Farm Journal

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Farm Journal is a classical composition by the American composer Douglas Moore. The work was the result of a commission Moore received from the Little Orchestra Society in 1947 who gave the works premiere the following year conducted by Thomas Scherman. The music derives from Moore's 1940 film score Power in the Land and is intended to describe farm life through music. This sort of endeavor was close to Moore's interests and likings and therefore the suite is very representative of his style. The suite which is scored for chamber orchestra, consists of four movements; "Up early", "Sunday clothes", "Lamplight" and "Harvest Song". The composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks described the work thus: "In a sense nature music, but a peopled landscape, landscape with human figures. It is perhaps this capacity to create vivid moods that is the composers most outstanding assets..."