would suit a four-hand texture very well.

The composer Rolf Løland writes the following in the CD liner notes:
"The idea of Secret Garden is one that everyone can relate to. We all have landscapes inside us, secret rooms where feelings and impressions grow as a little garden. We have individual ways of finding this garden. Some talk about it, write poems or letters, paint, or even take a walk to reflect over life. We all have our own way. But what is common to us, is a strong emotional feeling that is an essential part of our nature. My way of dealing with this is through music, and everything I write comes from my secret garden."

In my arrangement, each phrase of the melody is played either by the primo or the secondo part, with the other part accompanying it. Only at the end of the phrase does the melody switch parts. To imitate the feeling of the lush sound of strings in the climactic section towards the end of the piece, I added lots of repeated chords in the middle bass voice, and some sparkling passagework in the treble.

Hope you enjoy the music!