Farm Journal

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 and which gave the work's premiere in 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 composer's most outstanding asset..." The work was reviewed in the New York Times and in later performances.