Samantha J Bramley ~ Stringspirational

Welcome to my new composer website for Samantha J Bramley composer/arranger at stringspirational.com

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https://www.youtube.com/@SamanthaJBramley

Teaser…

Whilst this website is under a little bit more construction, please take a look at the following score videos of my Orchestral Suite No. 1…

Suite for Orchestra, Opus 25

Duration 28′ (5 movements)

Instrumentation : [2.2.2.2] [2.0.0] [strings]

1. Allegro

Duration : 7′

2. Adagio

Duration : 4′

3. Allegretto

Duration : 5′

4. Romanza

Duration : 5′

5. Allegro Vivace

Duration : 6’30” with repeats (4’30” without repeats)

About this piece

Suite for Orchestra – Samantha J Bramley, Opus 25

This suite for orchestra was originally intended to be a serenade for strings, along the lines of Elgar’s Serenade in E minor or Grieg’s Holberg Suite for string orchestra, two works which I greatly love and admire. The idea came to me to write a string serenade on the morning of Christmas Eve 2020, a funny old time for all of us, and began with a snippet of a theme which would end up as the 1st subject of the 2nd movement. I meant the work to have three movements – fast-slow-fast – but pretty soon the idea for a second slow movement arrived, and I knew it would have to have at least four.

Early in the New Year of 2021 I was contacted by a lady who had previously hired me to play at a summer market in Chef-Boutonne, South-West France, with a view to putting together a string group to play in an enormous cathedral-like church on the evening of the Fete de Saint-Jacques with the theme ‘Etoiles en musique’ – or ‘music inspired by the stars’.

I contacted a few musical friends and colleagues and we soon had a string quintet line-up and a provisional programme of French music and popular classics with a nocturnal theme. When I suggested we play ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ (Mozart’s ‘A Little Night Music’) the reaction was a rather less than enthusiastic. (Despite it’s popularity with audiences, professional string players have probably played this string serenade more times than they’ve had hot meals and the ensemble weren’t keen to play it yet again.)

So, I thought, why not give MY string serenade an outing? It fits the bill and would integrate perfectly with the rest of the programme. At this point I had completed the first, second and fourth movements and was well on the way to finishing the third (although this was giving me a little trouble, but more of that in the extended programme notes). Only one problem: it was written for a full string ensemble with divisi (up to 9 different parts) and not 5 players. I tried to reorchestrate for the quintet, but realised pretty quickly it really needed a sixth member.

With a second viola player swiftly engaged, the work could really begin in earnest. My serenade for strings became a string sextet and was premiered in four movements on July 25th 2021 at Eglise Saint-Hilaire, Melle to a packed audience who had come out in force with their COVID certificates and face masks.

(We were very lucky that this concert could go ahead at all. The French government had just recently lifted the severest lockdown restrictions but still had strict procedures in place regarding gatherings in public spaces. Individual ‘pass sanitaire’ were required as proof of vaccination and had to be scanned along with temperature checks on the door. Masks were obligatory for the audience, but not for the players.)

Although perfectly happy with how the performance had gone as a four-movement sextet version I was already considering adding a final fast movement to round it off in a more ‘classical’ way before publishing the sheet music. (In addition I had never completed the third movement for string orchestra as I had broken off to rearrange it as a sextet.)

Previously, on discovering a video of Brahms’ Serenade No.1 in nonet version (9 individual wind and string players) I began to think of my original 9-voice string serenade in more orchestral colours. I subsequently reorchestrated the third and fourth movements for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, french horn, violin, viola, ‘cello, double bass – nine players. (I actually completed the third movement in this instrumentation before I finished the string sextet reduction.)

The result was so satisfactory that I began to wonder whether I shouldn’t orchestrate the whole work to a full chamber orchestra instrumentation. Unfortunately due to circumstances this had to wait until late 2024 when I finally managed to set up a music studio in our new home, and began the process of updating my original scores to the current format of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns plus strings (violin 1&2, viola, ‘cello, bass).

In autumn 2025 I began work on a fifth and final movement from sketches I had made some years previously. This was finally completed in early 2026. With the 5-movement work now in fast-slow-fast-slow-fast format it seemed to warrant the title of Suite rather than Serenade, and so my original idea of a Serenade for Strings became my Suite for Chamber Orchestra. I never did get around to completing the string orchestra version of the third movement.

Samantha J Bramley 2026