I got back to work on the Moderato last night, and I thought this was interesting enough to write about. Your mileage may vary.

You may recall that last week I spent a couple of sessions just generating crap for the development session. I churned out variations of the two themes without regard to quality or how (or even whether) they could be used. I think I need to do some more of that, possibly tonight, but last night I thought I would evaluate what I’ve done so far.

I took my music Moleskine (where I sketch out harmonic ideas when necessary) and listed the sections of the Idea file that I thought were interesting/valid. For example, I’d write, “97-99, a gentler variation of the B theme; sounds like it might come near the end.” I ended up with about ten of these segments that had possibilities.

One in particular sounded like it might make a good lead-in to the recapitulation, so I opened up that file, moved what I had already written over by a couple of blank measure, and stuck the fragment in. Lo! it worked. And then another fragment, which I had marked as “nearly atonal, possibly a lead-in to the lead-in,” I stitched onto that one. And then, I stitched that to the lead-in to the recap that I had already written, and lo! it worked. So now I have a fake-out that jumps into a pretty wild variation before plunging back into the recapitulation.

It might be too powerful, i.e., the recap itself might sound a bit weak after so much sturm und drang, but on the other hand the main theme sneaks up on you, and you realize a bit slowly that you’re hearing it again for the first time.

More work is required.