I need help on a "description" composition. I'm trying to describe the course of a rainstorm in music. It's still in progress and I need advice. Here are the instruments:

Piccolo
Flute
Violin
Cello
Bass
Piano
Percussion

I don't have a midi file or an MP3 but if you have Finale NotePad and MSNM or YIM, I can send you a copy of the work in progress if you want. Otherwise, any advice is welcome.

That is much more difficult than it seems. It is far easier to say what I would NOT do. At all costs I would avoid onomatopoeia - no thunder, lightning or rain imitations; that would be too twee for words (unless you are required to for a production, programme music or something similar).

I think I would go for the organic simplicity of a Sung landscape. In fact, I have a CD of Chinese zither music and two pieces are described as "Thunderstorm" and "Water and Clouds Over the Rivers Hsiao and Hsiang" - wonderfully evocative in their own way.

That's my initial thought on the subject but I'm damned if I know what I'd do for the instruments you mention - even what I'd do at the piano for that matter.

I'm not really going for the contemporary style, it's not an imitation, it's a description. Kinda hard to describe. And yes, I used to play the chinese zither, I think. I'm not sure what you call the thing in English. It's just kind of a description of nature in a storm.