Blue Hills Morning is scored for string orchestra with a soaring, descant-like solo violin part. The music was composed in 2014 for the Lafayette High School string orchestra (Lexington, Kentucky) and their director, Phil Kent. My goal was to create lyrical, accessible music for advanced level high school string orchestras.
My initial musical impulse, heard in the opening measures, was accompanied by a visual image of early morning mist rising over an open, rural landscape, such as a Kentucky horse farm. As this musical material grew and evolved, my visual image began to include gradually increasing activity as morning progressed to midday. Blue Hills Morning might be heard as a series of episodes of increasing activity and intensity, with variations of the music of the first few measures returning periodically and finally concluding the work.
As I continued to reflect on the image of Kentucky horse farms while composing Blue Hills Morning, the movement of horses became a model for the movement of the music. Without interpreting too literally, you can hear the music walking, trotting, and galloping.
– Steve Rouse