As the sounds of “A Hidden Serenade” fill the Performing Arts Center (PAC), senior Gabriel Gonzalez ends the fermata and cues the brass section for the upcoming section of music.
The goal of “A Hidden Serenade” was to encapsulate the diverse emotions that he felt during the span of his junior year of high school. He attempted to incorporate a story into the piece and fit music alongside it. Gonzalez believes that the music explores turmoil, fear but also sweetness.
“The writing process was interesting. It took a huge amount of time to accurately depict my thoughts and feelings into the music,” Gonzalez said. “In fact there are parts that I had to cut out or else the music would be too long.”
“A Hidden Serenade” was a piece written by Gonzalez over the span of two months. He has been writing music for around a year and uses the platform Musescore to help him write his music. “A Hidden Serenade” was exclusively composed for Walnut’s Symphonic Orchestra.
“I feel like my emotions are more authentic, or maybe they’re just a little more prominent when I’m a little sluggish. I can’t really describe the feeling, but I felt more sensitive to my emotions I think,” Gonzalez said.
When composing, Gonzalez kept in mind that as a composer, his goal was to combine the different sounds together to ensure that it sounded good. To Gonzalez, one of the goals for him as a composer is to tell a story through music and piecing it cohesively.
“I did not want the different sounds to clash in a bad way,” Gonzalez said, “My job as a composer is to make the starkly contrasting sounds within the orchestra combine harmoniously to make beautiful music as opposed to clashing and attacking each other. Each part needs to have a ton of detail to ensure every part works together.”
Gonzalez’s writing inspiration stems from the musical soundtracks of Studio Ghibhli, music genres such as pop and classical and music he has previously composed.
“I think my biggest source of inspiration is Joe Hisaishi [and the] way he uses the orchestra is simply unlike anyone else. You’ll also find that a bunch of harmonies within the piece follow traditions that you might see in western Jazz. I also took some inspiration from pop artists like Cody Fry,” Gonzalez said.
However, an issue that the Symphonic Orchestra has encountered is that students are unfamiliar with the music. Gonzalez also faces social pressure such as being thought of in a negative light.
“Our orchestra encounters a bunch of roadblocks, but one that always seems to be an issue for us is that students just don’t really know their music. I’m terrified when I’m standing at the podium and conducting that people think of me in a negative light. Maybe they’re annoyed, tired, but I hope none of that projects onto me,” Gonzalez said.
Over the course of the past two months, the orchestra has been working on it during class periods and their weekly Wednesday orchestra rehearsals. The orchestra typically addresses the musical chunks that need work and work until it is more polished. The fast section of “A Hidden Serenade” is Gonzalez’s favorite part as it is intriguing to listen to and features multiple instruments.
“[The fast section] is blazing…” Gonzalez said. “I hope we pull it off well because it isn’t easy to play at all. Our orchestra is rough right now on that section, but with practice and some work it’ll sound great by the time Autumn Serenade comes around. [A Hidden Serenade] is like a child of mine. I dumped a lot of myself into the piece so naturally it is going to mean a lot to me.”
“A Hidden Serenade” will be the first student-written piece to be played by the Symphonic Orchestra. Gonzalez hopes that at the annual upcoming Autumn Serenade on Thursday, Nov. 6 that the Symphonic Orchestra will sound their best.
“I love everything about being in orchestra, I want us to sound the best we can [and] at the end of the day that’s the ultimate goal, to sound good and grow together as musicians and people,” Gonzalez said. “I hope that the orchestra will communicate as musicians, enjoy their time and have fun performing some great music [at Autumn Serenade].”
