When I was asked to write the companion movement to The Aquarium, I was trying to figure out how to translate the visual awesomeness of an aquarium into something musical.
Saint-Saëns does this so well it's intimidating. How am I supposed to write something as magical? Admittedly, I stole Saint-Saëns's instrumentation. My companion movement is also written for flute, glockenspiel, two pianos, two violins, viola and cello.
In addition to researching the Saint-Saëns score, I studied two other pieces for inspiration. I looked at the Ravel String Quartet (listen specifically at 1:47 in the YouTube video) and Stephen Hartke's Meanwhile. (I have only heard the Hartke piece twice this year in concert; there is no commercial recording of this piece available yet, so I am eagerly waiting for it! Until it becomes available, we can watch excerpts here.)
Anyway, here are some (two) pictures of yesterday's rehearsal. Again, I forgot my camera, so here are some pictures from my cell phone.
