The picture painted by this piece is of laying on the grass under a tree on a lazy summer afternoon, looking up through the branches and seeing patches of blue sky break through the leafy canopy.

Ir's a simple piece for string orchestra, with AABA form, helpful to young players in developing intonation and phrasing, and a concert piece that will be relatively easy to prepare.

MP3 sound sample: entire piece (synthesizer/midi).



UNDER THE YELLOW MAPLE TREE by Tom Kirkland, for string orchestra consisting of first and second violins, volas, cellos, and basses, comes in a pdf file of 213K, with a five-page score, five one-page parts, and a license page, ten pages in all. Performance time should be about three minutes.