Two seventh-grade students will debut an original composition at the Middle School’s Winter Band Concert on Dec. 9 which the full band will perform.

Flutist Abigail Caputo and French Horn player Lauren Galligan will debut “Rain in the Meadow,” a piece they’ve been working on together this past March. Both are members of the Middle School’s Songwriter’s Club.

Abigail and Lauren worked with Music Teacher Andrew Fisher to compose this piece for a full-sized Wind Ensemble.

The girls said they’ve been composing music since they were Otisville fifth-graders, specifically a duet and quartet composition for Otisville’s chamber groups. They’ve expanded from duets to now raps and entire band pieces.

Music composers often find inspiration to use in their creative work. Abigail and Lauren were inspired by the weather and how the flute and French horn sounded together. They choose notes and rhythms that complimented both instruments, making sure one didn’t overpower the other.

“The melody of our song is meant to represent the joy and happiness that the rain brings to a meadow,” said Abigail.

Lauren added: “Toward the middle of the song, the rain starts to let up and the flowers start to bloom. At the end of the song, it goes back to the melody, a nice, sweet ending, like the end of a rainstorm.”

They worked on “Rain in the Meadow” during Songwriters Club’s weekly rehearsals, transposing the music to make it work for both the French horn and the flute with the initial thinking that it would be performed as a duet.

“Once we accomplished this, we performed our duet during the Songwriters Club concert and our band teacher, Mr. Fisher, asked us if we would be interested in turning our little duet into a piece for the entire band to play,” explained Abigail.

“After that, we went in for lunch every day and worked on our piece, until after many failed attempts, we created the full version,” Lauren said.

The girls’ music composition careers continue with their newest piece which looks to also be inspired by weather. They plan to perform "Drought in the Canyon" as a duet for a future Songwriters Club concert, with the goal of morphing it into new piece for the Middle School band to perform.

Minisink Valley Middle School

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