The Path Of A Snowflake

While writing this piece for recorders, I was imagining a beautiful winter scene: It's evening. There's a delicate breeze, and a very gentle snow is falling. My view is from above the trees and rooftops looking down. Within this scene, I imagine watching a single snowflake, following it as it drifts and glides downward. The occasional swirl of air ushers the flake sideways, or even back upward, prolonging its meandering descent. Eventually, the snowflake comes to rest. "The Path Of A Snowflake" musically matches this winter scene.

It's a pretty piece of music in 3/4 time. The tempo is slow, and the recorder parts use only quarter notes, half notes, and a few dotted half notes. There are two soprano recorders and one alto, but as usual, you do not need to use all three parts if you can't or don't want to. Recorder 1 uses GABCDE, recorder 2 is simpler and uses only G and A, and the alto part uses CDEF. This piece would be a good opportunity to teach the high C, D, and E in recorder 1 if any of these notes are new for your players.

You will notice there are many breath marks throughout. Incorporating the breath marks will help capture and enhance the style, allowing for a more musical performance. The accompaniment supports the recorder parts with breaths in these same spots.

If you'd like to follow along with the score, a PDF is available online. Also, for ease in duplication, we have provided PDFs of the three recorder parts.