Hello M.G.,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Somewhere along the way I wondered, idly, why no one had ever used the rich melodic pool of Christmas music in an extended symphonic work.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>Well, you've done it! And very nicely.

I listened to all four movements from beginning to end. I did have to do support helpdesk and forum posts while I was listening, but I had to stop my work sometimes to tune in more carefully-- especially when the rhythms interestingly got off-beat in a sort of staggered way.

I feel like I'm getting to know your music better. Your harmony is consistently "somewhat quirky", which I find engaging.

The General MIDI (GM) orchestration for this came off very well. Your symphony can be held as an example how the standard GM instruments can do a good job. The orchestration has to adapt to GM, since GM won't adapt to the orchestration. You did a good job adapting your symphony to GM.

I believe that if you had a fast PC with lots of memory and a good sound library, such as GPO, you would be in musical heaven. But I can tell that you're not suffering from musical enjoyment and creativity too much with lessor equipment.

Cheers
-- Mark